Russian newspapers have poured scorn on a vast anti-terrorism operation launched nationwide the previous day, asking whether the whole scare was just an exercise or even a politically motivated trick. Several newspapers, which are much freer to report than Russia's mostly state-controlled media, cast doubt on Federal Security Service (FSB) chief Nikolai Patrushev's claim to have received a foreign tip-off about an imminent attack on public transport.
"Bogus threat," the mass-market Moskovsky Komsomolets daily headline read.
"Our authorities creatively interpreted the information and put the entire country under increased surveillance," the newspaper said. "Don't worry, dear compatriots. This was a hoax."
Moskovsky Komsomolets asked how it was that a foreign source could have been the first to know about a threat that supposedly threatened the entire country. "This means our partners either are disinforming us, or our spies know less about their own country than do foreigners."
"The FSB played on Russians' nerves," the liberal Vremya Novostei newspaper headlined its lead front-page article Thursday.
The newspaper underlined the apparent contradiction between the authorities' claim to have imposed emergency controls at train stations, airports, and other public places, and the relatively discreet presence of security forces seen by reporters -- in many cases no greater than at any other time.
"It seems even odder that the special services, it appears, were in most cases working to their regular schedules." The newspaper said it had found only one Moscow district where the metro was under special guard, with police having to buy "batteries for their hand-held metal detectors."
"It remains unclear what exactly was the basis of the alarm and which foreign partners the FSB was referring to," wrote Vremya Novostei, asking whether "this was a real alarm or an exercise."
The liberal Kommersant daily also scoffed at the terrorism scare, saying the country's Anti-Terrorism Committee, headed by Patrushev, is "licensed to joke."
According to the newspaper the security measures were just an exercise, possibly launched after receiving a security warning at the airport in Orenburg, in the Urals region.
Kommersant speculated that the real reason for launching such an operation was to "prepare society for adopting any sort of tough measures and laws."
Moskovsky Komsomolets put another spin on the drama, declaring that the security forces' main goal was to manipulate the media and bury bad news.
This includes the latest controversy over alleged abuse of a conscript soldier and a shocking medical malpractice case where a baby girl suffering whooping cough ended up having her right arm amputated.
"So don't be afraid to go in the metro. Our special services can deal with that threat. Worry about 'regular medical check-ups'," Moskovsky Komsomolets wrote.
The government-owned Rossiiskaya Gazeta and the pro-government Izvestia daily stood out for their positive appraisal of the terror alert.
"Such a declaration of a terrorist threat is necessary foremost to raise the population's vigilance and, strange as this sounds, to warn the terrorists that we are waiting for them," Rossiiskaya Gazeta wrote.
Izvestia wrote in a front page article that the authorities were concerned about an "Al Qaeda" style attack.
"Experts categorically excluded the possibility that the Anti-Terrorist Committee decided to set up an exercise," Izvestia wrote.
