Bomb threats cause evacuations throughout Russia
People have been evacuated from dozens of buildings in several cities in Russia following bomb threat calls.
As reported by the news agencies, the police are examining the shopping and office centers, public offices, railway stations, hotels and educational institutions in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tver, Vladikavkaz, Yaroslavl, Tula, Saratov, Smolensk, Vladimir, Kaluga and Kursk.
The anonymous threats have been received by Russian law enforcement agencies since September 10. More than 200 thousand people were evacuated to date. None of the messages about land mines has yet been confirmed. The police estimated the damage to the budget at about 300 million rubles ($5.16 million). The owners of shopping malls and hotels also bear multimillion-ruble losses.
According to RBC news agency, the Russian police believe that a certain international hacker organization may be implicated in the anonymous calls, as some of the messages come from abroad. According to other unofficial data, the culprits could be "Orthodox activists" who oppose the movie Matilda, or they could be Ukrainian activists. There have been no official comments on any of these theories released by the Russian security officers.
In the afternoon of September 20, in Simferopol, people were also evacuated from administrative buildings and shops due to threats of explosives.