Suicide bomber video warns of Olympics ‘present’
Print Edition
Two men said by Islamist militants to have carried out suicide attacks in south Russia appeared in a video donning explosive belts and warning Vladimir Putin to expect a “present” at the Sochi Winter Olympics from fighters following after them.
The video was posted by a group identifying itself as Vilayat Dagestan and appeared on a website that is often used by militants from Russia’s northern Caucasus region, where Moscow has been battling insurgency for over a decade.
The video said the two men, named only as Suleiman and Abdulrakhman and posing also with assault rifles in front of a banner with Arabic writing, were the suicide bombers who attacked the city of Volgograd last month, killing at least 34.
One reads a statement in Russian to the accompaniment of a song in Arabic. The video shows them having what appear to be explosive devices attached to them and one pushing a button that appears to be a trigger.
“We have prepared a ... present for you, for you (President Putin) and all those tourists who will come over,” the statement says.
“If you hold the Olympics you will receive a present from us. It will be for all the Muslim blood that is shed every day around the world, be it in Afghanistan, Somalia, Syria, all around the world. This will be our revenge.”
Putin has launched a huge security operation around Sochi that involves 37,000 security personnel and has tightened security nationwide. Carrying out an attack in Sochi could be exceptionally difficult, but some fear provincial cities, or even Moscow, are more vulnerable.
Vilayat Dagestan, which says it is affiliated to a faction in Iraq known as Ansar al-Sunna, is the first group to claim responsibility for the bombings of a train station and a trolleybus.
There was no immediate comment from the Russian authorities about the video, which lasts 49 minutes.
Dagestan is a mainly Muslim province at the heart of the insurgency to create an Islamist state in the North Caucasus.
Doku Umarov, a militant leader, urged insurgents last July to attack the Games in Sochi, which lies on the western edge of the Caucasus mountains.
Putin said in comments broadcast on Sunday that Russia had a “perfect understanding” of the security threat to the games, starting February 7, and how to combat it.
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