President Putin threatens to ‘annihilate’ bus bomb terrorist
Russia will retaliate, Putin tells the terrorists behind the deadly bus and train bombs in Volgograd. “Annihilation” awaits those who threaten Russia or the Winter Olympics, the president says.
President Vladmir Putin said he will “fiercely” fight Caucasian terrorism in his first comments after two deadly suicide bombs killed 34 in the city of Volgograd.
“We will fiercely and consistently continue the fight against terrorists until their complete annihilation”, Mr Putin told Russian news agencies on Tuesday.
Russian authorities have already pinned the blame for the attacks on Islamist groups, and are reportedly investigating groups in the troubled Muslim provinces on Russia’s southern border.
Chechnya and neighbouring Dagestan have been sources of terrorism since the bloody wars in Chechnya in the 90s.
Putin ordered increased security nationwide after the attacks, the deadliest for two years.
The double attacks have traumatised the city which is the major transport and administrative hub for the area. Both suicide bombs hit busy targets full of civilians. The bombs were coated in metal fragments, intended to cause maximum harm. On Tuesday, mourners laid flowers at the site of the bombing that tore the bus apart and left residents fearing further violence.
“I’m frightened,” said Tatyana Volchanskaya, a student in Volgograd, 700 km (400 miles) northwest of Sochi, where the Games start in February. She said some friends were afraid to go to shops and other crowded places.
‘Targeting migrant workers’
In Volgograd, more than 5,000 police and interior troops were mobilised in “Operation Anti-terror Whirlwind”, Interior Ministry spokesman Andrei Pilipchuk, said on state TV.
He said 87 people had been detained after they resisted police or could not produce proper ID or registration documents, and that some had weapons. State TV showed helmeted officers pushing men up against a wall. But there was no sign any were linked to the bombings or suspected of planning further attacks.
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The Itar-Tass news agency said police were focusing on migrant workers from the Caucasus and ex-Soviet states – groups that rights activists say face prejudice and are often targeted by police indiscriminately.
Citing unnamed sources, the Interfax news agency said the suspected attacker in Sunday’s blast was an ethnic Russian convert to Islam who had moved to Dagestan and joined militants there early in 2012.
Trouble in the Caucasus
But though brutal attempts to control the region have been a feature of Mr Putin’s regime since he took power, it hasn’t stopped terrorism or unrest in the area.
Caucasus expert, James v. Wertsch at Washington University in Saint Louis, is one among several voices critical of Mr Putin’s tactics in the area.
“Numerous conflicts in the North Caucasus started out as ethnic or national resistance, but when brutally suppressed by Russia, morphed into extreme reactions, often with Islamist overtones. Time and again Russia’s heavy-handed efforts have had this result, and as violent resistance emerged the unfortunate Russian response has been to double down on the use of brutal force.
“Today discussions of autonomy or non-violent acts of resistance in the Caucasus are often labelled as terrorist and ruthlessly stamped out by Russians or their proxies.”