Olympic committees receive Sochi terror threat
European Olympic committees, including the British Olympic Association, receive threats of terrorist attacks in the run-up to the Winter Games in Russia.
Committees from Italy, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia have all received threats written in Russian.
The BOA’s director of communications, Darryl Seibel, said an email had been received that was similar to the ones other committees had been sent.
He added that it “lacks credibility” and will not alter the security arrangements already in place to protect the British team.
‘Nothing credible’
Mr Seibel said: “We have received what appears to be the same email that many other federations have received and the IOC (International Olympic Committee) has responded to state very clearly that in their view there is nothing of substance to this.
“In addition we have had our own experts take a look at this and they have responded in exactly the same way by stating that this is nothing credible. Organisations like ours receive correspondence of every type and it is not uncommon to come across something like this that lacks credibility.”
The Italian Olympic Committee (Coni) said it received an email on Wednesday morning “containing terrorist threats in view of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi”.
It said in a statement that a message had also been sent to the IOC ahead of the Games on February 6-23. The statement added:
“Coni has transmitted the content of the mail to the given authority in charge of international security.
“At the same time the Italian Olympic Committee wishes to state trust and serenity in the safety measures that have been guaranteed by the IOC organisers, the international federations and the Olympic Committee.”
Suicide bombers
In December suicide bombers killed at least 34 people in southern Russia and Islamist militants have threatened to attack the Games. Security forces are currently hunting a woman in Sochi who is suspected of planning a suicide bombing.
The IOC has said the Games, on the shores of the Black Sea, will be safe.
President Vladimir Putin has put 37,000 security personnel on combat alert in Sochi and increased security nationwide. Mr Putin has discussed security with US President Barack Obama, and the preparations are more elaborate than for any previous Olympics.
Security concerns have been heightened by suicide bombings last month in Volgograd, a southern Russian city which serves as a gateway to the North Caucasus, and by a video in which the Islamist militant group claiming responsibility for the attacks threatened more violence.
Militant leader Doku Umarov has called for insurgents fighting for an Islamist state in Russia’s North Caucasus to attack Sochi, which lies on the western edge of the Caucasus mountains where the insurgency is focused.
In Sochi, security forces are searching for a 23-year-old woman called Ruzanna Ibragimova (pictured above), who they suspect may be planning a suicide attack.
She is believed to be the widow of a dead Islamist militant who recently left her home in Dagestan, in the mainly Muslim North Caucasus.
‘Random message’
Zsigmond Nagy, from the Hungarian Olympic Committee, said the IOC and Sochi organisers had analysed the letter it had received and concluded “that this threat is not real”.
He added: “This person has been sending all kinds of messages to many members of the Olympic family.”
The letter, he said, threatened Hungarian nationals, competitors and officials, saying that “persons attending the Olympic Games might be blown up”.
Mr Nagy also quoted IOC officials as saying the letters had been sent by someone living outside Russia who had carried out hoaxes before. “This threat is not a real one and there is nothing to worry about,” he said.
Officials in Italy, Germany, Slovakia and Slovenia said their national committees had passed on the threats they had received to the police.
The IOC, which is based in Switzerland, said it took security very seriously and passed on any credible information to the relevant security services.
“However, in this case it seems like the email sent to the Hungarian Olympic Committee contains no threat and appears to be a random message from a member of the public,” it said.