The stories you want. The opinions that matter.
No, thanks
Tag: sochi winter olympics

U.S. Calls For Closer Security Cooperation With Russia After Bombings

Washington (AFP) – The United States on Monday called for closer security cooperation with Russia ahead of the Sochi Winter Olympics, after two deadly bombings in the city of Volgograd.

“The U.S. government has offered our full support to the Russian government in security preparations for the Sochi Olympic Games, and we would welcome the opportunity for closer cooperation for the safety of the athletes, spectators, and other participants,” National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement.

At least 14 people were killed Monday when a suicide bomber blew himself up on a packed trolleybus in the city during the morning rush hour. On Sunday, another similar attack claimed 17 lives.

Hayden said that the United States “condemns the terrorist attacks that struck the Russian city of Volgograd and sends deepest condolences to the families of the victims with hopes for the rapid healing of those wounded.”

“The United States stands in solidarity with the Russian people against terrorism,” she said.

The attacks raised alarm about whether the ongoing anti-Kremlin insurgency in the Northern Caucasus could affect the Sochi Winter Games, which open on February 7.

Russia On Alert After Suicide Bombings Kill 31

Russia On Alert After Suicide Bombings Kill 31

Moscow (AFP) – At least 14 people were killed Monday when a suicide bomber blew himself up on a packed trolleybus in Volgograd, raising new concerns about security at the Sochi Olympics a day after a deadly attack on the southern Russian city’s train station.

President Vladimir Putin ordered stepped-up security across the country after the trolleybus bombing at the peak of the morning rush and Sunday’s suicide attack blamed on a suspected female suicide bomber which claimed 17 lives.

The attacks on Volgograd, which until this year had no record of recent unrest, raised alarm about whether the ongoing anti-Kremlin insurgency in the Northern Caucasus could affect the Sochi Winter Games which open on February 7.

The force of Monday’s blast destroyed the number 15A trolleybus, which was packed with early morning commuters and was turned into a tangle of wreckage with only its roof and front remaining.

Health ministry spokesman Oleg Salagai told Russian state television that 14 people were killed and 28 wounded.

Russian investigators have opened a criminal probe into a suspected act of terror as well as the illegal carrying of weapons, the Investigative Committee said.

“The explosives were detonated by a male suicide bomber, fragments of whose body have been found and taken for genetic analysis to establish his identity,” said spokesman Vladimir Markin.

He said four kilograms (nine pounds) of TNT equivalent had been used and noted that the explosives were identical to those used in Sunday’s train station bombing.

“This confirms the theory that the two attacks are linked. It is possible that they were prepared in the same place,” he added.

French President Francois Hollande spoke to Putin by telephone and both sides agreed to “intensify cooperation between special services in the fight against terrorism,” the Kremlin said. German Chancellor Angela Merkel also condemned the attacks.

Putin ordered security stepped up across Russia, with a special regime to be imposed in Volgograd, which lies 690 kilometres (425 miles) northeast of the Black Sea resort of Sochi, the national anti-terror committee announced.

Federal Security Service (FSB) chief Alexander Bortnikov flew to Volgograd and asked citizens to be understanding about the extra security that may involve spot checks.

“It is a necessary measure,” he said.

Russia is already preparing to impose a “limited access” security cordon around Sochi from January 7 which will check all traffic and ban all non-resident cars from a wide area around the city.

The head of the Russian Olympic Committee, Alexander Zhukov, said that there was no need for extra security measures in Sochi as “everything that is necessary has already been done,” ITAR-TASS reported.

The search for the perpetrators is expected to focus on Russia’s largely Muslim North Caucasus region where Islamist militants have for years been fighting the Russian security forces.

Doku Umarov, the leader of militants seeking to impose an Islamist state throughout Russia’s North Caucasus, has ordered rebels to target civilians outside the region and disrupt the Games.

“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.

Moscow city hall’s security chief Alexei Mayarov said precautions would be stepped up in the capital ahead of New Year, the biggest holiday of the year in Russia and traditionally marked by mass outdoor gatherings.

Reports said Russia’s second city of Saint Petersburg had already cancelled its planned New Year fireworks display.

Militant strikes have become part of daily life in the North Caucasus. But the Volgograd blasts will be a particular concern to the authorities as the bomber struck a city of more than one million people in the Russian heartland.

The city, known as Stalingrad in the Soviet era, is of huge importance to Russians as the scene of one of the key battles of World War II that led to the defeat of invading Nazi forces.

The city was already attacked on October 21 by a female suicide bomber with links to Islamists who killed six people on a crowded bus.

