Are the Winter Olympics Safe?

The Facts

• 2 attacks in 2 days – December 30 2013• Volgograd• Main Railway Station - 18 people killed• Trolley during rush hour -16 people killed• Terrorism

Who is behind the attack?

- no group has yet stepped forward- the explosions could be the work of any - number of autonomous groups fighting in the North Caucasus region.

How did Russian authorities react?

• Russian President Vladimir Putin has maintained that the Sochi(so-chee) (city) games will be safe and security will be tight.

• security checks• vehicle license plates are monitored.

Obama & White House

• Condemns terror attacks• Offers to work closely with Russia to ensure

safety during games• Opportunity for closer ties with Russia

Why was Volgograd targeted?

• One reason could be because Volgograd is a major rail hub.

• travel through Volgograd to get to Sochi. • It's also the rail station you travel through to

get to and from the North Caucasus.• It's a region that comprises the Russian

republics of Chechnya, Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria and North Ossetia.

What is the source of the conflict?

• dates back many years • heavy toll on both sides• Chechens claim land in the Caucasus Mountains region for more

than 5,000 years• The standard of living in the republics is poor compared with

the rest of Russia. • Unemployment is rampant and infant mortality is high • Chechen population - 1 million - Sunni Muslims -distinctly

different cultural and linguistic identity from Russian Orthodox Christians.

• In 1991, Chechnya formally announced its fight for independence, saying it never joined Russia voluntarily.

Past Attacks• Chechen fighters held 700 movie-goers hostage in a Moscow

theater in 2002. A Russian effort to free them resulted in the deaths of 120 hostages.

• Chechen rebels were also accused of downing two Russian airplanes in 2004. And they took over a school in Beslan in the North Ossetia region in 2004. When the siege ended, more than 330 people had died, half of them children.

• Just as Putin proclaimed that his policies were succeeding in Chechnya, the pro-Moscow president of the region and 20 others were killed by a bomb that went off under a stadium grandstand in 2004.

• But by 2009, Russia had quashed the rebel movement to the point that it officially declared the war over.

• http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/29/asia/gallery/russia-train-station-bomb/index.html?iid=article_sidebar

• pictures

• http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/30/world/europe/russia-terrorist-attacks-explainer/index.html?iid=article_sidebar

• Video• 3 additional videos on the side