RYAZAN, RUSSIA — Bomb attacks blamed on criminal turf battles hit two Russian cities Monday, killing at least three people in a nation jittery after a string of deadly unsolved blasts.
Police said there was no apparent link between the two explosions Monday, in an outdoor market in the industrial city of Ryazan and at a boutique in St. Petersburg. There was no suggestion of a terrorist act. Police blamed them on organized crime, which is entrenched throughout Russia.
The first bomb ripped through a meat stall in the morning in Ryazan, 120 miles south of Moscow, damaging other meat and vegetable stands and shattering glass in nearby apartment buildings.
Two vendors were killed immediately; an unidentified man died later in the hospital, emergency officials said. Eleven people were injured, NTV television reported.
The bomb was in a plastic bag on the metal roof of the meat stall. It exploded when a saleswoman tried to move it, NTV quoted a witness as saying. Five people were held for questioning.
A small blast destroyed the windows of a clothing boutique in the northern city of St. Petersburg, but nobody was hurt.
