More than 120 bodies had been removed from the scene of the Moscow apartment block explosion yesterday evening as leaders of the Islamic separatists fighting Russian troops in Dagestan were reported to have denied responsibility for bombs which have killed almost 300 people in two weeks.
In Moscow the journalist Vyacheslav Izmailov, who has strong and reliable contacts with Chechnya, claimed that neither the Chechen warlord, Mr Shamil Basayev, nor the Arab fighter known only as Khattab was directly involved in recruiting bombers to attack Russian cities.
The hiring of Slavs from Russia and Ukraine to act as bombers under Chechen leadership was, he said, done by Mr Basayev's brother, Mr Shirvani Basayev.
There was little evidence of increased security on Moscow's streets or in the city's magnificent but vulnerable Metro system. There were reports, however, of the removal from Moscow fruit and vegetable markets of traders from the Caucasus republics, most of whom are Muslims from Azerbaijan.
The Mayor of Moscow, Mr Yuri Luzhkov, embarked on a programme of removing Caucasians from the capital as far back as 1993. Then, under the cover of a curfew imposed after the shelling of parliament by pro-Yeltsin troops, Azeri traders were taken from markets, held in police cells and placed on trains to the Caucasus region.
Russian police have claimed some success in finding explosives throughout the city yesterday. Interior ministry forces have been checking more than 30,000 apartment buildings in Moscow, which has a population of nearly 12 million.
Police said three men had been arrested in connection with the blast, which killed at least 93 people in the Pechatniki district of Moscow last Thursday. Two of the suspects owned a company which had rented an apartment on the ground floor of the destroyed apartment block. The police have issued photofit pictures of three further men they want to interview in connection with the bombs.
Politicians opposed to President Yeltsin have claimed that the bombings may be used to create a state of emergency and to cancel parliamentary elections which are due in December and presidential elections in July.
The Communist leader, Mr Gennady Zyuganov, said yesterday he had seen a plan for a state of emergency drafted by associates of Mr Yeltsin.
AFP adds: Mr Putin announced plans yesterday to strike back at "terrorist" Chechnya. Branding the breakaway Russian republic a "huge terrorist camp," Mr Putin proposed a series of measures to seal off the territory from the rest of Russia and to wipe out Islamist rebels operating there.
"It's time to recognise that this terrorist disease has become Russia's national problem," Mr Putin told the Duma. He said Russia was ready to attack and destroy "terrorist bases" in Chechnya.
