By Jaime Ortega.
Although the Russian authorities have tightened security in the south , yesterday’s attack does not surprise anyone . The Chechen Islamist leader Doku Umarov , who since 2007 raises the struggle to create a ‘ Caucasus Emirate ‘ and impose Islamic law , or sharia , called this summer to take the “war” to the center of Russia and derail at all costs the Kremlin Olympic bid .
Volgograd , which is also one of the cities that will host the matches of the World Cup to be held in Russia in 2018, is just 700 kilometers from Sochi. It’s considered a ‘Jewel resort’ in Russia where the first Olympics started before the fall of the USSR.
Last October another ‘ black widow ‘ Asiyalova – Naida , also from Dagestan and just 30 -years was blown up in a bus on the outskirts of Volgograd. Six people died and 37 were injured. Only three days ago, a car bomb exploded in Pyatigorsk, 250 kilometers from Sochi, killing three people . And a man was arrested in November with an explosives belt in the Stavropol. But yesterday’s attack is the deadliest since 36 people were killed in 2011 in a bombing at Moscow Domodedovo airport .
The explosion took place at around 12.45 local time, someone called the police to go through the metal detector installed at the entrance on the station. ” Sounded the alarm detector . A policeman started to review it personally . At that time, the bomb exploded ,” a police spokesman told Interfax.
Research Sources attributed all day yesterday to find the perpetrating woman whose head was found and sent for DNA analysis . Researchers believe that this is Oksana Aslanova . But then, other sources said that the person who sparked the suspicions of the agents was a man, apparently accompanied a girl .
More people than usual
The bomb exploded before crossing the hall of the building, said Vladimir Markin , spokesman for the Investigation Committee . This saved many lives. At that hour , the train station in Volgograd was filled by dozens of people huddled next to the baggage control, as witnesses said in Russian television Rossija -24.
“Because of the New Year holidays were many more people than usual and carrying more luggage than usual ,” said the owner of a nearby kiosk, Irina Kirilova , who suffered no injury. Fifty people were treated by doctors and 27 remained hospitalized last night with serious injuries.
The terrorist leader Umarov accuses President Vladimir Putin to promote a “bloody occupation policy ” in the North Caucasus. He denounced the Kremlin , international terrorist groups like Al Qaeda involved in financing the Islamists . Experts and analyst Mark Galeotti say today ” the Caucasus Emirate is a fiction ” and that Umarov is not centralized to control any commands . But reproduces the model of Al Qaeda and incites his posts to autonomous groups, gradually expanding its range northward.
Defenseless cities after fortifying Sochi
The National Anti-Terrorist Committee said the International Olympic Committee repeatedly assured that athletes and guests will not run any danger. But the fortification Sochi inevitably leaves more defenseless cities such as Volgograd. Yesterday’s attack can force the Kremlin to rethink some lines of his strategy, as terrorists have shown that the threat to nearby cities is troubling. Moscow fears that radical advantage will increase their influence in regions of strong Muslim presence nestled within the Russian Federation and Tatarstan. In the capital, the city of Kazan, many moderate clerics have been injured or killed.
And the local Islamic branch, Hanafi , is constantly challenged by the Salafists , coming from the Caucasus through immigration and, according to sources have alleged Russian secret services , with funding of geopolitical rivals like Saudi Arabia. The Salafists, who have just institutional infrastructure within Russia , have proved very adept at regional nationalists to ally with Tatars against the common enemy : the Kremlin. They have also infiltrated mosques in cities such as Orenburg, south of the country to capitalize on the discontent of many young Russians. The U.S. exit from Afghanistan is another headache for the Kremlin, since destabilization in the region can flourish on its borders jihad republics like Tajikistan.
