Moscow — As the subway slows to a stop at the Tretyakovskaya station, everyone on the car turns their eyes to the door.
Quickly, they scan the faces of the newcomers coming on board, looking for some clue as to whether they are ordinary passengers or people to be feared. Anyone carrying a package receives a longer, more concerned, examination.
One stop later, two young women with dark complexions and head scarves get on, causing subtle consternation. No one says anything, but there is a clear shift in the car as passengers give the pair — they might be from the Caucasus, judging by their appearance — extra room as they sit down and dig through their purses.
There's an almost audible sigh of relief when one of the women produces a tube of lipstick and the two chat about it. These are no militants.
Riding the Moscow metro, once one of the pleasures of living in the Russian capital, has turned into a fearsome experience since the deaths of 39 people in Friday's suspected suicide bombing. The blast sent shivers down the spines of the millions of Muscovites who use the metro every day and who take a certain amount of pride in having what is indisputably one of the world's best subway systems.
"I now look carefully around when I am on the metro, and if I see someone suspicious, I step out of the train car and take a different one," said Antonina, a 45-year-old cleaning lady who said she rides the subway every day to and from work. "The explosion was meant to remind people that they shouldn't relax."
The metro is the city's lifeline, carrying about nine million passengers a day. Cheap and efficient, it is for many Muscovites the only way to get around the increasingly traffic-jammed capital.
Each ride costs just five rubles — about 25 cents — and trains arrive every 90 seconds during rush hour.
The elegant Stalinist-era lobbies and platforms are decorated with statues, mosaics and marble so they resemble underground palaces, and the system is part of this city's soul.
During the Second World War, the deep stations sheltered thousands of people from Nazi bombs. Today, many Muscovites give directions by starting with the nearest metro station, rather than the street.
But the system, usually packed with passengers standing shoulder to shoulder at almost any time of day, felt eerily deserted at times over the weekend.
At the AvtozavudskayaÖ station, passengers placed flowers all weekend on the platform nearest to the explosion site. Everywhere else, soldiers and police officers outnumbered customers.
Travellers were jittery yesterday, but they resolved not to let the bombing change their daily routines.
"What else am I going to do? I can't afford taxis," said Galina Kiselyova, a 58-year-old pensioner. "So yes, I am using metro and will continue to despite the terrorist acts because it is the cheapest transport. Yes, I am frightened a bit, but what can you do? I take metro and just hope for the best."
Until Friday, security in the system was lax. While police officers routinely patrolled the entrances to stations and checked travellers' documents, the number of passengers made it impossible to screen everyone.
Security was tightened after the blast, and some police guarding metro stations yesterday had hand-held metal detectors.
The Federal Security Bureau opened a terrorism investigation and released a composite sketch of the man — thought to be a Chechen — who it believes co-ordinated the attack, which it suspects was carried out by a female. Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said a bomb exploded 20 centimetres above the floor, indicating it was carried in a bag or a suitcase.
According to health authorities, 107 people remained in hospitals last night, 29 of the victims in serious condition. Doctors were fighting to save the lives of two patients, Russia's NTV television said.
No one claimed responsibility for the explosion, but Russian President Vladimir Putin was quick to blame rebels from the breakaway republic of Chechnya, fighting for independence since 1994.
Mr. Putin, campaigning for re-election, sent soldiers into Chechnya four years ago after a wave of apartment-block bombings in Moscow and elsewhere that left more than 300 people dead.
Rebel spokesman Akhmed Zakayev denied yesterday involvement by the official Chechen resistance, but he added that the only way to stop the bloodshed on both sides is to convene ceasefire talks. In a statement on a rebel website, he says the resistance, without conditions, is ready to hold immediate discussions.
But speaking at a conference in Germany, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov rejected European calls for talks and hinted at intensifying the fighting in Chechnya.
"Whoever hopes we will start negotiations, let them go and start negotiating with Osama bin Laden or Mullah Omar," Mr. Ivanov said. "We will not negotiate. We will destroy these people calmly and systematically."
