MOSCOW. Sept 19 (Interfax) - The security measures taken by Russian law-enforcement agencies in the past week after anonymous calls of plotted explosions in various parts of the country have affected almost a quarter of a million people, an informed source told Interfax.
"According to the latest data, the number of citizens evacuated across the country due to false reports of a planted bomb over the past eight days has topped 220,000," the source said.
At the same time, the flow of alarming calls has substantially dropped over the past 24 hours, he said. "Thus, for example., whereas Moscow registered a record number - over 100,000 evacuees - last Wednesday, on Monday the figure was about 4,000 people, which is closer to average statistic indicators," the source said.
A day earlier the anonymous callers reported threats of explosion in Moscow in several of its prefectures and district administrations, big shopping malls and restaurants, he said.
It remains unclear which groups are behind this massive hoax. Law-enforcement officials have refrained from theorizing about what happened.
Meanwhile, another source familiar with the situation told Interfax on Tuesday that with modern equipment, one can use IP telephony to organize mass sending of computer-synthesized and thus unidentifiable voice messages from any part of the world. "Even for ordinary internet users, it is not difficult to hide their IP - a unique network address in the computer network, for instance, using the VPN [Virtual Private Network] technologies," the source said.
Thus, the bulk of reports about the alleged bomb plots may have been organized by the same person either from Russia or abroad "and the ensuing frenzy prompted an additional wave f calls from teenagers and mentally unstable individuals," the source said.
Another informed source said earlier that most of the alarming calls had been received via internet channels from Ukraine.
Since September 11 law-enforcement agencies in many Russian regions have registered mass anonymous calls of explosive devices allegedly planted in various locations: airports, train stations, hotels, schools, shopping centers, government institutions and others. All these cases resulted in risk zone evacuations. None of the reports proved true.
Regional law-enforcement agencies, including in Moscow, have launched criminal inquiries over false reporting of an act of terrorism under the Russian Criminal Code Article 207 that envisages a penalty of up to five years of imprisonment.