Фотография: Сергей Карпов/Reuters

Suicide bombers committed recent terrorist attacks in Volgograd. There were three attacks over the past three months — killing 37 and injuring 143. It is with a high degree of probability that we can state that the last two terrorist attacks were connected.

On Monday the second terrorist attack in two days was made on Volgograd — the third in the last three months. Citizens are in a panic. Immediately after Monday's bus explosion, false information about a terrorist attack on a tram and on bus routes appeared on social networks. In addition, the Volga emergency center received several false calls about threats. City authorities urge people not to panic, but celebrations involving children for December 31 in the city are cancelled, and Volgograd Region Governor Sergei Bazhenov declared five days of mourning in the region, from December 30 to January 3rd.

As a result of the three terrorist attacks in Volgograd that occurred on October 21st and December 29th and 30th (2013), 37 people have been killed. Another 143 people have been injured, 93 with injuries of varying severity requiring hospitalization.

Sunday's explosion at the railway station occurred about 1 in the afternoon. Seventeen people were killed and 62 injured — 36 requiring hospitalization. Among the dead were two children, aged 11 and 12. According to preliminary reports, the blast occurred in front of a metal detector. The power of the explosive device was equivalent to at least 10 kilograms of TNT. Initially it was reported that a female suicide bomber, a native of Dagestan named Oksana Arslanova, committed the attack. Later, however, Vladimir Markin, the official representative of the Russian Federation Investigative Committee (RF IC), stated that a male suicide bomber set off the blast.

The Interior Ministry stated that police Senior Sergeant Dmitry Makovkin died at his duty station, preventing the suicide bomber from entering the station. Also killed was railway station inspector Sergey Nalivaiko, the son of an Interior Ministry officer in the city. Both men were trying to prevent the bombing. «Because of their professional action, more serious consequences were prevented and an even larger death toll was prevented,» stated the Interior Ministry. Another six police officers were injured in the blast.

An Interfax source on Monday reported that the Volgograd railway station may have been attacked by Pavel Petchenkin, a native of the Mari El republic and a member of a gang in Buinaksk, Dagestan. According to law enforcement information, Petchenkin joined the rebels in the spring of 2012. “Pavel's parents, Nicholai and Fanasiya, went to Dagestan that September to look for him in Buinaksk and the Buinaksk district,” stated the information agency source. “After a futile search, they recorded a video message for their son, who had changed his name to the Muslim name, Ansar al-Rus. They failed to find their son, and so they returned home.” On Monday, Pavel's father gave a blood sample for DNA testing. In September of this year, Pavel Pechenkin's parents gave an interview to RIA Dagestan, in which they told how in January of 2012 their son became an out-and-out Islamic radical. Before his disappearance, Petchenkin worked as a paramedic. The parents tearfully begged their son to return home. Pavel, however, published a response, in which he stated that he would not.

The second explosion in Volgograd over the last two days thundered out at 8 am on Monday on a trolleybus traveling on Kachinstsev Street. Nothing remained after the explosion except the frame of the trolley. According to preliminary data, the power of the explosive device was at least 4 kg of TNT. Just as with the device used at the railway station, it was packed with shrapnel. “Because the sub-munitions in this explosive device and other are identical, it confirms the investigative theory that the two attacks are related,” stated the RF IC. “It is possible that they may have been prepared in the same place.”

A male suicide bomber set off the explosive device on the trolleybus. We know it was a man, and body parts were sent in for genetic examination in order to establish his identity.

The blast blew out windows in neighboring buildings. City residents say that the explosion was heard several kilometers away from the scene. The blast killed 14 people. Another 41 people were injured, 27 of them requiring hospitalization, including two teenagers and an infant. The baby is in a very serious condition, while the adolescents are satisfactory, according to Veronika Skvortsova, at the Volgograd Health Ministry.

“We are carrying out active work to investigate the two terrorist attacks that took place in Volgograd,” stated FSB chief Alexander Bortnikov, who was sent to Volgograd by order of Vladimir Putin. “I think we can solve this crime, especially since there are certain traits to it.”

The foreign media brought up a statement by Doku Umarov made in July of this year. The militant leader called on his supporters to thwart the Olympics. A video with the militant's statement was placed on an extremist website. In the video, Umarov said that in order to disrupt the games he «cancels the moratorium on special operations in Russia.» On Monday, Alexander Zhukov, head of the Russian Olympic Committee, said that no additional security measures at the Sochi Olympics in connection with the terrorist attacks in Volgograd would be taken. “As for the Olympic Games in Sochi, all necessary security measures have been provided, and additional security measures in connection with the attack in Volgograd will not be taken, because, everything that needs to be done has been done,” said Zhukov. He recalled that for the first time in the history of the Olympics, there would be a special fan passport for any visitor who officially registers at the games. The International Olympic Committee, in turn, expressed confidence that the Russian authorities would ensure the security of the Olympics.

The first terrorist attack was out in Volgograd was on route bus on October 21st (2013).  Seven were killed, and another 40 people injured. A suicide bomber named Naida Asiyalova set off the bomb. A month following the terrorist attack, Mikhail Murzayev, chief of the Volgograd Investigative Committee, said that Asiyalova planned to blow herself up in Volgograd, and had acted alone. It is known that the woman left by bus from Makhachkala, paying for two tickets to Volgograd. According to witnesses, the woman's left hand was bandaged, and she was always supporting something on her chest with her right hand. She told the bus driver that she had broken ribs, but witnesses now believe that she was actually supporting a homemade bomb. In Volgograd, Asiyalova asked the driver to stop in front of the Police Academy, and it is known that she entered the Ashan supermarket. There were very few people in the store, so she then thumbed a ride to the Akvariel shopping center. It also proved to have few people, so as a result, the woman walked to a bus stop and climbed into the crowded Route #29 bus.

It is known that Asiyalova was a native of Dagestan and had been living in Moscow for the last few years, working for a cellular company. Her common-law husband was Dmitry Sokolov, who went missing in 2012. Both were passionate about radical Islam. In mid-November, Dmitry Sokolov was killed, but before his death he had taken responsibility for organizing and preparing the Volgograd bus bombing. Sokolov was killed along with four accomplices, all of them in a private residence on the outskirts of Makhachkala.

In Gazeta.ru, December 30th, 2013

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