Russia’s double Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva, Volgograd’s best known current inhabitant, told ITAR-TASS she felt “terrible, simply terrible” after the attacks.

The blasts are the deadliest in Russia since a suicide bombing at Moscow’s Domodedovo airport killed 37 people in January 2011.

Investigators said the suspected female suicide bomber who caused Sunday’s bombing set off her charge after being stopped by a police officer at the metal detectors of the central entrance to the station.

Unconfirmed reports identified the bomber as a Dagestani woman named Oksana Aslanova, a so-called “Black Widow” who had been married to two Islamists killed in battles with federal forces. Other reports however said the bomber could have been male.

AFP Photo

Putin Masters The Polls

PutinOlympics

In Sochi Olympic Games, Shades Of 1936

In Sochi Olympic Games, Shades Of 1936

So who will be the Jesse Owens of the Sochi Winter Olympics?

Who will be the brave athlete who shines in rebuttal to Russia’s crackdown on anything determined to be “gay propaganda”?

Welcome to the new Cold War.

For Owens, the nemesis was Hitler’s ideology of racial superiority that placed Nordic “Aryans” at the pinnacle of humanity.

As a black man in segregated times, Owens identified with being targeted and subjected to second-class citizenship. But instead of boycotting the 1936 games, as he initially intended, Owens stepped up to prove that Hitler’s white dominance doctrine was a bunch of bull.

Owens won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympics; in the 100 and 200 meters, the 400-meter relay and the long jump. The Berlin games were a few years before the full horror of the Holocaust unfolded to the world, but Germany had already stripped Jewish citizens of rights and protections.

Keep that context in mind for how hate unchallenged can escalate.

For half a dozen years, Russia has been arching backwards, with regions of the country passing laws that target gays and lesbians, or those who merely speak of them favorably. Gay foreign couples are no longer allowed to adopt Russian children. The premise upholding much of this cultural shift is the nonsensical, anti-scientific belief that a person “chooses” to be gay.

A federal Russian law, passed in June, specifically outlaws “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations to minors” But otherwise the law is vague, giving a convenient and broad pretext to those inclined toward harassing gays.

Hoodlums already seem to have interpreted the law as cover to attack gays and lesbians. The U.S. State Department warns travelers to Russia: “Violence against the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community has increased sharply since the law was passed, including entrapment and torture of young gay men by neo-Nazi gangs and the murder of multiple individuals due to their sexual orientation.”

According to the Council for Global Equality, Russia has been ranked the least protective country in all of Europe for LGBT persons.

But with Sochi hosting a $50 billion extravaganza for the 2014 Winter Olympics, the stage is set for the world’s response.

So far, much of the pushback from the international community has been tepid, diplomatically framed.

President Barack Obama, in citing schedule conflicts, won’t attend the games. Neither will his wife, nor the vice president, nor any sitting cabinet member. Instead, openly gay athletes will be a part of the “diverse” U.S. delegation; tennis great Billie Jean King and Olympic medalists Caitlin Cahow and Brian Boitano.

That’s a start.

The presidents of France and Germany have also said they won’t attend. Although neither Joachim Gauck nor Francois Hollande have issued a clear reason why not.

At least Obama in August made his feelings clear, saying, “One of the things I’m really looking forward to is maybe some gay and lesbian athletes bringing home the gold or silver or bronze….”

The International Olympic Committee recently raised the stakes, issuing their rules for athletes, reiterating the apolitical tenure of the games. “No kind of demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda is permitted,” the rule said.

Rather, separate spaces, away from the competition and official events would be provided to accommodate free speech. A similar rule is what got John Carlos and Tommie Smith ejected from the 1968 Mexico City Olympics for their silent podium protest against black poverty and racism.

But we all remember that iconic imagery; with Carlos and Smith with gloved fists raised, heads bowed.

An athlete’s performance at an Olympics is the culmination of a lifetime dedicated to their sport. But as Owens later wrote in his memoirs, his moment in Berlin needed to signify not only his own physical journey, but that of many more unnamed people.

“In the early 1830s, my ancestors were brought on a boat across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa to America as slaves for men who felt they had a right to own other men. I boarded a boat to go back across the Atlantic Ocean to do battle with Adolf Hitler.”

It should be noted that Hitler also targeted homosexuals. It’s a sad reminder that for some people, the bullseye hasn’t shifted.

(Mary Sanchez is an opinion-page columnist for The Kansas City Star. Readers may write to her at: Kansas City Star, 1729 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, Mo. 64108-1413, or via email at msanchez@kcstar.com.)