Once again, "hooliganism" is much stronger in Russian than English. You get all kinds of crap know-nothing reporting in the West about how Russian police chief so-and-so "dismissed the attack as an instance of hooliganism." To identify something as "an instance of hooliganism" is not to "dismiss" it. It is to identify it as street thuggery.
Chris Doss The Russia Journal --------------------------- Explosive device with anti-Semitic slogan detonated in Moscow Eds: UPDATES with police spokesman saying blast was act of hooliganism, upgrades attribution.
MOSCOW (AP) - A homemade explosive device planted in a metal pipe bearing an anti-Semitic slogan exploded in a Moscow residential area Sunday morning, officials said.
The blast shattered windows in a nearby apartment building, but there were no casualties, said Valery Gribakin, the head of the Moscow Interior Ministry's information department.
He said investigators found two pipes packed with explosive powder and nails at the site. One of them detonated, shattering windows at a nearby apartment building.
One of the pipes had a slogan "against Jews" written on it, Gribakin said. He said the word was misspelled in Russian, and said the incident was "mere hooliganism."
Berl Lazar, Russia's chief rabbi, said the blast was an act of terrorism and he urged authorities to take steps against extremism incited by anti-Semitism.
He told the Interfax news agency that such anti-Semitic acts were "not merely a challenge to a group of citizens, but is a challenge to all of society and to the authorities."
He said, "a real war has been declared against civilized people. The time has come to take extraordinary measures against this manifestation of terrorism."
Russia has seen a number of high-profile racist and anti-Semitic acts recently. In May, a booby-trapped sign reading "Death to Jews" exploded in the face of a woman who tried to remove it from a roadside outside Moscow.
Since then, several copycat signs have appeared, wounding those who tried to remove the booby-trapped messages. Other signs, with dummy packages resembling explosives have also sprouted up around the country.
The Kremlin's presidential press service said on Sunday that President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a bill aimed at curtailing hate crimes.
The bill defines extremism as any activity aimed at overthrowing the government, instigating social, national or religious hatred, or distributing fascist literature.
The prosecutor's office has opened a criminal case in connection with Sunday's blast under Article 213 part 3, which is hooliganism, Gribakin said.