Another Volgograd terror bombing

[mendeleyev]

VOLGOGRAD, December 29 -– For the second time in just over two months the southern Russian city of Volgograd has been the scene of a terror bombing attack. Russia's Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin reported that the attack was carried out by a suicide female bomber, as was the previous bombing in October.

Although we don't have sound, here is a web cam video of the explosion as it happened from outside the train station.



So far officials say that 18 people have died and around 35 people injured in a terror blast that ripped through the entryway of the train station in Volgograd. The blast was triggered when a female approached the metal detectors at the entrance to Volgograd's train station. A security guard noticed the woman looking nervously at the checkpoint and when approached she tripped the device.

RIA/Novosti is reporting that one of the seriously injured is a nine-year-old girl whose mother shielded her with her own body at the time of the blast. The girl is in critical condition but her mother died at the scene.


Entry to Volgograd Train station after the bombing.

Volgograd region governor Sergei Bozhenov confirmed that the remains of a suspected suicide bomber were discovered at the scene and police have tentatively identified the suicide bomber as Oksana Aslanova. She has been on a "most wanted" list of terror suspects in Russia. It is thought that the suspect planned to board a train before setting off the bomb.


Volgograd suicide bomber suspect, Oksana Aslanova. (Photo: Twitter)

Russians call them "black widows" - women who seek to avenge the deaths of their family members in North Caucasus fighting between the government and Islamic extremists.  LifeNews channel is reporting that Aslanova was married twice to militants who were killed. Aslanova is believed to have been a close friend of Naida Asiyalova, the "black widow" from the bombing in October.

On October 21 female suicide bomber Naida Asivalova killed six people aboard a crowded bus leaving Volgograd for Moscow.  Islamic rebel leader Doku Umarov has called for "black widows" and other Islamic forces to target civilians and disrupt the Olympic Winter Games which will run from February 4 to 23 in the Russian city of Sochi.

Sochi is only 690 kilometres southwest of Volgograd, a vital transport link in the region, often carrying travelers to and from North Caucasus regions such as Chechnya and Dagestan. The rebels have vowed to use violence surrounding the Olympic games to call attention to their drive for an Islamist state in Russia's North Caucasus region.

RT television reported that Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry has transported some of the most critical victims to Moscow trauma clinics by air ambulance.

[jone]

The pictures that I saw included a group of bodies.  What a tragedy. 

This YouTube edit is much closer.   You can see the people getting blown down the steps:

[mendeleyev]

Just think of the deaths had she boarded a crowded train...

[mendeleyev]

Город в панике means "city in a panic" and as one fellow journalist remarked, Volgograd is returning to Stalingrad. It is as if the city is back in a war zone, on the front lines between radicals and civilization. He may be on to something as another bomb blast, the second in two days, ripped apart a crowded trolleybus on busy route N15A early Monday morning as commuters were going to work. The bus was in the Dzerzhinsky district opposite the busy Kaczynski market when the blast went off around 8:23 am.


Volgograd trolleybus bombing, 30 Dec 2013.

There have been conflicting reports about the type of bomb. At first emergency workers said that body parts from a suicide bomber may have been discovered in the wreckage however officials now believe that the device was planted in the middle of the bus for greatest effect and detonated remotely. The blast shook nearby buildings and shattered windows along the street.


(photo: kot-de-azur.livejournal)

One eyewitness today reporters that the blast began with a loud band, followed by a flash of fire and soon the entire area was in smoke. Nearby shoppers at the market at first did not understand what had happened until the smoke gave way to the mangled trolley and bodies strewn everywhere. The driver of the bus was a new employee in training and survived although the driver was rushed to the hospital in critical condition.

As news spread many riders got out of buses and trolleys and walked to work in fear of further explosions. In Moscow, President Putin met with FSB head Alexander Bortnikov and then dispatched Bortnikov along with fresh teams of medical specialists to Volgograd.



Officials and health workers are asking residents to donate blood. If you can assist, dial +7 (902) 656-02-22.

Today the question on everyone's lips is Что будет завтра? (What will happen tomorrow?)

[lordtiberius]

Where's Vladimir?

[mendeleyev]

Really? You are going to post a 2 year old video as if he isn't involved or caring?

