As some of you may have heard, today there was a bombing at the Cherkizovskii Market on Moscow's northeast side. Not much seems to have made it into our news. Here's the local story form a Russian, English language website. This version should not be taken as definitive, as some details are contradicted by a couple of other Russian-language sites. One report suggests the explosion might have been caused by gas cylinders, though that seems to me to be at odds with details here about two Slavic men seen running from the area, who were pursued and arrested. It sounds as if the majority of the casualties may have been non-Russians from the "former republics". Officials are correct to keep their options open, but this does not sound like Muslim terrorism to me. They would have picked some more  prominent site for one thing, and a place not so populated by non-Slavs. To me this sounds like ordinary domestic terrorism. Probably a mob action against somebody who failed to pay his protection money, or otherwise fell afoul of the unofficial powers. As an outside chance, perhaps Russian racists striking a blow against the Central Asians. For those of you reading the story, the exchange rate is about 30-31 Russian Rubles to the dollar.

-Rurik.

Updated: it seems my "outside chance" was the correct guess. According to The Moscow Times two suspects captured yesterday while fleeing the scene chose to bomb that perticular location in the market because they objected to the presence of too many merchants who were natives of Asia. Russians do not share the Western inhibition about expressing their ethnic animosities. East Asians tend to be particularly disdained, and are frequently called such things as Zhopomord (arse face).  Animosities are growing on account of increasing numbers of "unoffical immigrants" from China and Central Asia, both in the Far East and in the cities of European Russia. 

Contributed by George Mellinger on August 22, 2006 at 08:05 PM in George Mellinger, Russia | Permalink

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