Russia says terrorist attacks foiled in Sochi
May 11, 2012, Friday
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RUSSIA said yesterday its security service had foiled an attempt by Caucasus militants assisted by Georgia to attack the Black Sea city of Sochi when it hosts the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
The Anti-Terror Committee (NAK) alleged the plot was masterminded by Doku Umarov with assistance from the Georgia special services.
It said Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) agents last week uncovered a cache of shoulder-launched missiles, explosives and grenade launchers in a plot that was based in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia.
Security officers from Russia and Abkhazia arrested three militants who are suspected of plotting attacks on Sochi, the committee said.
"Russia's FSB could establish that militants were planning to move these weapons to Sochi during 2012-2014 to use for terror acts during planning and hosting the Olympic Games," said the statement, quoted by Russian news agencies.
NAK said the operation was coordinated by Umarov, the leader of the Islamist group Caucasus Emirate.
Security officers in February arrested a "militant courier" with 300 detonators who brought them from Georgia to Abkhazia, it said.
The smuggling was carried out with participation of "Georgian security services and associated representatives of illegal armed groups in Turkey," the statement said.
The Abkhazia security service identified one of the arrested men as the leader of Abkhazia's branch of Caucasus Emirate, named as Rustan Gitsba. He and the stashed weapons were found in Abkhazia's Gudauta region, about 50 kilometers from the Russian border.
Sochi, a southern resort city on the Black Sea, lies just over a mountain range from the country's militant hotspots in the North Caucasus.
President Vladimir Putin personally lobbied to host the Olympic Games in Russia, making an emotional speech in Guatemala to sway the International Olympic Committee jury in 2007.
He underscored the importance of the event this week by making the IOC chief Jacques Rogge the first person he met in his third term as president, several hours after he was sworn in on Monday.
Sochi lies just to the north of Abkhazia, which broke away from Georgia in a civil war after the collapse of the Soviet Union but whose independence is now recognized only by Russia and a handful of other states.
The Anti-Terror Committee (NAK) alleged the plot was masterminded by Doku Umarov with assistance from the Georgia special services.
It said Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) agents last week uncovered a cache of shoulder-launched missiles, explosives and grenade launchers in a plot that was based in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia.
Security officers from Russia and Abkhazia arrested three militants who are suspected of plotting attacks on Sochi, the committee said.
"Russia's FSB could establish that militants were planning to move these weapons to Sochi during 2012-2014 to use for terror acts during planning and hosting the Olympic Games," said the statement, quoted by Russian news agencies.
NAK said the operation was coordinated by Umarov, the leader of the Islamist group Caucasus Emirate.
Security officers in February arrested a "militant courier" with 300 detonators who brought them from Georgia to Abkhazia, it said.
The smuggling was carried out with participation of "Georgian security services and associated representatives of illegal armed groups in Turkey," the statement said.
The Abkhazia security service identified one of the arrested men as the leader of Abkhazia's branch of Caucasus Emirate, named as Rustan Gitsba. He and the stashed weapons were found in Abkhazia's Gudauta region, about 50 kilometers from the Russian border.
Sochi, a southern resort city on the Black Sea, lies just over a mountain range from the country's militant hotspots in the North Caucasus.
President Vladimir Putin personally lobbied to host the Olympic Games in Russia, making an emotional speech in Guatemala to sway the International Olympic Committee jury in 2007.
He underscored the importance of the event this week by making the IOC chief Jacques Rogge the first person he met in his third term as president, several hours after he was sworn in on Monday.
Sochi lies just to the north of Abkhazia, which broke away from Georgia in a civil war after the collapse of the Soviet Union but whose independence is now recognized only by Russia and a handful of other states.
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