Bomber Strikes at Heart of Moscow

A suicide bomber set off a large explosion Tuesday just outside Red Square, killing six people and wounding 14 in a brazen attack that struck the very heart of Moscow, raising questions about stability just two days after parliamentary elections cemented President Vladimir V. Putin’s control of the government.

No one claimed responsibility, but police said at least one female suicide bomber was dead and another woman was being sought, suggesting that the attacks may be linked to Russia’s war in Chechnya. Witnesses said two women who might have been the bombers asked directions to the nearby parliament building just minutes before the explosion.

“We can say for certain that this was a terrorist act. The terrorist act was linked to the elections to the state parliament,” said Sergei Tsoi, a spokesman for the mayor’s office.

There have been three major terrorist bombings in Moscow since 1999, but none have struck so close to the heart of the city. The explosion, just outside the entrance to the historic National Hotel, occurred across the street from the Kremlin and opposite the main entrance to Red Square, which many regard as the symbolic center of Russia.

The late-morning attack left blood, mangled limbs and broken glass strewn across the sidewalk. The headless corpse of a woman -- possibly the bomber -- lay just outside the elegant hotel.

“If they had the situation under control, nothing like this would have happened, especially in the heart of Moscow,” said Anna Lifatova, who manages a gaming center in a shopping mall that was rocked by the force of the explosion.

“The feeling now is very dark,” she said. “I’m terribly scared. But I work here. I have to stay. What can I do?”

Georgy Satarov, president of the INDEM Political Center, a Moscow think tank, said the bombing is probably a consequence of the Kremlin’s faltering plan to impose a political settlement in Chechnya. “The message of this explosion is obvious, and it is a slap in the face for Putin,” he said.

Chechen rebels reportedly had threatened to stage attacks to disrupt national elections Sunday, when Putin supporters won substantial control of the 450 seats in parliament, essentially granting the Russian president a mandate to continue his economic reforms and the slow wind-down of the war in Chechnya.

Despite the Kremlin’s efforts to write a new constitution for the separatist republic, elect a new Chechen president and resettle refugees back into Grozny, the capital, rebel attacks against Russian troops persist, and the war increasingly appears to have moved onto Moscow’s own turf.

One of its most frightening trademarks has been the female suicide bombers, known as “black widows” in the Russian media, who are reportedly trained in rebel camps to launch attacks in revenge for lost husbands, brothers and fathers.

Chechen rebels seeking a negotiated settlement to the conflict repeatedly have denied involvement in the terrorist attacks and accused the Kremlin of secretly organizing them to win public support for a hard-line military approach in the southern republic.

Moscow Mayor Yuri M. Luzhkov said a hotel video camera recorded the movements of one woman believed to have been involved in the attack. “You could see this woman. She is dressed in a pretty civilized way, in a light overcoat with a black bag on the shoulder. This bag was stuffed with explosives,” he said. “Under the overcoat she had the classic shahid [martyr] belt. Her senior partner can’t be seen on the tape.... But they both died.”

Of six bodies outside the hotel, police confirmed that one was that of the bomber. However, police did not confirm, as Luzhkov appeared to, that another was that of the bomber’s partner. Four others were identified as bystanders.

Police say at least one female suspect is being sought, raising the possibility that three women were involved.

About 10 minutes before the bombing, two women believed to be the bombers approached a pedestrian, according to the Interfax news agency, which cited law enforcement sources. “Well, where is the parliament?” one of them asked.

“They didn’t make it to the parliament,” Luzhkov said, possibly because the pedestrian gave them wrong directions.

In a bleak public hospital room in north Moscow, Tatiana Yezhova, a 19-year-old medical student, sat under a yellowed neon light as her mother quietly combed and snipped fragments of bone and flesh from her hair. Yezhova, whose only injuries were bruises, said she was standing close to the victims.

“Why would a young woman do this? I don’t know. Most likely it’s religious convictions,” she said. “I think it’s against our God and against the soul of everyone. Every normal woman is unlikely to do these things.”

Pavel Petrenko, 18, said he was walking with Yezhova and another friend from medical school when a huge force hit him in the back. “I saw a cloud of smoke, and I saw bodies on the sidewalk. Some of them were alive, some were dead,” he said in his hospital room.

Oleg Betsky, a 65-year-old scientist, was trying not to slip on the ice in front of the National Hotel when he felt the blast and “saw people falling all over the place.”

He reached into his jacket pocket, just over his heart, pulled out his passport and found it full of shrapnel.

“I could feel something wet flowing into my sock, and it was my blood,” he said. “It’s a horrible feeling when you see your leg and there’s a big, black hole in it.”

Just after the explosion, Betsky looked up and saw an acquaintance walking toward him, the friend’s daughter at his side. The daughter was crying.

“He came up to me and said, ‘Are you Oleg Vladimirovich?’ He said, ‘This is my daughter, and I’d like you to read her dissertation.’ He turned his back, and it was covered in blood. He was in shock, I guess. And I said, ‘We have to get you medical attention.’ He was very badly injured.”

Throughout the morning, much of the busy thoroughfare was closed to traffic. Pedestrians stood in curiosity and irritation, waiting to reach the nearby metro station.

“I don’t even know what Putin should do,” Yelena Tarasova said as she waited.

“I don’t think the situation is under control. Not at all. They will be avenging and avenging and avenging, for a long time,” she said. “It will never end.”

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Times staff writer Sergei L. Loiko contributed to this report.