As President Vladimir Putin visited the site of two suicide strikes that killed 34 in the run-up to the Sochi Winter Olympic Games, he called Russia's deadliest bombings in three years an "abomination" on Wednesday, Agence France-Presse reported.
"The abomination of the crime that was committed here in Volgograd needs no extra commentary," Putin said during an unannounced visit to the industrial city of one million on the Volga River. "No matter how the criminals may justify their actions, there is no justification for crimes committed against civilians, especially against women and children."
A bombing at the main railway station of the southern city killed 18 people on Sunday while a second strike that hit a trolleybus on Monday claimed 16 lives, according to AFP.
The blasts are Russia's deadliest since a suicide raid on Moscow's Domodedovo airport that was claimed by Islamic insurgents from the North Caucasus killed 37 people in January 2011, AFP reported.
The unchecked threat posed by insurgents who have vowed to target civilians in a bid to undermine Putin's preparations ahead of the Games' opening ceremony on February 7 is the latest violence that has been laid bare.
The Russian leader in his first comments on the attacks on Tuesday promised to "toughly and consistently continue to fight against terrorists until their total destruction".
A criminal probe has been opened by investigators into a suspected act of terror as well as the illegal carrying of weapons, AFP reported.
The signature of the two bombings suggest that they were plotted by the same group, said the chief spokesman for the Investigative Committee - Russia's equivalent to the U.S. FBI.
The identical makeup of the explosives "confirms the theory that the two attacks are linked. It is possible that they were prepared in the same place," Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin said.
