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RUSSIA HAS BEEFED up security and begun mourning its dead as the toll from jarring successive-day suicide strikes in the run-up to the Sochi Winter Olympic Games rose to 33.
The southern city of Volgograd planned to bury the first victims of Sunday’s bombing of the heartland hub’s main railway station that killed 18 people and which officials have provisionally blamed on a young woman from the restive North Caucasus region of Dagestan.
A second suicide attack on a trolleybus packed with students on Monday that investigators pinned on a male assailant has now claimed 15 lives.
The blasts are Russia’s deadliest since a suicide bombing at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport that was claimed by Islamic insurgents from the North Caucasus killed 37 people in January 2011.
The latests blasts have laid bare the unchecked threat posed by guerrillas who have vowed to target civilians in a bid to undermine President Vladimir Putin as he welcomes world guests to Sochi for the Game’s opening ceremony on February 7.
(Video: RT/YouTube)
Putin has not spoken publicly about the tragedies but is expected to address the nation during a midnight New Year address that will be watched closely for signs of how he intends to act next.
The powerful Russian leader issued a string of directives on Monday ordering security stepped up at public transit points across the nation and extra police deployed on the streets of Volgograd.
The city of one million — known as Stalingrad in the Soviet era and which is 690 kilometres northeast of Sochi — saw more than 5,000 law enforcement agents check traffic and inspect public transport on Tuesday morning.
“The operational headquarters of the Volgograd region has decided to call up extra reserves and enrol the maximum number of police and interior ministry soldiers possible,” Interfax quoted regional security spokesman Andrei Pilipchuk as saying.
Women cry as they lay flowers outside the main railway station in Volgograd (AP Photo/Denis Tyrin)
The nation’s main Channel 1 television station led the news with images of helmeted soldiers with automatic rifles bursting into a Volgograd cafe and checking documents of dark-haired men who looked like they may have come from the mostly-Muslim North Caucasus.
Pilipchuk told the station that officers had arrested 87 people “who resisted police or did not have (their identity) documents”.
Russia is already preparing to impose a “limited access” security cordon around Sochi from January 7 that will check all traffic and ban all non-resident cars from a wide area around the city.
Two bombings ‘linked’
Russian investigators have opened a criminal probe into a suspected act of terror as well as the illegal carrying of weapons.
The chief spokesman for the Investigative Committee — Russia’s equivalent to the US FBI — said the signature of the two bombings suggest that they were plotted by the same group.
(AP Photo/Denis Tyrin)
The identical makeup of the explosives “confirms the theory that the two attacks are linked. It is possible that they were prepared in the same place,” Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Marking said.
No one has claimed responsiblity for either attack.
But North Caucasus guerrilla chief Doku Umarov vowed in July that his fighters would use “any means possible” to keep Putin from staging the Sochi Games.
The feared fighter — pronounced dead by Russia on repeated occasions — is seeking to carve out an Islamist republic across the North Caucasus and has claimed the region around Sochi as part of his self-proclaimed ancestral land.
“This looks like the North Caucasus underground. They promised to stage acts in big Russian cities ahead of the Olympics. It seems they are fulfilling their promise,” military affairs commentator Pavel Felgenhauer told AFP.
Outpouring of global support
The head of the International Olympic Committee said he was confident that security would be all-encompassing in Sochi and gave no indication that the Games’ staging was in doubt.
“The Olympic Games are about bringing people from all backgrounds and beliefs together to overcome our differences in a peaceful way,” Thomas Bach said.
(AP Photo/Denis Tyrin)
The United States meanwhile offered to assist policing Sochi and called for closer security cooperation that had been recently lacking as relations between powers plumbed post-Cold War lows.
US National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said Washington “would welcome the opportunity for closer cooperation for the safety of the athletes, spectators, and other participants”.
UN leader Ban Ki-moon and the UN Security Council both pronounced themselves “outraged”.
Putin assured Ban in a telephone conversation “that Russia would work within the bounds of international law to bring the perpetrators to justice”, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel also condemned the attacks while EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she was “shocked”.
“I hope that those behind these crimes will be brought to justice,” Ashton said in a statement.
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He meant to say he fully expects to see Ireland OUT of the Euro 2024 qualifying campaign
Brian kerr destroyed him last night and he was right other managers with better results got left go quicker. 4 competitive wins across 3 campaigns is dreadful and wouldn’t get you out of one campaign let alone 3. Better to leave him go, use the summer to find his replacement and then give them the remaining games to bed in and find a style of play and start fresh for the world cup qualifying campaign. If Kenny stays then the next two years are a write off as it’s more of the same. If he goes at least we will feel like we are building towards something.
@Paddy Up: Not his fault he does not have the players Paddy,
@Mac Dara Powell: we’ll never know unless the manager changes. Lad has only delivered at League of Ireland level, so am unsurprised he’s struggling at this….
@Mac Dara Powell: He will have fewer going forward as 2nd and 3rd generation players will opt for country of birth if the FAI doesn’t appoint A Top Class Manager who will earn the respect the players
Wake up FAI
Why is Kenny not getting the criticism from the Dublin Media that is warranted
@Joe Tone: Because he’s not from Cork or anywhere else outside the pale, you should know that by now.
