Suicide bombings stoke fears that terrorists will target Sochi Olympics

Counterterrorism officials say the main threat is attacks by separatist groups in the North Caucasus that are at war with the Russian government.

Moscow // Two bomb attacks in southern Russia before the country hosts the Winter Olympics are raising concerns that terrorists active in the region will target the games and nations represented.

The main threat is attacks by separatist groups in the North Caucasus that are at war with the Russian government, according to counterterrorism officials. They have carried out attacks similar to the suicide bombings at Volgograd’s main train station two days ago and on a trolleybus in the city yesterday that killed more than 30 people.

The presence of athletes from the US, Israel, the UK, Russia and China may attract a broader range of extremists and tempt groups such as Al Qaeda to demonstrate they remain powerful after Osama bin Laden’s death, the officials said.

President Vladimir Putin yesterday warned “terrorists” they face total destruction.

His government, which will seal off Sochi, a city of 345,000 people, had planned to beef up security starting on January 7, a month before the games start, according to the state-run news service RIA Novosti. Russia is spending at least Dh176 billion to stage the Olympics, making them the most expensive winter games.

“We’re taking exhaustive security measures to ensure safety during the Olympics,” Ilya Djous, a spokesman for deputy prime minister Dmitry Kozak, the country’s top Olympics official, said. “We won’t take any additional steps.”

The counterterrorism officials said the security threat to the games is heightened when sites are announced more than six years ahead. That gives terrorists and other potential criminals time to plan, infiltrate the venue or perhaps even attract local recruits to their causes.

“If another attack happens closer to Sochi, it will be a catastrophe for the Olympics,” Alexei Malashenko, an analyst on the North Caucasus at the Moscow Carnegie Center, said. “Three bombings in the space of three months means that terrorist activity is becoming systematic.”

The possible threats to the games extend beyond the Black Sea city of Sochi, 700km south-west of Volgograd, and include the routes athletes, journalists and spectators will travel to reach the site. There are a limited number of air gateways to the city, including Moscow, Prague, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Stockholm.

“It’s quite likely that you’re going to see an uptick in attacks in places like Volgograd, in Moscow, elsewhere in the country as the insurgents try to get their message out, even though the site of the games themselves is probably going to be too hard of a target,” said Jeffrey Mankoff, deputy director of the Russia and Eurasia programme at the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington.

While Russian authorities are deploying 30,000 police officers and soldiers in and around Sochi, the latest attacks in Volgograd emphasise the vulnerability of targets away from the host city.

The Australian Olympic Committee said yesterday that it’s telling its athletes to use caution. Athletes will travel straight to and from Sochi by air, with no trips through other parts of the country, the AOC said.

The Swiss Ski Federation said the Olympic zones “will be the safest place on earth during the games.” No athletes have expressed concerns or even sought to withdraw, according to the federation.

Sochi lies in the west of the Caucasus Mountains, which stretch about 1,200km through one of the most economically distressed regions of the country across Chechnya to Dagestan on the Caspian Sea. Toward the east, Russian forces battle almost daily attacks by Muslim extremists after two separatist wars since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

In July, Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov, who has said he was behind at least three of Russia’s deadliest terror attacks, called on militants to target the Sochi games. Umarov claimed responsibility for organising the January 2011 suicide bombing at Moscow’s Domodedovo Airport that killed 37 people.

The self-styled emir of a pan-North Caucasus Islamic state also said he planned the attacks on the capital’s subway system by female suicide bombers in March 2010 that killed 40 people and the November 2009 bombing of the Nevsky Express train between Moscow and St Petersburg that killed 28.

Yesterday’s attack killed at least 16 people when a man detonated a bomb in the trolleybus during the morning rush hour in Volgograd, while the death toll from the rail-station blast rose to 18 people, the health ministry said. More than 60 people remained in hospital.

Russia’s Security Council chief Nikolai Patrushev lead an emergency meeting of the National Anti-Terrorist Committee on Monday in Moscow to discuss steps to protect against the threat of more attacks. The body is bolstering security across the whole country on Mr Putin’s orders.

Alexander Bortnikov, the head of the Federal Security Service, known in Russian as the FSB, flew to Volgograd on orders from Mr Putin.

“This is a despicable attack on innocent people and the entire Olympic movement joins me in utterly condemning this cowardly act,” IOC President Thomas Bach said. “I am certain that everything will be done to ensure the security of the athletes and all the participants of the Olympic Games.”

Bloomberg