Police chief Vladimir Pronin accused the three university students being held in connection with the market bombing of also orchestrating at least eight prior bomb blasts. Police have identified the suspects as Oleg Kostyrev, Ilya Tikhomirov, and Valery Zhukovtsov.
"If we had not detained this group, they would have caused a lot of trouble in Moscow, God forbid," Pronin said. "I have talked to two of the three arrested, and I want to say that, according to our police estimates, they have carried out at least eight explosions in Moscow and the Moscow region. They had first studied explosives and then carried out explosions."
Pronin gave no details about the previous explosions, saying only that some had caused injuries, but none were fatal.
Eleven people, including two children, were killed in the attack at the Cherkizovsky market in northeast Moscow. Officials say four of the victims were from Tajikistan, two from Uzbekistan, one from Belarus, and two from Russia. Two other victims remain unidentified.
The suspects, all members of a nationalist youth group, have been charged with racially motivated murder for admitting to targeting "non-Russians" in the attack.
(Interfax, RIA Novosti)