'Suicide bomber' hits Russia's Volgograd train station

**vector7** · December 29th, 2013, 20:02

'Suicide bomber' hits Russia's Volgograd train station

Footage from a CCTV camera showed the moment of the blast

A suicide attack on a train station in Russia's southern city of Volgograd has killed 16 people, officials say.

There are contradictory reports over the gender of the bomber, amid official claims it was a woman.

A suspected female suicide bomber killed at least six people when she attacked a bus in the city in October.

Moscow is concerned militant groups could be ramping up violence in the run up to the the 2014 winter Olympic Games in the city of Sochi in six weeks.

Orange flash

image of Daniel Sandford Daniel Sandford BBC News, Moscow

In June, Doku Umarov, one of the leaders of the Islamist insurgency in the Russian Caucasus republics, called on his supporters to use "maximum force" to disrupt the "satanic" winter Olympics in Sochi.

It is too early to say whether the attack in Volgograd was by one of his supporters.

But it shows that - despite the metal detectors at railway stations, airports and shopping centres in Russia - bombers are still able to kill and wreak havoc.

It also shows that the attacks will not have to be on Sochi itself to attract attention.

Sunday's explosion rocked Volgograd-1 station at around 12:45 (08:45 GMT) at a time when millions of Russians are travelling to celebrate the New Year.

A nearby security camera facing the station caught the moment of the blast, showing a bright orange flash behind the station's main doors.

The explosion shattered windows and sent debris and plumes of smoke from the station entrance.

Motionless bodies were laid out in the station forecourt while ambulances rushed those hurt to hospital. About 40 people are said to have been injured, including a nine-year-old girl whose mother was killed in the attack.

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered law enforcement agencies to take "all necessary security measures" in the bomb's aftermath, said a Kremlin spokesman.

He ordered the most gravely injured victims to be flown to Moscow for treatment.

Security would be stepped up at train stations and airports, said a federal police spokesman.

Russia map

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the blast, but a spokesman for Russia's Investigative Committee, Vladimir Markin, said the incident was being treated as an act of terrorism.

An Islamist insurgency in the North Caucasus region has led to many attacks there in recent years. Insurgents have also attacked big Russian towns.

Volgograd lies about 900km (560 miles) south of Moscow, 650km north of the North Caucasus and 700km north-east of Sochi.

'Head found'

The bomb used in the attack contained 10 kg (22 pounds) of TNT, was rigged with shrapnel and was detonated near the metal detectors at the station entrance, Mr Markin said.

Rescue workers outside bomb-hit Volgograd-1 train station, Russia, 29 December 2013 The blast blew out many windows and sent debris down the station steps

Volgograd-1 railway station, 29 December 2013 Formerly known as Stalingrad, Volgograd has a million residents and is described as a gateway to Russia

"According to our information, the explosion was carried out by a female suicide bomber who approached a metal detector, saw a policeman there, got nervous and detonated the bomb stuffed with pieces of shrapnel," said Mr Markin.

He said the security presence had prevented a much higher death toll at the station, which was packed at the time of the blast as several trains were delayed.

Recent attacks inside Russia

29 December 2013: Suspected female suicide bomber kills at least 14 in attack at Volgograd-1 train station
27 December 2013: Car bomb kills three in the southern city of Pyatigorsk
21 October 2013: Suspected female suicide bomber kills six in attack on bus in Volgograd

RIA Novosti news agency said security sources were naming the attacker as Oksana Aslanova. She has reportedly been married twice to militants and is also suspected of being a friend of Naida Asiyalova, the suicide bomber who targeted the Volgograd bus in October.

However, the Interfax news agency later quoted an unidentified security source as saying "it has been established that the suicide terrorist was a man who had brought explosives to the station in a rucksack.

"His identity has been established," the source said, though he did not give details.

The agency said the suspect's head had been found at the site.

In July, Chechen insurgent leader Doku Umarov posted an online video urging militants to use "maximum force" to prevent the Games from going ahead.

