MOSCOW, March 22. /TASS/. Russian State Duma member, special envoy of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly for resistance to terrorism, Nikolai Kovalyov, believes that Tuesday’s Brussels bomb blasts were an act of retaliation for the arrest of the chief suspect in Paris terrorist attacks last November, Salah Abdeslam.

"I am unequivocal on what has happened. It’s a personal opinion of mine. It is an act of retaliation following the arrest of one of Paris attacks’ masterminds [Salah Abdeslam]," Kovalyov said. "In other words, this is evidence that the secret services of Europe, Brussels and France acted with precision. He is one of the leaders of terrorists operating underground," he said.

"That’s the origin of the terrorist attacks in Brussels. It’s an act of revenge for the loss of their leader, for his arrest," said Kovalyov, a former chief of Russia’s federal security service FSB.

Two bombs went off at the airport of the Belgian capital on Tuesday morning, leaving no less than 17 dead, according to various sources. A short while later a third blast followed at a Brussels metro station, killing at least ten.