 

[Boethius]

mendy, I read in the Russian press that they now believe a man was involved in the bombing, as they found a man's finger, and have tentatively identified him as Pavel Pechenkin, also known as Ansar Al- Rusi.  There seems to be some confusion, from what I've read, as to whether a woman was involved as well. 

[mendeleyev]

LT, as I wrote today, and you are a subscriber to the Mendeleyev Journal:

President Putin’s schedule has been almost completely revamped given the events over the past days in Volgograd. While preparations for the Winter Olympics race forward in Sochi, the rest of the country is in a bit of a shock.

Monday meetings included the Emergency Situations Council, meeting with the head of the FSB, and he and Prime Minster Medvedev had an extended working meeting regarding financial assistance to the victims of both terror attacks.

I don't always approve of his every policy but he is not in hiding and neither is he off attending social events. Unlike someone who went to bed under do-not-disturb orders and slept thru Benghazi after initial briefings just because he had a fund raising in Las Vegas the next day, Mr. Putin is on the job.

[mendeleyev]

Bo, that may be correct. When the blast first occurred everyone on the scene assumed that it was the work of another "black widow." Then as body parts were being sorted, a man's finger near the bomb was discovered. FSB investigators are also looking at the possibility that the bomb was placed in a section of the bus for maximum impact but that doesn't mean that the bomber couldn't have positioned himself at that point.

[lordtiberius]

Putin cares?  Putin is on the job?   

If Hitler can have his Olympics, Putin can have his.

This is a false flag attack on his people a la the apartment attacks and Breslan.

[Shadow]

Putin cares?  Putin is on the job?   

If Hitler can have his Olympics, Putin can have his.

This is a false flag attack on his people a la the apartment attacks and Breslan.

Mind going to Moscow to tell that to his face?

[mendeleyev]

This is a false flag attack on his people

I know that there have been false flag attacks but this one I doubt. It is too close to the Olympics, both in kilometers and days. The last thing Russia needs now is a crisis in confidence that athletes and spectators can be safe during the games. There is simply no reason for Russia to benefit from a false flag operation at this crucial time.

[lordtiberius]

I know that there have been false flag attacks but this one I doubt. It is too close to the Olympics, both in kilometers and days. The last thing Russia needs now is a crisis in confidence that athletes and spectators can be safe during the games. There is simply no reason for Russia to benefit from a false flag operation at this crucial time.

The fact is we don't know.  Journalists have investigated the Obama Syria accusation and independent journalists verified that the gas attacks were false flag attacks made by Al Nursa (Obama's al Queda allies) on their own people.  We don't have independent journalists in Russia.  They are all dead.  So we have to depend on hooligans to give us any alternative narrative.

There was a second attack btw to those who missed it and care

[Shadow]

The fact is we don't know.  Journalists have investigated the Obama Syria accusation and independent journalists verified that the gas attacks were false flag attacks made by Al Nursa (Obama's al Queda allies) on their own people.  We don't have independent journalists in Russia.  They are all dead.  So we have to depend on hooligans to give us any alternative narrative.

There was a second attack btw to those who missed it and care

You do not call Mendeleyev independent? HE is a journalist and in Russa.

[Ranetka]

You do not call Mendeleyev independent? HE is a journalist and in Russa.

Nah, he is calling mendeleyev a zombie.

[mendeleyev]

There was a second attack btw to those who missed it and care

We (MJ) reported on both attacks in Volgograd on France24, CBC, VOR, numerous affiliate organizations, and here.

Sometimes we're stretched to the limit. Yesterday a roadside bomb in Dagestan detonated as a police car drove by, injuring two police officers in the car and killing a bystander who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. There are bombings almost every week in places like Dagestan, a recent incident wounded several police officers outside a police station. The radicals within the religion of peace are hard at work, fighting for a Sharia dominated Islamic state, they call the Caucasus Emirate, in the Caucasus region.

If we reported every bombing in places like Chechnya, etc, I'd just rename the MJ to the "Bombed Out Journal" as that would be a full time job. It would also get me killed at some point because unless you side with the extremists, you're eventually on a hit list when in the territory. Doku Umarov is one mean SOB.

Back in July Umarov said, “We know that on the bones of our ancestors, on the bones of many, many Muslims who died and are buried on our territory along the Black Sea, today they plan to stage the Olympic Games. We, as the Mujahedeen, must not allow this to happen by any means possible." Their plan to disrupt the Games or at least to attack so-called "soft targets" like transportation hubs and cities outside the Sochi area are very real.

