Dozens of Russian shoppers fell ill in St. Petersburg shops when gas canisters with timing devices released a garlic-smelling gas, but Russian authorities insist that the attack does not constitute terrorism:

A gas smelling of garlic hurt dozens of Russian shoppers when it was released into a supermarket on Monday in the city of St Petersburg, but police ruled out a terrorist attack. Two other shops of the handyman store chain Maksidom were evacuated at the height of the pre-New Year shopping period, after rescue workers found two other suspicious canisters fitted with timing devices.

Local media quoted officials as saying the gas was probably released by criminals trying to blackmail the stores' managers. They ruled out an attack such as those launched by Chechen rebels against civilians. ...

Local media quoted prosecutors as saying the gas was methyl mercaptan, a compound added to domestic gas to give it its odor which is poisonous in large quantities.

Sixty-six people went to the hospital after the attacks, which the Russians seem very intent on calling anything but terrorism. Their explanation now states that the attack comes from competition between Makisdom and rival shops in the same market as their handyman business. In other words, think Macys vs. Gimbels -- if Macy's was run by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and Gimbels by Carlos the Jackal.

This explanation reflects a ludicrous level of denial. Of course these attacks constitute terrorism; they're designed to inflict fear on civilians for a specific effect, even if the Russians have correctly identified the perpetrators and their motivations, which sounds doubtful in the extreme to me. If the Russians have reached the correct conclusion, the shoppers won't simply switch to Makisdom's rivals -- they will shop far away or not at all in the future.

This operation looks pretty darned expensive in materials, time, and expertise. If Russian shopkeepers have this kind of access to terrorist technology, just think what the political and Islamist terrorists can access there.

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» Precursor WMD Attacks in Russia from The Strata-Sphere
Ed Morrissey first posted on a strange illness hitting school children in Chechnya. The Russians had been dismissing a chemical or biological attack so I had held off posting on it. But now there is an new gas attack in a shopping mall there: Score... [Read More]

Tracked on December 26, 2005 9:22 AM