From the Globe:

Russian officials opened a terror investigation Saturday, saying that a homemade bomb planted on the tracks of the high-speed Moscow-to-St. Petersburg route caused a derailment that killed at least 26 people and injured dozens more.

I never rode that particular line to St. Petersburg.  I exited Russia via the Moscow-Riga (Lativa) line.

However, somewhere near the Mongolian border I was rustled out of my compartment in the wee morning hours and outside on to a non-descript platform.  Russian border police with dogs were pouring over the train searching for something.  I never received a clear answer to what exactly was going on, although one of the car attendants mumbled the word “bomb” and that this was either a training exercise (at the expense of passengers) or a legitimate search.  Either way, none of the Russian passengers appeared to surprised by the search.  About 30 minutes later, we were allowed back on to the train.

Some random Trans-Siberian shots from 2008.