Over Last 15 Days, 360,000 Muscovites have Been Evacuated from 3300 Buildings after Telephone Bomb Threats

Paul Goble

            Staunton, December 14 – Telephone calls saying that bombs have been planted in houses, stores, courts, churches, and other public facilities, something the authorities cannot ignore even though none has yet proved genuine, have led to the evacuation of 360,000 Moscow residents from 3300 sites there over the last 15 days.

            Yesterday alone, “more than 20,000” were evacuated, Interfax reports, a decline from the peak of this wave that was reached three days earlier when 120,000 residents were evacuated from approximately 400 buildings (interfax.ru/moscow/687981). Despite this, officials and residents remain on alert and on edge.

            Russian cities have faced telephone terrorism for more than two years, with the latest attacks being against Moscow and to a lesser extent St. Petersburg rather than in the regions.  Since the attacks began, nearly 1.5 million Russians have been forced to leave buildings after threats, more than one percent of all residents of the Russian Federation.

            The authorities have not been able to stop this kind of action, but they have sought to blame people living abroad. This past week, for example, officials suggested that those behind telephone terrorism against Moscow and its residents were Ukrainians or at least in Ukraine (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/12/moscow-blames-evacuations-in-russian.html).

            Officials and experts have acknowledged that many are unnerved by this kind of threat with some Russians sinking into depression at the inability of the government, which routinely claims it can block all such actions, to do anything about it (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/02/russians-struggle-with-continuing.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2017/10/telephone-terrorism-continuing-pushing.html).

            (For background on this phenomenon in Russia, see windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/03/anonymous-bomb-threats-empty-661.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/02/russians-struggle-with-continuing.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/02/russias-vaunted-security-services-look.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/02/telephone-bomb-threats-in-moscow-force.html, and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/01/telephone-bomb-threats-again-forcing.html.)