Moscow Metro Bombings

I woke up early today, preparing our apt. for my day watching “Pebbles”. After turning on our tv to the Russian ESPN channel to see if any of the NCAA games were being replayed, I sat down and started looking at my emails and facebook. That’s when I noticed a fellow blogger who used to live in Russia, and has recently moved to Luxembourg, posted something about a bombing at the Lubyanka metro station. My heart fell. I immediately switched the tv over to Russia Today (RT) to see what was going on while dialing my friends cell phones to make sure they were okay. I couldn’t get through! Most cell phone signals were shut off because they believed the bombs were detonated via cell phone. Needless to say, I was freaking out. I know facebook is a huge time-waster (A FUN time-waster), but in this case, it was a lifesaver. Because we couldn’t contact each other via cell, facebook and email were how we let each other know we were okay. One friend I was able to get through via cell had left early to ride the metro and didn’t even know anything had happened.

Two bombs went off in 2 different metro stations, Lubyanka and Park Kultury. Lubyanka is in the heart of Moscow, and runs below the old KGB building (now known as the FSB building.) Park Kultury is a bit farther out...4 stops to the southwest, on the same line, the oldest line in Moscow, the Red Line. Neither of these metro’s are close to where I live and I, so far, have never taken them, but that doesn’t mean I won’t. Darron drives to work every day and only takes the metro on the weekend sometime. The first one occurred just before 8am and the other one followed about 40 minutes later. Rush hour, to be sure. People coming and going, minding their own business, going to work, to school, maybe home. All innocent....except for the two female bombers, with explosives strapped to their bodies. Waiting for the right moment....the train pulls into the station, the doors open, people disembarking and embarking, and then for some, life is over.

How did I spend my day? Krista arrived with Pebbles (via George their driver) and we both just hugged each other. We hadn’t been able to get a hold of each other and Krista didn’t know her outing had been cancelled. They both ended up spending the day here and we made pancakes for breakfast and Kraft Shells & Cheese for lunch. Nothing better than home comforts! We chatted with friends on facebook. We worried with the time difference, how we’d tell our parents the news before they saw it on their tv. We OD'd on CNN and BBC World and Russia Today News. We wondered what would cause a woman to travel so far away from home, strap explosives to her body and kill innocent people. What were her last thoughts? Did she look at the people she was trying to kill?  Perhaps her children and husband had been murdered or disappeared. Perhaps she had been raped and her parents “sold” her to these suicide bomb trainers.

What will the next few days and weeks bring? That remains to be seen. Prime Minister Putin vows to find those responsible. Life will return to normal. The Russians are resilient people. Even yesterday, by the late afternoon, the metro stations that had been the site of the attacks were open. Hopefully the violence won't visit this adopted city of mine again. 

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev lays flowers at the Lubyanka Square bombing site.