@Joe Tone: maybe because it’s futile ….what’s to be gained by ramping up critism , stirring the crowd to call for his head , sack the manager , bring in …….., Rinse and repeat …this might surprise you but there’s plenty of critism doing the rounds , but there’s also just a tiny piece of more intelligent analysis in some quarters , the reality of this teams level , the attempt to being through new blood , nobody is saying results are what we would like , but constantly calling for sacking Ireland managers is shallow populist nonsense , let’s get pitch forks that should do the trick !
“If we had won against Greece everything would be great ”
If my grandmother had wheels she would have been a bike .
He needs to go .
@Fergus Jones: yes gino,this is true
The show is over,simply not good enough
Starting to feel a bit sorry for him, seems like an honest bloke.
And lets be honest, when he goes, I doubt there will be a rush of high level clubs after him. It will be back to League of Ireland, earning about a fifth of what he is on now.
They are out at this early stage but let’s call a spade a spade. But Stephen still has a wage to draw from the FAI (tax payers money) and just like the politicians are good at lining their pockets
Brian kerr was shafted as ireland manager, barely missed out in qualifying, kenny making a jokestop of ireland results in last 3yrs but wont be sacked as fai cant afford it, delaney has a lot to ask for
@burrito girl: Not qualifying with the talent he had at his disposal was criminal.
He’s Shïté
“Stephen Kenny – I fully expect to see out all of Euro 2024 qualifying campaign”.
On his salary, of course that is what he would like. But that performance against Greece seemed to be tactically inept.
A lack of competence is surely grounds for ending a contract!
@Nestor: Whether he sees out the campaign or not he still gets the full contract amount.
We’ve no midfield ,only for the Keeper we’d have been hit for 5 ,not a Kenny fan but the team are poor at best
Show me the money
He is starting to sound a bit like Mehole now. Totally delusional.
Am I wrong but did I hear our manager say we still have a good chance of finishing 2nd in our group. Is he delusional or just stupid. What is he watching. The players are poor over all. We all can see that. But sat night was a total disgrace. There was nothing there in the whole 90 min. Kenny was not watching the same game I was. We play Gibraltar. And we are all excited we could beat them. Our schoolboy team would give them a game. 200 places below us. France only beat them 3 nil. I wonder. Glad Stephen thinks he is staying till end of euros. Does it make any difference really. Shambolic all of it. .
A contract is a contract let’s give Kenny and the team, Honesty at least
Even Somalia wouldn’t sign him as second manager.
I expect to win the euro millions, any day now and maybe Vera could do the job?
Fitting celebrities into systems is the challenge for modern, elite managers. The attitude of players, in turn, seems to have changed. It’s hard to quantify, of course, but when Darragh Lenihan, on joining Middlesbrough in 2022, spoke less of hoping to win the league or the Champions League than the Ballon d’Or, it felt like a key moment. Players now ask at least as much what a club can do for them as what they can do for the club –
Kenny to run fr FF in the next GE , his got all the right qualities
Do people think we should be beating Greece away from home? This is the worst crop of players we’ve ever had. We could get someone in to make us play hoofball, hardly ever qualify, and if we do be the laughing stock of Europe again I suppose.
Fair play to him for getting the job as the Irish Coach, mega leap from League of Ireland coaching, but Internationals are a Totally different level. It’s a doomsday scenario for both Kenny and the Team.
All the boo boys can cry all they like, but fact is you could bring in Pep and we would still be terrible, put simply we just don’t have good players, due to lack of investment from both the FAI and government, we are about 20 years behind everyone else.
I might be mad, but see if Big Sam wants the poisoned chalice. We need a manager that knows how to fight their way through a game. Even see if Graham Potter would be up for it.
@Rafa C: I agree. I’ve mentioned Big Sam before and got lambasted for it. I think he’d be a great fit and he’s managed here before so would have some affinity with the place.
Oh no ya won’t !
“We nearly scored” just after each of Greece’s goals? What game was he watching?
I don’t buy into this vicious criticism of Kenny. Dundalk proved that Kenny has motivational skills but he can’t play the match for his players and as usual the players walk away free of all blame. Silly mistakes, lack of concentration, passing, closing down etc etc etc.In general, there is no leadership on the pitch. We can get rid of a manager but what about the prima donnas. Journalists talk about bad performances but run clear of criticism of so called professional players. Club wise, they are good players but most of them have dubious pride in the Irish Jersey. Are Journalists incapable of proper analysis? We can all see the tactics but it’s all about how they are carried out. Kenny does have a system but players don’t play for each other, unlike Jack’s teams or ‘minnows’ like Luxembourg, and they suffer no accountability, like Dave O’Leary or Liam Brady. Maybe if that means replacing some players with LoI players, so be it but leave Kenny to sort it out, We will never be world beaters but we still can perform like Jack’s teams, if the pride comes back.
Nothing wrong with the manager. What we need are players who care more about winning than whether their hair looks good. Ideally you need players who know what to do with the ball when they get it, and players who try to score. Sadly we don’t have any of these. What we have are players who run from the ball and even hide from it or look the other way incase someone passes it to them. It’s not the Managers fault that the players don’t give a s***.
I fully expect to see a blue moon sometime soon.
is he still here
Disappointing coverage by The Journal on these matches. Comon Ireland
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