As Muscovites were preparing to celebrate the New Year, the blasts left one dead and severely damaged a guest house. But investigators here said the twin suicide bombings could have killed dozens.
According to the investigators, the woman who died in the blasts was a suicide bomber preparing to blow herself up.
In the evening of December 31, a mass SMS wishing happy new year to subscribers triggered an explosive filled suicide belt in the guest house killing Zavzhat Daudov, the wife of Ibragimkhalil Daudov, who had served in Afghanistan, the Kommersant daily reported.
According to the newspaper, Ibragimkhalil Daudov had small business of repairing refrigerators, before joining Islamist militants active in North Caucasus Republic of Daghestan.
Daudov couple, whose two sons were killed by the security forces in the volatile Caucasus region, joined the underground militants three years ago to avenge the deaths of their sons.
Daudov had replaced Pakistan trained militant commander Magomedali Vagapov (Wahabov), killed by security forces last year after his Shariaa wife Mariyam Sharipova had blown herself up in a twin suicide attack last March in Moscow metro that left 40 people dead.
Quoting investigators Moskovsky Komsomolets daily, however, said the failed twin blasts on the New Year in the crowd of revellers near the Kremlin, was not linked to January 24 blast in Domodedovo Airport's international arrivals hall that took 35 lives.