Train Station Bombing 'Embarrassing' For Putin
Updated: 3:19pm UK, Sunday 29 December 2013
By Lisa Holland, Foreign Affairs Correspondent
Russia is desperate to show itself as a world power and world powers seek to cover themselves in glory by staging successful, glamorous and above all secure international events.
But the Volgograd station bombing shows Russia as a country not in control of its own territory and that is acutely embarrassing for President Vladimir Putin.
It should be 'show time' in Russia next year.
The Winter Olympics are due to be held in the Russian Black sea resort of Sochi from the beginning of February and President Vladimir Putin wants it to be an event which showcases Russia.
The reality is a security nightmare and warlords such as the Chechen Doku Umarov - known as 'Russia's Bin Laden' - are threatening to wreck the party.
He has already called for new attacks against civilians and has pledged to 'endeavour to destroy the Olympic Games'.
He claimed responsibility for the metro and airport bombings in Moscow in 2010 and 2011 in which dozens were killed.
Mr Putin is unleashing a massive security operation to tackle Islamist militants. Suicide bombings and other attacks linked to Islamic rebels in the north Caucasus have rocked Russia for years.
The government has deployed tens of thousands of soldiers, police and other security personnel to protect the Olympics. It is Mr Putin's pet project. He has promised it will be the 'safest Olympics in history'.
He has even pushed through new laws which threaten to punish the relatives of those who turn themselves into suicide bombers.
One of the hallmarks of high-profile bomb blasts in recent years linked to the North Caucasus is the use of female suicide bombers.
The 2010 metro attack, a bus bombing in Volgograd in October which killed 39 and this latest train station bombing all involved female suicide bombers.
Russia is very familiar with the use of so-called 'black widows' - often the widows or sisters of fighters from the North Caucasus killed by Russian security.
The new law is aimed at deterring them from joining the 'jihad' for fear of retribution for their surviving relatives.
Mr Putin has plans for a massive security zone around Sochi - stretching for 60 miles along the Black Sea coast and 30 miles inland.
Russian forces will patrol the mountains towering over the resort and use drones to keep constant watch over the Olympic facilities.
Cars from outside the security zone will be banned for a month before and after the games and there will be extensive security checks for visitors.
In another attempt to avoid controversy hanging over the event, President Putin recently staged an amnesty of political prisoners.
He does not want campaign groups using the event as a platform to air their human rights grievances.
High-profile prisoners such as two members of the feminist Russian punk band Pussy Riot were freed, along with the so-called 'Arctic 30' which included 28 activists and two journalists caught up in a protest to scale a Russian oil platform in the arctic sea.
He also freed jailed former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky after 10 years in prison.
Though the amnesty has failed to silence critics who say thousands more remain in jail.
Mr Putin is doing all he can to prevent anyone raining on his Olympic parade.
:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.
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