Russia rebels claim "economic war"; analysts sceptical

MOSCOW (Reuters) - A rebel website posted on Friday a claim by Chechen fighters that they had caused a Siberian dam disaster earlier in the week as part of a new campaign of large-scale economic war against Russia.

A Kremlin source dismissed the claim as "idiotic," Russian financial markets hardly reacted and analysts expressed doubt, pointing out that investigators at the dam had initially blamed ageing and poorly maintained Soviet-era infrastructure.

But in the Chechen capital Grozny, still scarred by two devastating secessionist wars, suicide bombers launched five attacks on Friday killing at least four policemen, Russian news agencies said. The bombers used bicycles.

On Monday morning Russia's biggest hydro-electric dam was crippled by a surge of water through the machine room, killing at least 30, with 45 still missing. A few hours later a powerful truck bomb exploded at a police headquarters in the southern republic of Ingushetia, killing at least 20 people.

The www.kavkazcenter.com website, which claims to represent Chechen rebels, posted a statement signed by the "Battalion of Martyrs" claiming to have planted an anti-tank grenade in the machine hall of the dam and for the Ingush bomb.

The group seeks to end Russian rule in the northern Caucasus region and establish an Islamic "emirate."

"Glory to Allah, on August 17 through our efforts, a subversive operation was carried out in Khakasia at the Sayano- Shushenskaya hydro-electric dam," said the letter, posted on the same day that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was visiting the dam and speaking to rescue workers.

"On the same day, August 17, in the city of Nazran, the Riyadus-Salikhiyn Shahid battalion carried out an operation to destroy the occupying puppet gangs of the neighbourhood Interior Ministry precinct and the city Interior Ministry precinct."

Russian prosecutors who have been investigating the dam disaster said on Friday bomb specialists from the FSB domestic intelligence service had not found any traces of explosives.

Analysts specialising in the Caucasus were doubtful about the rebel claim, which also announced that groups of fighters had been sent across Russia for attacks that would target oil and gas pipelines, power plants and electricity lines.

"If there were a competition in lies between this website and Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), I am not sure who would win," said Yulia Latynina, a Russian opposition journalist who specialises in the North Caucasus.

"In the case of terrorist attacks, notification about who has carried out an attack usually happens at the time of the attack. The dam accident happened on Monday morning. If this website had placed the announcement half an hour before that, their claim would have been plausible."

Alexei Malashenko, a Caucasus expert at the Moscow Carnegie Centre think-tank, said he was doubtful about the claim because an attack on a remote Siberian dam would be too difficult for the rebels to carry out.

"I think it's propaganda," he said. "In the past, rebels have taken responsibility for a fire in Moscow's Ostankino television tower and for a mass black-out in the capital."

Russian news agencies, which usually take guidance from the government about sensitive subjects, did not report the Kavkaz Centre website's claims.

The rouble dipped briefly against a basket of currencies but returned to previous levels around 10 kopecks below Thursday's close. The MICEX share index, trading near flat most of the day, was up 0.17 percent at 10:50 a.m. British time.

Benchmark Brent crude prices notched up 34 cents while traders contacted by Reuters dismissed the rebel website's claims.

"This is total nonsense, because nobody takes responsibility a week after a terrorist act," Otkrytiye trader Alexander Pankov said.

(Additional reporting by Dmitry Solovyov, Guy Faulconbridge, Simon Shuster, Melissa Akin, Oleg Shchedrov, Robin Paxton, Gleb Bryanski and Conor Humphries; editing by Ralph Boulton)