Russia said Thursday its security service had foiled an attempt by Caucasus militants assisted by its foe Georgia to attack the Black Sea city of Sochi when it hosts the 2014 Winter Olympic Games.
The National Anti-Terror Committee (NAK) alleged the plot was masterminded by Doku Umarov, the shadowy Chechen militant Russia has repeatedly tried to kill, with assistance from the Georgian intelligence. It said Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) agents last week uncovered a cache of shoulder-launched missiles, explosives and grenade launchers in a plot that was based in the breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia.
Security officers from Russia and Abkhazia arrested three militants who are suspected of plotting teh attacks, the Committee said.
“Russia’s FSB could establish that militants were planning to move these weapons to Sochi during 2012-2014 to use for terror acts while planning and hosting the Olympic Games,” said the statement, quoted by Russian news agencies. NAK said the operation was coordinated by Umarov, the leader of the Islamist group Caucasus Emirate, who has claimed responsibilty for the deadliest recent attacks on Russian soil.
“Doku Umarov — while maintaining close contacts with the Georgian special services — coordinated all activities to organise the delivery of materials to carry out the acts of terror,” the Committee said. Georgia’s security services and “associated representatives of illegal armed groups in Turkey” were also behind a smuggling of 300 detonators from Georgia and Abkhazia, which was thwarted in February, it said.
Georgia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergi Kapanadze denied Russia’s claims of Georgian support of militants, calling them “absolutely absurd and unsubstantiated accusations.” “For a long time, Russia and Georgia have accused each other of terrorist plots without providing real proof,” Russian security analyst Alexander Goltz told AFP, adding that the allegations lack detail and are easier made than proven.
The Abkhazia security service identified one of the arrested men as the leader of Abkhazia’s branch of Caucasus Emirate, named as Rustan Gitsba. He and the stashed weapons arsenal were found in Abkhazia’s Gudauta region, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the Russian border. Sochi, a southern resort city on the Black Sea, lies just over a mountain range from the country’s militant hotspots in the North Caucasus.
President Vladimir Putin personally lobbied to host the Olympic Games in Russia, making an emotional speech in Guatemala to sway the International Olympic Committee jury in 2007.
He underscored the importance of the event this week by making the IOC chief Jacques Rogge the first person he met in his third term as president, several hours after he was sworn in Monday.
