Second Blast in Russia Stokes Olympic Security Fears

MOSCOW—A suicide bomber struck in the southwest Russian city of Volgograd on Monday, killing at least 16 people in the city’s second terrorist attack in less than 24 hours and stoking security fears in the country ahead of the Winter Olympics.
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered security to be tightened around the country after the second attack, which comes less than six weeks before the games are set to start in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. The repeated bombings, and risk of additional violence, threaten to tarnish an event on which Mr. Putin has staked his personal pride and the country has spent $50 billion to stage.
Russia’s hosting of the games has already weathered heavy criticism abroad because of the recent passage of a controversial law banning gay “propaganda,” which has led to calls for a boycott among gay-rights groups.
 
A top rebel leader in the country’s restive North Caucasus region has called for attacks in the run-up to the event, and the repeated targeting of Volgograd—a city formerly known as Stalingrad situated about 425 miles from the Olympic site—appears aimed at raising anxiety before the games, which Russia has poured significant resources into protecting. Extensive security requirements and other logistical challenges have made Sochi less of a draw for foreign visitors than previous Olympics.
The twin attacks—first at the city’s central train station and, on Monday, aboard a crowded trolley bus—were the deadliest in the country in nearly three years. Though there was no immediate claim of responsibility, authorities said initial indications suggested the blasts were the work of Islamist terrorists from the volatile North Caucasus region.
“This is about embarrassing the Russian government and creating a state of insecurity,” said Matthew Clements, a Russian defense and security expert at IHS Country Risk. “The chances of a successful attack at one of the Olympic venues are slim, but attacks in the region around it still have the desired psychological effect.”
Normally stoic Russians reacted uneasily in the wake of the second attack. Russian Railways announced it was increasing security checks at stations around the country during the busiest travel days of the year ahead of the long New Year’s holiday. In St. Petersburg, city officials canceled a New Year’s Eve fireworks display because of security concerns, and authorities briefly closed Red Square and at least one Moscow metro station following reports of suspicious packages.
Russia is deploying tens of thousands of police and security forces to protect the Winter Games.
The country’s Olympic Committee Chairman Alexander Zhukov told Russian news agencies that there was no need to increase security measures surrounding the games since “all necessary steps have already been taken.”
The attacks raised questions yet again about whether Sochi was a problematic choice for such a high-profile international event.
On Monday, Russian antiterrorist forces said they had killed three militants in the Kabardino-Balkaria Republic just 200 miles east of Sochi, whom they suspected of plotting a New Year’s attack.
On Friday, a car bomb outside a police station killed three people in the southern Russian city of Pyatigorsk, which is about 170 miles from Sochi.
“It was a risky proposition to put the games so close to an area where there is an established network of insurgents,” Mr. Clements said.
“The threat of terrorism has existed with other games, but the fact that Sochi is taking place very close to an area of long-running conflict sets it apart,” he said.
The Obama administration, which expressed condemnation of the attack and condolences for the relatives of the victims, offered additional support to Russia for security around the Olympic Games.
“We would welcome the opportunity for closer cooperation for the safety of the athletes, spectators, and other participants,” National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach called the bombings “a despicable attack” and said he had written to Mr. Putin to express “our confidence in the Russian authorities to deliver safe and secure Games in Sochi.”
“I am certain that everything will be done to ensure the security of the athletes and all the participants of the Olympic Games,” he said.
Tour operators said the attacks would likely sap further demand for tickets to the games in Sochi, which has already proved a hard sell with foreign visitors because of its remote location and lack of higher-end lodging.
Organizers have said they expect the majority of fans to come from within Russia.
Vladimir Markin, a spokesman for Russia’s Investigative Committee, said Monday morning’s attack appeared to be the work of a male suicide bomber who was believed to have carried an explosive device packed with shrapnel and the equivalent of about 9 pounds of TNT. The rush-hour blast blew the roof off the blue-and-white trolley bus and shattered the windows of a five-story building opposite the scene.
On Tuesday, officials said one of those wounded in Sunday’s attack had died overnight in the hospital, bringing the death toll to 18. Regional health officials also told the official RIA-Novosti news agency that the number killed in Monday’s blast had been revised to 16. Dozens more were wounded in both attacks and several remained in critical condition Tuesday, officials said.
Mr. Markin said the device used Monday was of similar design to the one detonated by a suicide bomber in the portico of Volgograd’s main railway station on Sunday. That has prompted investigators to believe the attacks were organized by the same people.
The twin attacks were the deadliest Russia has seen since a suicide attack in the arrival hall of Moscow’s Domodedovo International Airport killed 37 people in January 2011. Ten months earlier, twin suicide bombings aboard packed trains in Moscow’s metro system killed 40 people.
While Russia’s security forces have struggled to suppress militant groups in the Caucasus region, Islamic terrorism has faded in the Russian heartland in recent years. Earlier in 2013, however, rebel leader Doku Umarov called for attacks against civilian targets in the run-up to the Sochi Games. Volgograd was previously targeted in late October, when a female suicide bomber from the Dagestan region of the Caucasus killed seven people on a bus near a university.
“A terrorist attack there is an attack in the heart of Russia. To attack there is much more resonant than in the Caucasus and it is easier to hit than Moscow,” said Vadim Mukhanov, a senior researcher at the Center on the Caucasus and Regional Security at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations.
Volgograd—a city of about one million inhabitants—is Russia’s closest major metropolis to the North Caucasus. It is also a key transit center connecting the south of the country—including the Caucasus region—with the rest of Russia. After Monday’s attack, city authorities mobilized cadets from a local police academy and announced plans to bring in Cossack patrols to help maintain security.
Volgograd also is symbolic because of its importance to Russia’s past as the site of a historic World War II battle in which Nazi Germany’s advance into Russia was turned back.
“Volgograd, a symbol of Russia’s suffering and victory in World War II, has been singled out by the terrorist leaders precisely because of its status in people’s minds. Their aim is to hurt as many ordinary people as they can, and terrorize the rest,” said Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center.