Russia’s southern Stavropol region on alert afterbodies found

Russian investigators are trying to determine who
killed six men whose bodies were found in four cars
abandoned in an area of southern Russia close to
the volatile Caucasus mountains.
Three of the cars had been rigged with explosive
devices, but only one of the bombs went off and no
one was hurt.

The victims had been shot, according
to investigators.
The killings, discovered on Wednesday on the
outskirts of Pyatigorsk, have further heightened
security concerns before the Winter Olympics in
Sochi. Both cities lie near the Caucasus region,
where an Islamic insurgency is simmering.
Russia has already tightened security before the
Games – on which President Vladimir Putin has
staked a lot of political and personal prestige – and
is on high alert after suicide bombers killed at least
34 people in separate attacks in the southern city of
Volgograd last month.
Vladimir Markin, spokesman for Russia’s main
investigative agency, said that Federal Security
Service officers had joined the investigation, and
that no motive had yet been determined.
NTV television reported from the scene that security
had been heightened on the nearby border with
Kabardino-Balkaria, one of several predominantly
Muslim republics in Russia’s Caucasus.
Three men whose bodies were in three of the cars
have been identified: two were taxi drivers and the
third assembled furniture for a private
businessman, Russian state news agencies
reported, citing law enforcement agencies. Their
names have not been released. The men were said
to be local residents and drove inexpensive Soviet-
model Lada cars.
The three other victims were found late on
Wednesday in a fourth vehicle. An explosive device
had been placed next to the car in a metal bucket,
but was defused by investigators, Markin said.
Explosives had also been placed near two of the
other cars; one of the devices went off as police
approached and the other was defused.