After St. Petersburg Explosion, Putin Orders Police to ‘Liquidate’ Terrorists<br />28, 2017<br />In another sign of a crackdown on the opposition — despite Mr. Putin’s popularity — a<br />video Mr. Navalny had posted on YouTube was blocked for people in Russia on Thursday.<br />At first, the police did not refer to the grocery store explosion as terrorism,<br />but Mr. Putin said on Thursday that it was, in fact, a terrorist attack.<br />"But if the lives or health of our employees and our officers are threatened — to act decisively, to take no prisoners, to liquidate the bandits on the spot." The comment echoed Mr. Putin’s taunt to Chechen terrorists,<br />that he would "rub them out in the outhouse," which catapulted him to new heights of popularity before his first run for president, in 2000.<br />Islamic said that Yesterday I ordered the director of the Federal Security Service, while<br />arresting these bandits, to act, obviously, only within the limits of the law,<br />Speaking at an awards ceremony for Russian soldiers returning from Syria, Mr. Putin called the military intervention there a success<br />but warned of the risks of Islamic militants from the former Soviet Union returning to Russia after fighting.