The two nations that are very involved with security at the Olympics are the USA and Israel. Sochi is and will be crawling with FBI and Israeli Security agents working with the FSB and Russian Police. You may not see them in uniform, but they are there already and working to secure the safety especially of American and Israeli teams. Just yesterday a telephone meeting between President Putin and Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu centered on Olympic safety and terror security in general.

The Caucasus are a very complex issue and I've written previously how the situation today is related to Russia's conquering of the lands and peoples of that region. In many ways, Russia is reaping what she has sown in the past by Imperial ambition. However one cannot also help but look back at the Greater Armenian Empire and understand that the region was also an officially Christian state for centuries prior to being conquered by the Ottoman Empire, a primarily Muslim state. Nothing in the region is simple.

However one must also understand that the "freedom fighters" of the Caucasus today are vastly different that those of the very long war waged from 1763 to 1864 in which Russia conquered the various ethnic groups of the region. In times past those were ethnic struggles to preserve their lands, cultures and languages from Russian domination. Today the fighting is not to protect small ethnic groups with their various cultures and languages, but instead the Muslim radicals feel driven to create a large Caucasus Emirate, ruling those various groups as one Islamic nation by Muslim clerics as we see in Iran.

Unfortunately the USA has been instrumental, in the recent past, to create instability in the region to weaken Russia. In recent years both the USA and Western Europe have looked at the Caucasus as a way to create alternatives to Russia's control of oil supplies and pipelines. Those efforts have largely backfired as we helped resurrect a radical Islamic monster that has been very willing to accept Western help but is more interested in destroying Russia from within than in helping the West. If you want to look at one of the reasons for the souring of relations between Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush, here is your sign.

[jone]

Mendy,

I may be wrong, but I didn't think that the FBI had purview to work outside of the country. 

[mendeleyev]

At the invitation (basically we call and ask to be invited) they can using federal terror task forces.

[mendeleyev]

Nah, he is calling mendeleyev a zombie.

I get that all the time. 

It wasn't even a month ago that a US news producer whom I've know for 25  years, commented that his wife thought I was "too cozy" with President Putin. I know his wife too as I was one of the best men in their wedding ceremony. Both are very intelligent people and I took the comment as both a criticism and a compliment of sorts. Any journalist who spends time in-country is eventually accused of being overtaken by the Stockholm syndrome. However I never had such a comment during the Medvedev presidency. Putin is a lighting rod and attracts criticism--I understand that.

I explained to him that most Americans view me as very pro-Russian. Most Russians view me as too pro-American. The truth is that over time you begin to understand the currents beneath the surface. Take the missile defense issue: I could take the pro-USA/NATO side and write about how dumb Russia is to oppose the idea of having missiles on their borders. But I also know that Russia offered the USA to bring those missile sites inside of Russia's borders to be operated jointly by NATO and Russian forces.

If the USA was telling the truth, that these installations were to serve as a deterrent to attacks from the Middle East, then Russia was willing to cooperate and contribute to the effort. The USA/NATO refusal to allow the Russians to join the project of course made Mr. Putin step back and question the real purpose of those sites. That doesn't mean I'm suffering from a Russian complex, it just means that I have a brain and can see both sides of an issue.

 

[lordtiberius]

Nah, he is calling mendeleyev a zombie.

I never said that.  I know our esteemed correspondent lives in both the US and in Russia.  I do not have his exact GPS coordinates.  But even he will concede that violence against journalists chills free speech and that Russia is a chilly place.

We (MJ) reported on both attacks in Volgograd on France24, CBC, VOR, numerous affiliate organizations, and here.

My comment was not directed to you specifically.  When I disagree with the MJ, I post a comment on the MJ.

Sometimes we're stretched to the limit. Yesterday a roadside bomb in Dagestan detonated as a police car drove by, injuring two police officers in the car and killing a bystander who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. There are bombings almost every week in places like Dagestan, a recent incident wounded several police officers outside a police station. The radicals within the religion of peace are hard at work, fighting for a Sharia dominated Islamic state, they call the Caucasus Emirate, in the Caucasus region.

