dagblog - Comments for "Volgograd train station rocked by suicide bombing"

Masha Gessen explains this

artappraiser — Sun, 12 Jan 2014 03:13:50 +0000

Masha Gessen explains this culture quirk:

Powerlessness and Pretense
By Masha Gessen, Latitude blog @ nytimes.com, Dec.30, 3013

MOSCOW — Within two hours of a deadly bombing Sunday at the main railroad station in Volgograd, officials announced that they had identified the female suicide bomber [.....]

She then describes the various iterations of the story that followed, and then this:

[....] Such communications messes follow almost any major event in Russia. At their root is the lying impulse developed over nearly a century. Since the early days of the Soviet Union, reporting good results was more important than actually achieving them. Even as the Soviet economy stagnated and store shelves went from empty to emptier, television broadcast pictures of plentitude and Soviet leaders congratulated their underlings for increasing production and improving the lives of their fellow citizens. Over time, lying well became an end in itself.

People were rarely penalized for failing to do their jobs; if anything, they were punished for assuming too much responsibility. All that mattered was that they could tell a good story when they reported the imaginary results of their imaginary work.

Over the years that Vladimir Putin has been running Russia, the Soviet combination of powerlessness and pretense has been recreated. Ever-swelling numbers of state employees are afraid to make a move unless directed to do so by a higher-up. But, just like their predecessors, they are finely attuned to expectations and always ready to say whatever they feel the audience is waiting to hear.

They know that if they report that they have identified the terrorist, in time someone else will report that the terrorist’s accomplices have been arrested, and then someone else will announce that the accomplices have been brought to justice — and all together they will move up the career ladder for ostensibly having made the country safer.

They do this every time a bomb goes off in a public place in Russia, which is to say, every few months.

Volgograd blasts: Putin vows

artappraiser — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 10:24:52 +0000

In reply to Volgograd train station rocked by suicide bombing

Volgograd blasts: Putin vows to 'annihilate terrorists'
BBC News, 31 Dec. 2013

[....] Mr Putin said: "We bow our heads in front of the victims of the terrible acts of terror.

"We will fiercely and consistently continue the fight against terrorists until their complete annihilation."

More than 5,000 officers were deployed on Tuesday morning, regional security spokesman Andrei Pilipchuk said.

Extra reserves and the "maximum number of police and interior ministry soldiers possible" were being brought in, he said.

As many as 600 police officers from the city were recently transferred to Sochi, 688km (428 miles) to the south-west, to help with preparation for the Games which begin on 7 February, Reuters news agency reports.

Events for New Year's Eve, such as children's parties, have been cancelled in the city, while residents have been asked not to set off fireworks [....]

Note sidebar analysis on same page, by Oleg Boldyrev BBC Russian, Volgograd:

Volgograd's streets are buzzing with special buses that carry police and military patrols. Soldiers are in full battle gear with helmets and bulletproof vests.

At the entrance to a large shopping mall police asked everyone to open their bags and unbutton coats. Everyone was treated with respect and people, mostly sales assistants queuing to get inside, were very patient.

However, one could immediately see many issues here. How long will the queue be when the shopping mall opens to the public? Is not such a gathering of people in a single place a security problem?

Some residents say new security measures, however chaotic, bring some relief. Others are quite sceptical. They doubt that policemen and soldiers will be able to find a bomber in the crowd. But almost everyone I spoke to said they wished these measures had been introduced in October, after the first bomb attack on a bus.

Russians say Islamic

artappraiser — Thu, 02 Jan 2014 10:14:15 +0000

In reply to Volgograd train station rocked by suicide bombing

Russians say Islamic extremist groups are top concern
By Kat Devlin, Factank @ Pew Research Center, Dec. 30, 2013

[....] When asked about eight potential threats to their country, Russians said that Islamic extremist groups pose the biggest danger according to a Spring 2013 survey by the Pew Research Center. More than half (53%) claimed such groups were a major threat, trumping other potential dangers such as international financial instability (46%) and global climate change (46%). Women (57%) were more likely than men (49%) to consider such extremism a major threat.

Local news sites reported

artappraiser — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 09:48:44 +0000

In reply to Volgograd train station rocked by suicide bombing

Local news sites reported that people in Volgograd, a city of more than 1 million inhabitants, were avoiding public transport and walking to work on foot.

