Paul Goble
Staunton,
February 16 – A new wave of bomb threats forced authorities to evacuate shopping
centers and other facilities in Moscow and St. Petersburg over the last 24
hours. No suspicious materials have been found, but the danger that they could
be has left the powers that be with no choice but to respond as they have.
The
only differences from similar threats in the past which have forced more than
1.5 million people to evacuate schools, government buildings and shopping centers
across Russia is that some of these threats came via mail rather than phone and
that in some cases the authors of these threats identified themselves as “Putin”
(newsru.com/russia/16feb2019/putinalert.html).
The authorities have
not yet announced any arrests and have not offered their usual explanations that
the threats came from abroad, typically from Ukraine. But it is entirely possible that they will do
so soon. But their inability to stop this
plague will only further increase fears among the population that the situation
is spinning out of control.
It is of course possible that the
powers that be will seek to exploit this situation to impose even more draconian
controls on Russian society; but it is more likely that unless the authorities
can show some real progress in combatting such phone calls, ever more Russians will
question the efficacy of their government.
Meanwhile today, the justice
ministry announced that its list of terrorists inside Russia has now passed the
7500 mark, with 817 new names having been added over the last year (fedsfm.ru/documents/terrorists-catalog-portal-act
and newtimes.ru/articles/detail/177171).
That figure too will intensify fears of disaster among Russians. 
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