These are a people who yearn for freedom and wish to determine their own destiny.  If we take the same logic that antiwar activists took toward al Qaeda back Iraqi insurgents, then we at least owe it ourselves to investigate their claims and grievances.

The two nations that are very involved with security at the Olympics are the USA and Israel. Sochi is and will be crawling with FBI and Israeli Security agents working with the FSB and Russian Police. You may not see them in uniform, but they are there already and working to secure the safety especially of American and Israeli teams. Just yesterday a telephone meeting between President Putin and Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu centered on Olympic safety and terror security in general.

It seems a bit odd that two nations who are at odds with Russia, one in Syria and the other in Iran are helping the patron state of these most ignoble clients.  You indeed have strange bedfellows when  you are a whore.

The Caucasus are a very complex issue and I've written previously how the situation today is related to Russia's conquering of the lands and peoples of that region. In many ways, Russia is reaping what she has sown in the past by Imperial ambition. However one cannot also help but look back at the Greater Armenian Empire and understand that the region was also an officially Christian state for centuries prior to being conquered by the Ottoman Empire, a primarily Muslim state. Nothing is the region is simple.

Majority rule is simple.  Do the residents of Caucasus wish to Russian or something else?

However one must also understand that the "freedom fighters" of the Caucasus today are vastly different that those of the very long war waged from 1763 to 1864 in which Russia conquered the various ethnic groups of the region. In times past those were ethnic struggles to preserve their lands, cultures and languages from Russian domination. Today the fighting is not to protect small ethnic groups with their various cultures and languages, but instead the Muslim radicals feel driven to create a large Caucasus Emirate, ruling those various groups as one Islamic nation by Muslim clerics as we see in Iran.

And yet Russia feeds its baby cub - Iran and it condemns the Saudis.  I think she doth protest too much.

Unfortunately the USA has been instrumental, in the recent past, to create instability in the region to weaken Russia. In recent years both the USA and Western Europe have looked at the Caucasus as a way to create alternatives to Russia's control of oil supplies and pipelines. Those efforts have largely backfired as we helped resurrect a radical Islamic monster that has been very willing to accept Western help but is more interested in destroying Russia from within than in helping the West. If you want to look at one of the reasons for the souring of relations between Vladimir Putin and George W. Bush, here is your sign.

For one who advocates complexity, the core of the problem is the same - it's all America's fault or its hipster update - it's all George W. Bush's fault.

May you live in interesting times.

[SANDRO43]

Mendy, I think that your summary is probably very accurate historically - what we tend to forget is that history is mostly written by the victors, and therefore biased in their favour most of the times.

[Shadow]

LT your unfouded accusations are getting ridiculous. Once again, there are plenty of Russian journalists who are free to utter criticism.
However Russia is not America where the worst they can do to you is sue.
Most Russian journalists have to worry about many other people as Putin when they do their job. Umarov is one, any local ;businessman; that feels an article is damaging his schemes is another. To think that Putin is even concerned with criticism is simply laughable. There is no viable opposition to him at this time, just as there has never been.

[lordtiberius]

LT your unfou[n]ded accusations are getting ridiculous.

Could you be specific?

Once again, there are plenty of Russian journalists who are free to utter criticism.

Can you name them?

However Russia is not America where the worst they can do to you is sue.

This thought seems out of place, can you please elaborate?

To think that Putin is even concerned with criticism is simply laughable. There is no viable opposition to him at this time, just as there has never been.

So because Putin enjoys absolute power, he enjoys absolute security?  A man who is secure in himself invites his enemies to his own banquets. Putin insults, harasses and kills his opponents.  Russian apologists decry that the 13th largest economy enjoys so little goodwill, acts unilaterally and has so little soft power.  What do Russians have that the freedom loving (mostly English speaking) people don't have or want?

Russia is becoming extinct and irrelevant because Vladimir Vladimirovich. 

[mendeleyev]

it's all America's fault or its hipster update - it's all George W. Bush's fault.

Well, it wasn't Jimmy Carter. 

[lordtiberius]

What a strange place Russia is becoming.  Is Putin setting up the surveillance state America embraced  after 9/11 and the world now rejects to secure even more power?

They tell me that a criminal can never stop stealing or break the law.  Putin doesn't seem to stop putting himself above it.  What a strange man.  In Rome, slaves use to whisper to triumphant generals that he was mortal.