Winter GamesRussia’s most wanted terrorist eyes Olympic Games as target

chechen leader Doku Umarov // Source: presstv.ir

The Russian authorities are on high alert following the recent attacks in Volgograd. With the Winter Olympics in Sochi opening on 7 February, there are serious concerns that spectators and athletes will be targets of future attacks.

DW reports that Russia’s most wanted terrorist, Doku Umarov, recently declared that he is prepared to use “maximum force” to prevent the Olympics from occurring. In a July 2013 video message, Umarov called on his followers to use “any methods allowed by the almighty Allah” to sabotage the games.

Umarov’s call to violence is taken seriously by his followers — and by Russian law enforcement.

“When Umarov gives an order, as he did one and a half years ago, not to attack civilian targets, then most of the terror cells follow his lead,” Gerhard Mangott, a political science professor at the University of Innsbruck, told Deutsche Welle. “So when he says, as he did a couple of months ago, that the Olympics are being held ‘on the bones of our ancestors,’ as he put it, and therefore civilian targets should again be attacked, then that is something terror cells will comply with,” Mangott explained.

Umarov was born in the southern Chechen village of Kharshenoi. He earned an engineering degree from state-run Grozny Oil Institute. Once a fighter against Russia in the first Chechen war in 1994, Umarov rose to become a rebel leader in 2006.

“Back then, he was basically still a Chechen nationalist aiming for Chechnya’s independence, but within a very short time span of one and a half years, Umarov went through a radical transformation and became an Islamist fighter who was not only interested in Chechnya, but who wanted to separate all of the Muslim North Caucasus from Russia to establish a new Caucasus emirate,” Mangott said.

In 2007, Umarov declared himself “Emir of the new Caucasus Emirate” and has since led the Islamist resistance in the Caucuses.

Umarov and his militants carried out numerous attacks from 2009 to 2011, including bombing Moscow’s Domodedovo airport, two subway stations, and a Russian passenger train. Although no group has claimed responsibility for the recent attacks in Volgograd, “judging by the type of terror attacks and by the explosives used, it’s safe to say that they were the act of Umarov-inspired Islamists,” said Mangott.

There is no proof that the acts were under direct orders from Umarov, but the international attention to the Olympic Games will give Umarov maximum exposure should he launch an attack.