Use cruel measures to fight scum behind terror: Medvedev

Twin suicide bombings in Moscow — which Islamic militants from the North Caucasus claim to have carried out — have refocused attention on the violence that for years has been confined to Russia’s predominantly Muslim regions. The rush-hour attacks on Monday on the Moscow subway killed 39 people and wounded 90.

On Wednesday,two suicide bombings in Dagestan killed 12 people,including nine policemen,a frequent target of attacks in part because they represent Russian authority. Another explosion Thursday killed two suspected militants and wounded a third in Dagestan near the border with Chechnya.

Medvedev on Thursday copied the style of Russia’s Prime Minister,Vladimir Putin,both in his dress — a black T-shirt under a black suit coat — and his rough language in ordering that much more be done to stop the attacks.

“The measures to fight terrorism should be expanded,they should be more effective,more harsh,more cruel,if you please,” he told federal and local officials in a meeting.

Federal Security Service director Alexander Bortnikov,who joined Medvedev in Dagestan,said the organisers of the Moscow attacks have been identified as “bandits” from the Northern Caucasus and some had been detained. He did not give specific numbers.

In recent months,police and security forces have killed at least two high-profile Islamic militants,but they have been unable to capture the veteran Chechen militant Doku Umarov,who has claimed responsibility for the Moscow subway attacks.

Umarov,who leads Islamic militants in Chechnya and throughout the North Caucasus,said the Moscow subway bombings were revenge for the killing of civilians by Russian security forces.

The man who terrorised Russia

A profile of Doku Umarov,one of the last remaining original leaders of the Chechen rebellion that began in the early ’90s

1964 Born in Kharsenoi in southern Chechnya,graduated in the Oil Institute in Grozny

1990s Participates in both Chechen wars fighting Russian security forces

2006 Umarov styled himself president of the “Chechen Republic of Ichkeria” after Chechen rebel leader Abdul-Khalim Sadulayev is killed in a battle with Russian troops

2009 Jun Umarov’s group claims responsibility for a suicide bomb attack in Inghushetia

2009 Aug Claims responsibility for a Siberian dam disaster that killed 75 people

2009 Nov Claimed responsibility for bombing a train in between Moscow and St Petersburg that killed 26 people

Umarov had declared the goals of the Caucasus Jihadis to be two-fold: first,to expel non-Muslims and implement Sharia law,second,to expand jihad beyond the Caucasus