Vladimir Putin said in a telegram to President Abdelaziz Boutiflika: "It was with sorrow that I learnt about the terrorist act in the city of Batha that claimed the lives of 14 Algerian citizens, and left more than 70 with serious injuries. I express my deep sympathies to both you and the families of the dead and injured."
The explosion took place in the city of Batna, 430 km (about 270 miles) southwest of the Algerian capital, Algiers. A crowd had been waiting for the arrival of President Boutiflika when a suicide bomber blew himself up. No groups yet have claimed responsibility for the attack.
Putin also expressed his willingness to increase Russian-Algerian efforts to counter terrorism, and condemned the attack as 'barbaric.'
Algeria was engulfed in violence between 1992-98 following the cancellation of elections, which the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) had been expected to win, by the military in 1992. Over 100,000 people died during the subsequent insurgency.
The FIS officially disbanded in 2000, but recent attacks in Algeria, including a July suicide car bombing that killed 10 soldiers, have brought back memories of the most violent period in the country's history since it gained independence from France in 1962.