On Friday, a car bomb killed three people in the southern Russian city of Pyatigorsk.

**vector7** · December 29th, 2013, 20:03

Putin orders security measures after Russian train station blast

Published: 12.29.13, 14:36 / Israel News

President Vladimir Putin ordered law enforcement agencies Russian to take all necessary measures to ensure security after a suicide bomber killed at least 13 people at train station in the city of Volgograd, RIA cited Putin's spokesman as saying.

A federal police spokesman, Vladimir Kolesnikov, said security would be stepped up at train stations and airports following the blast, the second deadly bombing in Volgograd in just over two months. (Reuters)

**American Patriot** · December 30th, 2013, 14:30

Two in a week.

Putin says he's "Personally taking charge of security measures" in Russia for the Olympics.

God, what a MAN!

LMAO!

**vector7** · December 31st, 2013, 06:01

Meanwhile Obama says Jihad suicide bombers are just some "folks who want to cause mischief"...

Companion Threads:

Obama Admin Calls Jihadists Who Attacked Russia “Folks Who Want To Cause Mischief”…

Then again, this is the same administration that calls terror attacks “man-caused disasters.”

Via PJ Media:The Obama administration offered to work on Sochi Olympics security issues with Russia after a pair of bombings in Volgograd killed at least 31 people.

President Vladimir Putin gave instructions to the National Anti-Terrorism Committee “to step up security measures across all of Russia and specifically in Volgograd region,” the Kremlin said Monday. “The president will receive daily reports from the NAC on the measures being taken along with regular situation reports.” [...]

Over at the State Department, spokeswoman Marie Harf acknowledged the security issues highlighted by the bombings but still strove to argue that Sochi, 600 miles southwest of Volgograd but a hundred miles closer to Chechnya, is likely safe enough for the Olympic Games in six weeks.

“In terms of security for Sochi, U.S. citizens planning to attend should remain alert regarding their personal security at all times. I think our security experts have said that criminal activity in Sochi is similar to other cities of comparable size.

Obviously, major events such as the Olympic games are an opportunity for thieves or for other folks who want to cause mischief,” Harf said.

**vector7** · December 31st, 2013, 23:00

Vladimir Putin vows 'total annihilation' of terrorists after Volgograd bombings

Russian president vows relentless pursuit of those behind suicide attacks as city begins to bury its dead

By Roland Oliphant, Volgograd

3:15PM GMT 31 Dec 2013

Vladimir Putin has vowed to pursue terrorists to their “total annihilation”, in his first public comments since the Volgograd suicide bombings.

In his traditional New Year's Eve address, which was broadcast at midnight from the Far Eastern city of Khabarovsk, (5pm in Moscow), he praised Russia’s unity in the face of both terrorism and natural disasters and promised to continue an unrelenting fight against the bombers.

“In the past year we have faced problems and serious challenges including the inhuman terror attacks in Volgograd and unprecedented disasters in the Far East,” he said.

“Dear friends, we bow our heads in memory of the victims of these terrible attacks. We will strongly and decisively continue the battle against terrorists until their total annihilation,” he said.

Mr Putin earlier provoked a storm of condemnation on the Russian internet on Sunday after the message broadcast an hour earlier in Kamchatka, Russia’s most easterly timezone, made no mention of the attacks.

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Mr Putin’s spokesman blamed a “technical glitch” that saw a pre-recorded speech being broadcast at midnight in Kamchatka and Russia’s far eastern islands (4pm in Moscow).

The second speech was quickly recorded at a reception for victims of devastating floods that struck Khabarovsk and other Far Eastern cities earlier this year.

His comments after Volgograd began to bury its dead and the death toll from the two suicide blasts continued to rise.
Two more victims of Monday’s bus bombing and one victim of Sunday’s suicide attack in the city’s main railway station died overnight, Russian authorities said on Tuesday, bringing the total number of fatalities from the attacks to 34. More than 100 people have been injured.

