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Posted by Happy Holidays! In Russia! on December 27, 2005 at 00:11:15:
December 27, 2005
Gas Bombs Hit Russian Stores; Gangsters Blamed
By C. J. CHIVERS
MOSCOW, Dec. 26 - The peak of Russian holiday shopping was disrupted in a St. Petersburg retail chain on Monday when two of the chain's stores were struck by bombs that released foul-smelling gas. At least 77 people were made ill by the odor, none seriously, the authorities said.
The police said the gas appeared to be a form of mercaptan, a group of malodorous compounds, often with an intense sulfuric smell, that include a form commonly added to odorless natural gas to make fuel leaks detectable. The gas in the bombs, while capable of producing an almost unbearable odor, was largely harmless, they said.
The authorities also ruled out terrorism. Instead, they attributed the attacks to the rough edges of Russian capitalism and gangsterism, saying the most likely motive was an effort to hurt the chain's sales on one of the most important shopping days of the year.
The devices were placed in all four stores of the Maksidom chain - a group of home improvement and department stores in St. Petersburg - but only two devices released their clouds of offending gas. The others failed to detonate and were defused and removed by special police units.
The devices included gas-filled glass ampules or canisters, which had been rigged with timing devices and placed inside the stores, Vyacheslav V. Stepchenko, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry's office in St. Petersburg, said in a telephone interview.
The first device released its gas at 7:30 a.m. after being discovered by a cleaning woman, who tried to handle it, Mr. Stepchenko said. A second device detonated on its own at another store at 9:30 a.m.
Relatively few Russians celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25, opting instead to exchange gifts at New Year's celebrations, and to celebrate Russian Orthodox Christmas on Jan. 7.
Mr. Stepchenko said Maksidom recently reported to the police that it had been receiving threats that someone would try to disrupt the chain's holiday sales. "This was hooliganism," he said, "because the goal was apparently to harm competitors during the Christmas and New Year sales."
Copyright 2005The New York Times Company
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