MOSCOW: First came the attack on a Moscow rock festival, then the suicide bombing by the Duma parliament. Now still greater carnage is unleashed on commuters riding the capital's metro subway system to work.
The spiral of terrorism that grips Russia assumed new dimensions Friday, five weeks before President Vladimir Putin is due to exact a landslide election victory and secure four more years in power.
With the huge and evidently vulnerable metro system now a clear target for more devastation, ordinary Muscovites now wondering how to lead their daily lives may also be wondering who, if not their tough president, is going to put an end to this?
There was no chance of quickly identifying either the fragmented remains of the bomber and many of the victims in the wrecked carriage on Friday, so powerful was the blast. But many presumed this was again the work of militants from the North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, where federal forces are locked in a partisan conflict with rebels.
Putin was elected in 2000 largely on his pledge to wipe out the Chechen separatists who want to break away from Russia, and settle the Chechen question permanently.
Today, the republic is occupied by his troops and has a cooperative, pro-Russian Chechen administration. But enemy commanders like Shamil Basayev seem better able to fulfil their own pledges to bring the war in all its horror to the Russian heartland, to Moscow.
Since Chechen suicide bombers killed 14 youths at the Tushino concert last year and five more people near the parliament in December, Muscovites have tried to blot out fears of an underground horror in the making.
Despite a heavy police presence at stations, the detonation of a hand grenade or a full-blown suicide bombing as appeared to happen Friday is practically impossible to prevent in the more than 200- kilometre subway network.
The election chances of other presidents might crumble in the face of such apparent helplessness against the bombers.
Yet political relations in Russia are hard for outsiders to grasp, as they watch the country and its political class obediently fall in line behind the Putin machine, despite the dragging failure over Chechnya.
The president still enjoys a 70 per cent popularity rating and is the clear favourite to win March 14. Soon after the bombing, the Russian leader made sure to make a calm and solemn appeal to the world community to unite its resources against terrorism and to jointly defeat this "21st century plague".
But several years after terrorism found a home in Russia's own backyard in Chechnya, its defeat seems as remote as ever, and Putin's re-election as certain as ever. -dpa