Russia's Medvedev visits North Caucasus after bombings

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Russian President Dmitry Medvedev speaks during a meeting of local authorities at Russia's southern city of Makhachkala,

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited the North Caucasus on Thursday to reinforce efforts to crush the militants behind a spate of suicide bombings including an attack on the Moscow metro.

This week's bombings in Moscow and the North Caucasus region of Dagestan killed over 50 people between them, spreading fear of resurgent Islamist militancy throughout Russia's cities.

"We must deal sharp dagger blows to the terrorists, and destroy them and their lairs," Medvedev told a meeting of security chiefs and regional leaders in Dagestan's capital Makhachkala, in comments broadcast repeatedly on television.

"We have ripped the heads off the most infamous bandits but it appears that this was not enough. We will track them all down in due time and will punish them all, just as we did the previous ones."

He said the Interior Ministry and Federal Security Service (FSB) should be strengthened to deal with the challenge.

The comments -- a day after bombers killed 12 people in attacks on a Dagestan town -- marked a toughening of Medvedev's rhetoric on the attacks, though he gave few details.

There has been a surge in violence over the past year in the North Caucasus republics, where Russia has fought two wars against Chechen separatists since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union.

Last November a bomb claimed by Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov derailed the Moscow-St Petersburg Nevsky Express train, killing at least 26 people.

Umarov claimed responsibility on Wednesday for the metro bombings, saying they were revenge for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's policies in the mainly-Muslim North Caucasus. He threatened further attacks on Russian cities.

FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov said the latest attacks had been carried out by militant groups linked to the North Caucasus and that suspects had been detained, but gave no details.

KREMLIN CHALLENGE

Putin, who cemented his power in 1999 by launching a war to crush Chechen separatism, has said those behind the metro bombings must be scraped "from the bottom of the sewers."

Rights groups say Putin's policies in the North Caucasus have failed to deal with the root causes of a swiftly mutating Islamist insurgency.

"Contrary to the steely and self-righteous assurances of Russia's power structures, the country's strategy in the North Caucasus has been failing," said James Sherr, an analyst at Britain's Chatham House think tank, in a research note.

"Further attacks on symbols of state power could erode the prestige of those who rode to power in 1999 on the back of equally traumatic outrages and have staked everything on the restoration of Russia's integrity and strength."

Local leaders and residents say the insurgency is fueled by poverty, clan rivalries, rampant corruption and heavy-handed tactics by law enforcement agencies, as well as Islamism.

Medvedev's newly appointed envoy to the North Caucasus, Alexander Khloponin, said stability would be elusive "if we do not have the full support of our residents." As a deputy prime minister, Khloponin also reports to Putin.

Since he was sworn in as president in May 2008, Medvedev has singled out strife in the North Caucasus as Russia's most serious domestic problem and spoken about the need to fight poverty and corruption, though residents say little has changed on the ground.