A Greenpeace Russia expert warned on Tuesday...

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Russian army sappers render harmless some...

Russian army sappers render harmless some 100,000 mines and other forms of ammunition every year, an Armed Forces official said on Saturday.

1999: In the evening of August 31, an explosion...

1999: In the evening of August 31, an explosion went off in the Okhotny Ryad shopping centre on Manezhnaya Square near the Kremlin. Forty-one people were wounded (one woman later died in hospital). In the early hours of September 9, an explosion ripped through a nine-storey apartment house in Guryanova Street, causing the central part of the building to tumble. Ninety-two people died, 264 were wounded, including 86 children. The neighbouring houses were damaged too. Early on September 13, a blast razed an eight-storey apartment house in Kashirskoye Shosse (highway). As many as 124 people were killed, including 13 children, and nine people were wounded. The neighbouring buildings were hit too. 2000: In the evening of August 8, an explosion went off in the underpass on Pushkinskaya Square, central Moscow. Seven people died instantly, 100 people were wounded (five of them died later in hospital). 2001: In the evening of February 5, an explosive device placed under a stone bench was activated at the Belorusskaya metro station (the ring). Ten people were wounded, the bench was completely destroyed, and the interior of the station was slightly damaged. 2002: In the evening of October 23, a terrorist detachment headed by Movsar Barayev took hostage all the spectators and actors, over 800 people, including 80 foreigners, during the Nord Ost performance in the Dubrovka theatre centre. The terrorists demanded that federal troops be withdrawn from the Chechen republic. On October 26, a special operation to liberate the hostages left all the terrorists - 32 men and 18 women - dead. Besides, 128 hostages died, including eight people from CIS and non-CIS countries. 2003: In the afternoon of July 5, two suicide bombers activated explosive devices strapped to their belts during he Krylya rock festival in the Tushino aerodrome, in the immediate vicinity to it, though only one of them exploded fully. Besides the terrorists,11 people died, including one child. At least 35 people were wounded (three of them died later in hospital). Over 60 people asked for medical treatment. Late on July 9, security guards detained a woman who had an explosive device in her bag in the Imbir cafe, 1st Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street. During the bomb disposal, an FSB officer was killed by a blast. The woman, Zarema Muzhikhoyeva, a Chechen native, was later sentenced to 20 years in prison by the Moscow City Court. In the morning of December 9, a female suicide bomber exploded herself near the National hotel in Okhotny Ryad Street (close to the Kremlin). Besides the terrorist, five people were killed, 13 wounded, including a Chinese citizen. 2004: In the morning of February 6, a suicide bomber activated an explosive device strapped to his belt in a train going from the Avtozavodskaya to the Paveletskaya underground stations. The train was 300 metres short of Paveletskaya. Thirty-nine people died on the spot, including Armenian and Moldovan citizens, and about 140 people were wounded. On March 15, on the 23rd km of the Krym highway in the Moscow region, staffers of the Moscow Mainline Electricity Transmission Grids discovered three damaged masts of the LEP-500 (electricity transmission lines). The damage was caused by an explosion. Besides, they found an explosive devices consisting of three cartridges for a grenade launcher on one of the masts, and another two explosive devices and a piece of fabric resembling the flag of the Chechen republic of Ichkeria. (RIA Novosti, September 1)

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