Moscow mourns airport bombing victims

Grieving Russians were lighting candles and bringing flowers to the Domodedovo airport where a suicide bomber slaughtered 35 people and wounded dozens on Monday afternoon.

Major TV channels were expected to suspend entertainment programming and advertising as 116 injured remained hospitalised as of this morning.

President Dmitry Medvedev, who has said that terrorism remained the main security threat to Russia, has cut short his visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos where he had been expected to lead the country's pitch to investors.

Medvedev had initially been scheduled to fly to Switzerland yesterday and speak on a number of topics including Russia's plans to build world-class skiing resorts in its troubled North Caucasus region.

Under the current plan, Medvedev will meet businessmen and make the opening speech at the forum before returning to Moscow this evening.

The authorities are under pressure after failing to prevent Moscow's second devastating attack in less than a year after the March metro bombings.

Vedomosti said the fact the new suicide bombing would likely not lead to resignations of the top brass aroused "bewilderment".

Some 1,200 people have died in terror acts when Nikolai Patrushev served as head of Russia's FSB security service between 1999 and 2008, while nearly 200 people have died since Alexander Bortnikov took over from Patrushev in 2008, the newspaper said.

Double bombings carried out by two female suicide bombers on the Moscow metro on March 29, 2010 killed 40 and wounded more than 100.