"For the second day, we are dying – it's a nightmare," a woman near the scene told the Reuters news agency, her voice trembling as she choked back tears. "What are we supposed to do – just walk now?"

from

Volgograd: many dead in second explosion in Russian city
At least 14 people killed in trolleybus explosion, the day after 17 died in another suicide attack at city's railway station
By Leonid Ragozin in Moscow, theguardian.com, 30 Dec. 2013

Every terrorist attack in

artappraiser — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 09:36:50 +0000

In reply to Volgograd train station rocked by suicide bombing

Every terrorist attack in Russia since 1991 mapped
By Mona Chalabi, Data Blog @ theguardian.com, 30 Dec., 2013

Since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, there have been 1,896 terrorist attacks in Russia, excluding the latest two bombings in Volgograd on Sunday 29 and Monday 30 December. We've mapped every attack between 1991 and 2012 here.

Click to view the date, number of individuals wounded and killed or visit the database to search a specific event.

Find out how terrorism tactics are changing in Russia and how terrorism is defined in the data [....]

The interactive map follows @ the top link.

Nevermind. I should have

artappraiser — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 09:28:52 +0000

In reply to Russian news sources are

Nevermind. I should have trusted my gut and not bothered to post it, it's likely it's not true, but conjecture and embellishment based on initial reports that the bomber was a woman. Subsequent reports, which include the report of the second bombing in Volgograd Monday, of a bus, virtually all say that both bombings were executed by men.

On Tuesday the government was cracking down heavy in Volgograd on ethnics from troublesome regions, with massive police presence, arrests of "usual suspects" Casablanca style, and "stop and frisk" type measures:

Russian police round up dozens after suicide bombings
By Sergei Karpov in VOLGOGRAD, Reuters, Dec 31, 2013 4:01am EST

Police detained dozens of people on Tuesday in sweeps through the Russian city of Volgograd [....]

There was no indication that any of those arrested was connected to the attacks.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for the blasts [....]

In Volgograd, about 5,200 police and interior troops were mobilized in "Operation Anti-terror Whirlwind", the head on a emergency headquarters, Andrei Pilipchuk, said on state TV.

He said 87 people had been detained after they resisted police or could not produce proper ID or registration documents, and that some had weapons. State TV showed helmeted officers pushing men up against a wall. But there was no sign any were linked to the bombings or suspected of planning further attacks.

The Itar-Tass news agency said police were focusing on migrant workers from the Caucasus and ex-Soviet states - groups that rights activists say face prejudice and are often targeted by police indiscriminately. [....]

Russian news sources are

artappraiser — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 05:23:15 +0000

In reply to Volgograd train station rocked by suicide bombing

Russian news sources are notoriously unreliable especially concerning terrorist hits, but FWIW:

Siberian woman alleged to be 'black widow' suicide bomber in terrorist strike in Volgograd
The Siberian Times, 29 December 2013

Oksana Aslanova, 26, born in Tyumen region, named as killer in train station massacre.

At least 16 were killed in the attack on Volgograd railway station in southern Russia just six weeks before the 2014 Winter Olympics. Law enforcement officials named Islamic 'black widow' Oksana Aslanova, 26, as being responsible for the carnage.

While DNA tests had not confirmed this, Aslanova was widely reported as being the perpetrator. She had been on the wanted list for almost two years.

Russian news source Life News published a picture of what it reported was her bloodied head lying amid a pile of debris with her long brown hair spread across the floor. She was reported as having been married to two Islamic militant leaders liquidated by Russian forces in the North Caucasus.

She formerly lived in the town of Raduzhniy in Nizhnevartovsk district of Khanty-Mansiysk region, with population of 43,580.

'Aslanova was a wife of 'General' Validzhanov, who was destroyed,' said a bulletin issued last month expressing concern over her whereabouts, and predicting she could make an attack. 'She went through a training in camps and can become a black widow and take part in preparing terrorist attacks on the territory of Russia', said the Dagestan Interior Ministry.

Initial reports said she had two accomplices in Volgograd [....]

The above article mentions a photo of the severed head being published in Life News; that can be found at the end of the Life News article in Russian here.