A year has passed after two terrorist attacks in Volgograd.
Today a minute of silence in memory of the victims of the two terrorist attacks in Volgograd was held. On 29 December last year 18 people were killed and over 40 injured by an explosion arranged by terrorists, of a bomb with a capacity of 10 kg of TNT.
The next day, on December 30, another explosion occurred. 16 people died and more than 30 were injured by a terrorist detonating a bomb with a capacity of 4 kg of TNT on a city trolleybus.
As the Volgograd administration reported, relatives and friends of the victims, eyewitnesses of the tragedy, police, railroad workers and citizens unrelated to the trouble will be at the memorial meeting. Governor Andrei Bocharov and the Head of Volgograd Andrei Kosolapov will turn with words of support to those who lost loved ones in the terrorist attacks. In the local diocese the Metropolitan of Volgograd and Kamyshin Herman will conduct a memorial service for the innocent victims.
On December 5, the Dzerzhinsky District Court of Volgograd passed sentence on four terrorist supporters. Two of them who made explosive devices were sentenced to 19 years in prison. The two were found guilty of delivering the homemade bombs to Volgograd, and each was sentenced to 3 years and 10 months in a high-security colony.
At the end of 2013 Dzhamaltin Mirzaev, leader of the "Kadarskaya" terrorist group based in Dagestan, as well as active members of the illegal armed Yusup Yakhyayev, Nasrulla Temirkhanov and Arsen Dadayev, planned a terrorist attack on Volgograd.
They prepared suicide bombers Asker Samedov and Suleiman Magomedov, who were equipped with improvised explosive devices, created on the basis of high-explosive artillery shells. "Using the help of residents of the republic, Alautdin Dadayev and Ibrahim Magomedov provided their homeownership for temporary shelter and bomb-making based on an RDX/TNT mix," the official spokesman of the Investigative Committee of the RF Vladimir Markin said.
The Batirov brothers, professing radical Islam and engaged in cargo transportation, transported the perpetrators of the terrorist acts to Volgograd.
The outgoing year was quite calm for the North Caucasus, but terrorists tried twice to shake the island of stability in the North Caucasus Federal District – Chechnya and its capital, Grozny. Both times law enforcement officers worked quickly and managed to avoid a large number of civilian casualties.
According to the chief editor of "National Defense", Igor Korotchenko, this "silence" in the North Caucasus is primarily due to "the successful actions of the law enforcement agencies and special services of Russia in preventing terrorist attacks, the successful work of the FSB of Russia, its head office and regional areas. All this was possible to stabilize the situation and prevent a major terrorist attack."
Senator Valery Shnyakin said that in addition to the professional work of the special forces that are engaged in the fight against terrorism led by the NAC, security is affected by economic and social stabilization in the republics of the North Caucasus Federal District.
On the other hand, according to Korochenko, the absence of major terrorist attacks in Russia in the past year should not be linked to the elimination of one of the leaders of the "Caucasus Emirate", Doku Umarov. "The elimination of certain terrorist leaders does not make any contributions. This is work that needs to be dealt with constantly. In any case, the North Caucasus terrorist underground is valid, regardless of who it is headed by. Another thing is that they could not be effective against the background of the increased activity of the authorized powers," he said.
However, according to Shnyakin, Umarov’s death to some degree could be the cause of unsuccessful activities by thugs. "But he was not such a leader. It is not necessary to exaggerate his achievements. I would maybe once point out Shamil Basayev, but Doku Umarov was at his beck and call, and he wasn’t a serious leader or authority among the militants," the Senator said.
Talking about the terrorist attacks in Chechnya, Korochenko noted that "terrorists strike where they can. So in this case there is no pattern."
In turn, Shnyakin said that Chechnya is the region of the Caucasus where the most systematically, consistently social and political and anti-terrorism problems are solved. "But, unfortunately, those who prepared the attack found a weak spot. But it's a coincidence, they would strike at the leadership of the Chechen Republic, as well as destabilize the most successful region of the Caucasus," he said.
In conclusion, Igor Korotchenko noted that "the danger of terrorist attacks is not reduced, it exists, so it is necessary to continue systematic work in the fight against terrorism."
