
"I call on everyone to clam down and not spread fake information," he said on Telegram. The Moscow-installed head of the peninsula, Sergei Aksyonov, called on Crimeans to remain "calm" as authorities appeared to downplay the blasts. The blasts come after Ukraine's recent lightning territorial gains in the east and south that have undermined the Kremlin's claim that it annexed Donetsk, neighbouring Lugansk and the southern regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. If it is established that Ukraine was behind the latest blast, alarm bells may sound with the bridge so far from the front line. There have been several explosions at Russian military installations in the Crimean peninsula. "If we stay quiet and do not give an adequate response, then such attacks will multiply," he said. And the spokeswoman of Russia's foreign ministry said that Kyiv's reaction to the blasts showed its "terrorist nature." - 'Undisguised terrorist war' - "There is an undisguised terrorist war against us," Russian ruling party deputy Oleg Morozov told the RIA Novosti news agency. But an official in Russian-installed Crimea pointed the finger at "Ukrainian vandals." Another in the neighbouring Kherson region said repairs could "take two months". As a result, two lanes partially collapsed." Officials in Moscow stopped short of blaming Kyiv. This "caused seven fuel tanks to ignite on a train heading towards the Crimea Peninsula. It said a truck exploded "on the automobile part of the Crimean bridge from the side of the Taman Peninsula". Russia's powerful investigative committee opened a criminal probe into the explosion and sent detectives to the scene. The Kremlin spokesman said Putin had ordered a commission to be set up to look into the blast, Russian news agencies reported. "Everything illegal must be destroyed, everything stolen must be returned to Ukraine, everything occupied by Russia must be expelled." The Ukrainian post office announced it was preparing to print stamps showing the "Crimean bridge - or more precisely, what remains of it". "Crimea, the bridge, the beginning," he wrote. Ukraine's presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak earlier took to Twitter posting a picture of a long section of the bridge half-submerged. It is hugely important to the Kremlin and Moscow had maintained the bridge crossing was safe despite the fighting. The bridge, personally inaugurated by President Vladimir Putin in 2018, is a vital transport link for carrying military equipment to Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine. a car bomb exploded, setting fire to seven oil tankers being carried by rail to Crimea," Russian news agencies cited the national anti-terrorism committee as saying. "Today at 6:07 am (0307 GMT) on the road traffic side of the Crimean bridge.


Dramatic social media footage showed the bridge on fire with parts plunging into the water.

Russia said the blast set ablaze seven oil tankers transported by train and collapsed two car lanes of the giant road and rail structure. Moscow announced Saturday that a truck explosion ignited a huge fire and severely damaged the key Kerch bridge - built as Russia's sole land link with annexed Crimea - and vowed to find the perpetrators without immediately blaming Ukraine. So if you're in China and were looking forward to MSN/Windows Live Messenger and Skype finally getting on the same page, you're just going to have to keep waiting. Given that, it makes sense Microsoft doesn't plan to merge Skype and MSN in China just yet the result could be that Skype's low brand recognition could drive MSN users away and into the arms of competitors. Skype and TOM haven't publicized China-specific data, but iResearch data consulted by a reporter from Investor China showed that Skype users in China had dropped by as much as twenty percent over the course of the past two years as new threats like YY, Weixin and even Sina Weibo's chat features emerged and snatched up some of Skype's users. Industry insiders also say that Microsoft wants time to promote the cooperation between MSN and Skype to Chinese users, essentially hitching Skype's wagon to MSN's star and hoping that some of the MSN magic rubs off on Skype. Another is that in China, Skype is partnered with TOM, and TOM would need to be included in any kind of integration program. One is that Skype's name recognition is not great in China, and its negative user growth over the past two years suggests it's not about to overtake the more popular MSN anytime soon. There are a few probable reasons for this. According to MSN China GM Liu Zhenyu, MSN will continue to operate as usual in China with no plans for rolling it into Skype in the foreseeable future. But it turns out that wherever else the company may be doing that, it won't be doing that in China just yet.

Last week, we learned that Microsoft may roll MSN/Windows Live Messenger into Skype's services (which Microsoft owns).
