The same rail service was bombed in September

The bombing of a commuter train in Yessentuki, in southern Russia's Stavropol territory on Friday that killed 42 people and injured many more receives wide coverage in the Russian media.

While several papers report on and discuss the security environment in which the attack took place, one commentary argues that the widespread availability of explosives in Russia makes it too easy for militants.

And a rebel Chechen website rubbishes accounts of the bombing put forward by Russian officials.

According to Russia's NTV television, the attack was "the 11th act of terror in the Stavropol territory in the last 18 months".

Echoing the language, Moscow's business broadsheet Kommersant describes the bombing as "the biggest terrorist act this year". According to the paper, "it is already possible to explain why the power-wielding authorities were not ready for the new terrorist attack."

The North Caucasus railways has traditionally been a zone of higher risk Rossiyskaya Gazeta

Following bomb attacks earlier this year, the efforts of the Russian Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service (FSB) were focused not on Chechnya but on Ingushetia and Kabarda-Balkaria "where an entire terrorist underground was discovered", the paper says.

Furthermore, it adds, the "active cleansing" of the Stavropol police as part of Russia's campaign to fight police corruption nationwide led to the jailing of several senior officers; this damaged intelligence networks in the region.

"As we know, placing hundreds of policemen on the streets is not the way to prevent terrorist acts," the paper concludes.

But according to the government daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta, there was no failure in the security system.

Staff of the Directorate of Internal Affairs for Transport, who are responsible for transport security, "have been carrying out their duties in a heightened state of alert for some time", it says, adding that "the North Caucasus railways has traditionally been a zone of higher risk".

Intelligence

And security in the area was already stepped up, the paper says: "Additional police posts were set up, the regime of checking documents and luggage was tightened and the number of police patrols were increased."

Izvestiya, the leading Moscow daily, goes even further by saying that attacks were expected by the authorities.

"FSB officers who were working on the site of the tragedy," the paper reports, "did not hide the fact that they had received operational information at the end of last week about terrorist acts being planned in southern Russia."

"Bearing in mind that there are several terrorist groups, new attacks could take place in the next few days," it warns.

The paper also quotes the chairman of Russia's electoral commission, Aleksandr Veshnyakov, as saying that it is possible the bombing was "an attempt to frighten people on the eve of [parliamentary] elections".

Explosives

Focusing on what it sees as the ease with such attacks can be carried out in Russia, a commentary in Izvestiya attacks the availability of explosives.

The Russian state is losing control of the production of explosives Izvestiya

"Licences for the production of explosive materials cost 1,300 roubles ($44)," it says. "Over the last 18 months over 500 firms have received such licences... there are no rules to prevent the illegal use of explosives in Russia.

"Over 1,000 organisations work with explosives; the number of people involved in such work is 55,000... every year 350,000 tonnes of explosive materials are transported on Russian roads."

"A kilogram of TNT costs 1,000 roubles ($34) on the black market," it says.

"The Russian state is losing control of the production of explosives," the commentary concludes on a note of warning.

The Chechnya problem

In a studio-based discussion on Russia's Ren TV, Boris Nemtsov, co-chairman of the Union of Right Forces party, argued that "the growing number of terrorist acts" proves that "the Chechen problem can be resolved by negotiations only".

There is an impression that the terrorist attack was filmed by an FSB superagent Kavkaz-Tsentr (rebel Chechen website)

He insisted that the newly-elected president of the Moscow-backed Chechen administration, Akhmad Kadyrov, should start discussions with separatists led by Aslan Maskhadov.

Meanwhile the website of the rebel Chechen Kavkaz-Tsentr news agency attacked the "theories" the Russian authorities offered immediately following the blast, which linked Chechen rebels to the bombing.

"There are too many contradictions in the theories put forward by the FSB," it argues. "The deductions by the FSB's Sherlock Holmeses goes something like this: first there was a remote-controlled bomb, then a suicide bomber... then a bundle of grenades attached to his leg and then four terrorists.

"There are so many details and nuances that there is an impression that the terrorist attack was filmed by an FSB superagent," it says.

"But the most interesting thing in this bloody Friday story is Putin's statement. He said that 'innocent people' were killed in Yessentuki. Look at that! Someone who killed 230,000 civilians in Chechnya, 300 residents in Moscow and 129 hostages of the Nord-Ost [theatre] is saying this."

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.