Aleksandr Pikaev is a political analyst from the Institute for World Economy and International Relations. He gave his view on who could be behind the bus blast in Russia’s southern city of Togliatti.

Aleksandr Pikaev believes the bomb attack was aimed at tarnishing Russia's image abroad ahead of the forthcoming parliamentary election.

“There is an electoral campaign now and I believe that some terrorist groups hypothetically might be interested in destabilizing the situation in Russia before the elections. They might be interested in demonstrating that they are still active, that what government claims as victory in the Northern Caucasus is far from happening.  And they also might be interested to undermine the international image of the Russian Federation because some of them are reportedly financed from international sources and they need to demonstrate to their sponsors that they still can inflict damage to Russia and its international image,” he said.