MOSCOW. April 7 (Interfax) - Russian Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin has ordered to check whether the recruiters of terrorist organizations detained in St. Petersburg were somehow linked with the suspects in the subway terror attack case, Committee spokesperson Svetlana Petrenko said on Friday.
"The chairman of the Russian Investigative Committee has instructed to check possible links between those individuals [in the group of the recruiters of terrorist organizations, who were earlier detained in St. Petersburg] and the suspects in the criminal proceedings following the terror attack. Moreover, it is necessary to determine how long ago those individuals started to act, in what kind of environment they operated and what kind of methods they used in the recruiting, as well as who coordinated and sponsored their illegal activities," Petrenko said.
In addition, Bastrykin ordered to continue collecting evidence and in particular, to determine the way, in which the suspects in the terror attack case had pursued their illicit activities, to find out whether the activities can be classified as organized crime and if there was any hierarchy and cohesion among members, she said. The team of investigators has been tasked to study connections of every suspect. The investigators must also identify the crime's organizer, Petrenko said.