Islamist rebel leader Doku Umarov has said he had ordered a suicide bombing that killed 36 people at Russia's busiest airport last month.
Mr Umarov, 46, speaking in a video carried by an Islamist website, said there would be further such attacks in pursuit of an independent Muslim state governed by Sharia law in Russia's Caucasus region - a territory embracing Chechnya, Dagestan and other nearby territories.
Mr Umarov appeared in the video, apparently made on the day of the 24 January attack on Moscow's Domodedovo airport, wearing combat fatigues, talking quietly and hesitantly.
‘The special operation today in Moscow ... was carried out on my orders,’ said Mr Umarov, who styles himself the Emir of the Caucasus.
‘These special operations will continue ... to show the chauvinist regime of (Russian Prime Minister Vladimir) Putin in Moscow ... that we can carry out these operations where we want and when we want," he said, pointing a finger towards the camera.’
The attack bore the hallmark of Caucasus rebels but Monday's video was the first time Mr Umarov had claimed direct responsibility for it.
