Man sought over Moscow airport bombing

An ethnic Russian member of a North Caucasus separatist group has emerged as the first suspect in the suicide bombing at Moscow's main airport that killed 35, a report said on Thursday. 

Reuters/Denis Sinyakov

Three days after the attack, investigators have yet to release any firm conclusions, but unofficial reports have pointed to a link with a North Caucasus group, and have connected the airport bomb with a  explosion in Moscow on 31 December.

The Kommersant daily said the investigation was focusing on a man named Razdobudko, from the Stavropol region north of the Caucasus mountains, who is suspected of belonging to an Islamist group Nogaisky Dzhamaat.

Suggesting that he could have been the suicide bomber, the newspaper said the authorities now believed that the attacker was most likely to have been a male ethnic Russian rather than from one of the Caucasus ethnic groups.

"He is not the only person suspected of involvement in the attacks," it quoted a security source as saying. "So it's not worth hurrying with conclusions."

Kommersant also reaffirmed previous reports that the Domodedovo airport attack could be linked to a blast in Moscow late on 31 December where a suspected female suicide bomber is believed to have accidentally blown herself up.

Some reports have suggested that the woman was preparing a large scale attack in central Moscow on New Year's Eve and her charge was detonated when her mobile received a spam SMS congratulating her on the start of 2011.

Groups from the Northern Caucaus have been blamed for a string of attacks in Russia over the last years, including the 2010 double suicide bombings on the Moscow metro that killed 40.