From the 7th to the 23rd of February, 2014, in Sochi (Russian Federation) will be held XXII Winter Olympic Games. Russia attaches great importance to this event. Because, apart from exciting sports, according to the organizers, it must demonstrate a high level of development of the Russian state, in particular, its capability to ensure the security of its territory located in close proximity to the North Caucasian regions of terrorist activity. Ultimately, the success of the Olympic Games will have a positive impact on the prestige of Russia, and, of course, on the authority of President Vladimir Putin as the leader of the nation. This, of course, is understood both, in Russia itself, and beyond.
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The level of security at the Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014 is not comparable to the similar level during the Boston event, the Minister of Internal Affairs Vladimir Kolokoltsev informs http://oficery.ru/ |
By the way, does this not explain the fact that the Sochi Winter Olympics has already set its first world record in the ... expensiveness of preparations of the site for holding it, surpassing in this matter even the most expensive Olympic Games in Beijing? According to official data of the Russian government, the preparation for this Olympiad is estimated at 1.5 trillion rubles (about 50 billion U.S. dollars). Initial estimates of sports facilities getting more expensive are being explained by their impressive scale, the need for a complete reconstruction, difficult topography and climate conditions of the area, inflation.
For ensuring the safety of guests, fans and participants of the Olympiad, are directly responsible Russian Security Forces. For them, this is one of the priorities and challenges. First of all, because of the geographic and demographic aspects of the event, but also because of its close proximity to the action zone of the North Caucasian Islamist-terrorist underground.
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The leader of the “Caucasus Emirate” Doku Umarov spoke about the need to disrupt the Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014 and cancelled the moratorium on carrying out terrorist attacks in Russia http://www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/ |
Within the framework of preparations for the 2014 Olympics, the heads of Law Enforcement Agencies of the Russian Federation, having studied the situation in the sphere of security, have identified the most threatening factors. First of all, there is a likelihood of public protests against the ruling regime (especially by Cherkess radical movements); as well as cannot be excluded terrorist attacks and ethnic conflicts (activation of the Chechen separatist and Islamist groups).
On this basis, the Russian leadership determines the priority measures to neutralize these threats and timely prevent manifestations of instability, both, in the area where the Olympic competitions will be held, and in the country as a whole.
Therefore, taking care of effective (and more importantly — within the framework of Law) counter-acting opposition forces and radical movements, the Russian Security Forces in 2012, in particular, initiated adoption of a Law regulating activities of financed from abroad politically active non-governmental organizations. More recently, Russia has also increased to 20 years the maximum sentence for “treason”, expanded the legal term “treason” (any person who cooperates with foreign organizations that may be suspected of providing information on the RF, even if the person has no official access to any secret information). Have also been increased penalties for unauthorized meetings and public nuisance (more than 9 thousand dollars — for participants, and more than 18 thousand dollars — for organizers), it is now forbidden to use Internet resources to advocate drugs, suicide, pedophilia .
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The Olympic Games in Sochi will be protected by fighting robots “Plastun”, designed for patrol and rapid detection of suspicious objects and people http://tech.onliner.by/ |
Constantly analyzing frequent acts of terrorism in the North Caucasus, as well as the tragic events in international sporting events (terrorist attack in Boston (USA) during a marathon), the Russian government has taken some measures to prevent illegal (terrorist) actions during the Sochi Olympics. First of all, has been updated the database that includes data on all residents of the region; there are special restrictions on the sale of firearms and non-lethal weapons, especially in the region of the Olympics; CCTV cameras have been installed at major sports facilities and municipal infrastructure; luggage screening systems have been mounted at local airports and railway stations.
The effectiveness of the control of visitors of sports events will be increased by use of metal detectors when checking tickets. Fans will have special passes to visit located in the area of Olympic competition sites and places of cultural recreation (theaters, museums, etc.).
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To ensure the safety of the Olympic Games - 2014 in Sochi, Aviation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs will order a set of aerial reconnaissance with unmanned helicopters “Horizon Air S-100” http://lenta.ru/ |
Moreover, the Russian Security Forces decided to use drones and reconnaissance systems for surveillance during sport competitions.
A separate issue is the personnel guarding the area of Olympic competitions. It has been decided to form a “Focus Group Sochi” composed of two active brigades and a reserve one, total of more than 10 thousand military. It will include personnel with experience of fighting in the mountains and anti-terrorist operations. The group will include aviation units of the Su-25SM fighters and attack helicopters.
The 58th Army of the Armed Forces of the RF (Headquarters are in Vladikavkaz) in emergency mode will be protecting the border with Georgia.
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| Topographic Service of the North Caucasian militants has presented a map of the Caucasus Emirate http://el-murid.livejournal.com/ |
Russian experts believe that, the nearer the year of 2014, the more activated will be activities of illegal armed groups in the North Caucasus and other regions of the Russian Federation. The main threat will be coming from radical Islamic groups operating under the auspices of the “Caucasus Emirate”. They actively use the tactics of terrorism and sabotage. The terrorist attacks carried out earlier by these Islamists may be a kind of stage in training illegal armed groups and show what they can do. Heads of Russian Security Forces also do not rule out that by the beginning of the Olympic Games in Sochi, international terrorist organizations will also get activated.
Based on the available evidence, one can draw a conclusion that the success of the Winter Olympics in Sochi will depend not only on decent training of competing athletes, but not in the least on the reliability of the security measures taken by the Security Forces. Accordingly, it is absolutely important to properly organize the security system, to prevent the activity of terrorist groups, to identify and neutralize their network. For this purpose, the region's Security Forces carry out complex organizational and structural measures, anti-terrorism trainings; there have been developed systems of control and surveillance. The main tasks of ensuring security will be assigned to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB and the Ministry of Emergency Situations of the Russian Federation, the main task of which is suppression of terrorist threats. The forces and means of the Black Sea Fleet of Russia will also participate in this work.
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The Head of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev: Security at the Olympic Games will be provided by Security Services of many countries http://www.privetsochi.ru/ |
The very list of Sochi facilities that the Russian government has identified for enhanced protection is interesting. It consists of two parts. The first includes 95 objects. Their enhanced protection began June 1, 2013. These, in particular, are the Olympic facilities, ammonia-chillers, oil depots, warehouses, chlorine stores, city squares, parks, concert halls, hydropower stations, thermal power plants, bridges and tunnels, the sea port, railway station and railway terminal, airport and others. The second part consists of 523 objects; the requirements for their enhanced protection will be introduced on the 1st of September, 2013. This list includes crowded places.
With security being undertaken in the area of Sochi, it will be most difficult for militants to carry out subversive activities or organize terrorist attacks during the Olympic Games. But, on the other hand, the terrorist threat has made the government provide unprecedented huge funds and resources to ensure the safety of such an important for Russia sporting event. According to preliminary data, for these purposes will be spent around 2 billion U.S. dollars, and in the case of aggravation of the situation, the costs may increase.
But let us pay attention to the following detail: the success of the Olympic Games, as we have already mentioned above, will not only enhance the prestige of Russia in the eyes of the world, but also, — and this is important,— will attract people to sports activities, develop the infrastructure of the city of Sochi, its resort and tourism potential.
But large and resonant attacks on Olympic sites in close proximity to the area of the games, in other parts of the North Caucasus or in any major Russian city, will give Islamists an opportunity to demonstrate their power and potential, thereby causing the interest of foreign sponsors.
