Two terrorist attacks on the city of Volgograd in the south of Russia which occurred in the last two days are in the focus of today's international media.
"Second Blast Hits Russia, Raising Olympic Fears" is an article published today by the New York Times.
"No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but they have renewed attention on a threat issued in July by Doku Umarov, the Chechen leader who heads the Caucasus Emirate, a nebulous organization that seeks to carve an independent state out of Russia’s mostly Muslim republics in the south. In a video, he called on his followers to do whatever possible to disrupt the Olympics in Sochi, which begin on Feb. 7," the article reads.
"The bombings prompted political recriminations that, in Mr. Putin’s Russia, have generally been fairly muted except among his most ardent critics... Sergei S. Mitrokhin, the leader of the liberal Yabloko party, which is usually more critical of the Kremlin, called for an investigation into any security lapses that might have allowed the attacks to occur, and suggested that the security services spent more time harassing political opponents than fighting terrorists and other criminals. “Society must know what the security services are doing these days,” he said in a statement."
"It is not clear why suicide bombers have now three times chosen targets in Volgograd, a city of a million people that was formerly called Stalingrad, the site of one of the crucial battles of World War II. It is the nearest major Russian city to the Caucasus, and a transportation hub connecting the region to major cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg. 'You can see it as a gateway out of the Northern Caucasus, which shows that it is possible to reach other destinations,' said Grigory Shvedov, editor in chief of the Caucasian Knot, a website that closely tracks violence in the region. 'If they can reach Volgograd, they can show that the Northern Caucasus is not protected by a great Chinese wall that is not allowing terrorists to get out'," the article concludes.
The Chicago Tribune among other influential international newspapers also claims connection between the Olympic Games and the recent terrorist attacks in its article "Second Russia suicide bombing weeks ahead of Olympics." The Associated Press released an article "Caucasus insurgents trouble Russia for decades" which was published today by the Washington Post, which gives a brief history of insurgency in the Caucasus. "Most assaults have been within the Caucasus, but attackers have occasionally reached far outside the region, including Moscow. Volgograd, which borders the North Caucasus region to the north, was earlier hit by an insurgent suicide bombing that killed six people in October," the article reads.