Russia looked for answers as fears of further attacks prompted alerts at other transport hubs. Police briefly evacuated a bus station in Krasnodar, 350 miles south east of Volgograd, after a suspicious package was found there. The station was reopened after a bomb squad search of the building showed up no threat.

Some Volgograd commuters travelling to work on Monday morning continued to use public transport, though the buses were conspicuously sparsely seated at rush hour.

“I’m not afraid of anything. We cannot give in,” said Valentina Mikhailovna, 83, a pensioner at a bus-stop in the city centre.

The city has called off traditional New Year's celebrations and declared a period of mourning until January 3.

Traditional New Year's celebrations were likely to go ahead under tightened security elsewhere in the country, however.

“At the moment everything is going to plan,” Moscow’s regional security chief told Interfax, when asked about Tuesday night’s celebrations. “Concrete measures have been taken to tighten security in the capital, in both the transportation departments and emergency services.”

Vladimir Putin, who traditionally addresses the nation on television at midnight on New Year's Eve, is expected to spend the evening at home.

Russian authorities have been scrambling to make sense of a series of attacks that their intelligence services failed to predict.

The Investigative Committee, Russia’s equivalent of the FBI, said Monday’s bombing was the work of a man whose remains were being tested in an attempt to establish his identity. Meanwhile, reports in the Russian press, not officially confirmed, named the man behind Sunday’s railway station blast as Pavel Pechenkin, who lived in the republic of Mari El, 400 miles east of Moscow and converted to Islam last year. Pechenkin’s father, Nikolai, has already given a DNA sample to aid identification, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper reported.

Pechenkin, a former paramedic, was reported to have adopted the Muslim name Ansar Ar-Rusi in the spring of 2012 and to have left home soon afterwards. He told his parents he was going to stay with his younger brother in Moscow, but they later learnt he had gone to Dagestan, the restive North Caucasus republic at the heart of an Islamist insurgency.

Mari El, which previously has not been connected with the insurgency 1,000 miles away, has a population of 700,000, of whom just six per cent are Muslims.

Russian media had initially reported that the station bomber was a 26-year-old woman who had twice been married to insurgent fighters, each in turn killed by special forces. But later the Investigative Committee said that the suspect was a male of “Slavic” appearance who carried explosives in a rucksack. Mr Putin summoned the heads of both the interior ministry and the FSB, the domestic security service that succeeded the KGB, to the Kremlin before sending Alexander Bortnikov, the FSB chief, to Volgograd to take control of the investigation.

Mr Putin on Monday ordered security to be tightened across Russia and later met Dmitry Medvedev, the prime minister, to discuss “all questions connected with providing medical help, financial assistance and other forms of support for the injured and families of those killed in the terror attacks in Volgograd”. David Cameron offered British support to bring to justice the perpetrators of what he called the “disgusting crime” as he wrote to Mr Putin extending his condolences and promising help to prevent further attacks.

The British Olympic Association’s chairman, Lord Coe, said the bombings were “an unspeakable act of barbarity” but said he was satisfied that security at the Winter Olympics – due to begin in the Russian resort of Sochi, 400 miles from Volgograd, in February – would be “good”. Asked whether the GB team could be kept away, he said: “Sport has, in the past, transcended all sorts of difficulties. That is not to minimise what we have witnessed in the last 24 hours but … at this moment the teams are preparing and I fully expect to take teams to the Winter Games.”

The US also offered its “full support” and called for “closer co-operation for the safety of the athletes, spectators, and other participants” in the Olympics.

The series of attacks is grimly reminiscent of the build-up to terrorist “spectaculars” in the mid-2000s, including the Beslan School siege, in which more than 300 people died, 180 of them children.

Then suicide bombers had blown up two airliners in mid-air a week before they seized the school on Sept 1, 2004, in what security experts now describe as an attempt to divert the security services’ attention ahead of the main attack.