Zee Media Bureau
Moscow: Russia President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday vowed to annihilate "terrorists" following two suicide attacks in less than 24 hours in the southern Russian city of Volgograd.
The uncompromising remarks in a New Year`s Eve address were Putin`s first public comments since suicide bombers killed at least 34 people in attacks on a railway station and a trolleybus on Sunday and Monday.
"I am certain that we will fiercely and consistently continue the fight against terrorists until their complete annihilation", Putin said, according to Russian news agencies.
"Dear friends, we bow our heads before the victims of cruel terrorist acts," the Russian leader said on a visit to the east coast city of Khabarovsk.
The attacks have stoked security fears ahead of Sochi Olympics and Volgograd in Russia has turned into a fortress with thousands of troops deployed in the city and dozens being detained.
Over 5,200 security forces including Interior Ministry troops were deployed in the city that is inhabited by one million people.
Speaking on state TV, a top security official named Andrei Pilipchuk said that the deployment was done according to the "Operation Anti-terror Whirlwind". The visuals showed helmeted cops manhandling some people. Pilipchuk added that over 87 were detained as some of them couldn`t produce proper ID documents and others had weapons, reported a news agency.
Just weeks before the crucial Sochi Games are to begin, Russia was stunned by two suicide attacks that killed a total of 33 people within a span of 48 hours, triggering a high alert in the country.
Under pressure for ensuring the security in wake of the Winter Olympics, Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the security to be stepped up, especially at all the railway stations and airports across the country.
Some of the most extensive security measures are in place for Sochi where the games are to begin on February 07.
The attacks that come just weeks before the crucial Winter Olympics at Sochi, which is scheduled in February, have posed a serious question mark on the security risks near the Games venue that is situated just 700 kms off the volatile North Caucasus region.
Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach wrote to Russia`s Putin expressing “confidence in the Russian authorities to deliver safe and secure Games in Sochi."
Condemning the bombings as "a despicable attack on innocent people”, he said, "The entire international movement joins me in utterly condemning this cowardly act".
“I am certain that everything will be done to ensure the security of the athletes and all the participants of the Olympic Games,” he added.
Russia urged the international community to co-operate in wake of the suicide attacks, and vowed to fight the terrorists.
"We will not back down and will continue our tough and consistent offensive" against terrorists, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
It added that the attack was planned keeping in mind the occasion of New Year to instil fear and chaos in Russians.
"This strike, which was cynically planned for the period of preparations for New Year`s celebrations, is one more attempt by terrorists to open a domestic front, sow panic and chaos, and trigger religious strife and conflicts in Russian society," said the statement.
In the wake of the attacks, the authorities in Volgograd have cancelled the mass New Year Eve events and directed the residents of the town not to set off fireworks.
Condemning the blasts, UK PM David Cameron wrote to Putin, saying that Britain will help Russia in all ways possible.
I'm shocked and saddened by the Volgograd attacks. I've written to President Putin to say the UK will help Russia in whatever way we can.
— David Cameron (@David_Cameron) December 30, 2013
A day after the attack on a railway station in Russia`s Volgograd that killed 18 people, another blast took place on a trolleybus in the same city on Monday, killing 15 people.
While the Sunday`s attack is said to have been carried out by a male suicide bomber, the attack on the trolleybus is being blamed on a male suicide bomber whose fragments have been collected and sent for the genetic testing to help in his identification.
The two attacks, thought to be the acts of terror, might be linked, said the country`s Investigated Committee, citing that the explosives used in both the blasts were identical.
Most of the terror attacks in Russia have been staged by the suicide bombers, mainly female suicide bombers called as the Black Widows (who generally attack to avenge the death of their husbands killed in the troubled North Caucasus region.
Before Volgograd attack, another suicide bombing in the southern Russian city of Pyatigorsk last week had killed three people.
Also in October, Volgograd had witnessed a bus suicide attack which had killed six people.
Even that attack was carried by a `Black Widow`, a female bomber who wanted to avenge the death of her husband.
The attacks are seen as the manifestation of the threat delivered by a Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov, who in July this year had condemned Russia for hosting Sochi Games, which he called as a “Satanic Dance”.
He had vowed to stop the Games from proceeding in Sochi, pledging attacks against civilian targets.
He instructed his followers “to use maximum force on the path of Allah to disrupt this Satanic dancing.”
"They plan to hold the Olympics on the bones of our ancestors, on the bones of many, many dead Muslims, buried on the territory of our land on the Black Sea," Umarov had said in a video.
Umarov is the leader of a Chechen separatist group Caucasus Emirate`, and the US State Department has announced a $5mn bounty for anyone informing about his whereabouts.
Though no one has so far claimed responsibility for Volgograd attacks, Umarow`s group had owned up the 2011 bombing of Domodedovo Airport in Moscow that killed 37 people.
