Safety concerns arise after 31 people are killed and 104 are wounded in two suicide attacks in the past two days in Russia as the Sochi Olympic Games draws near, according to the Associated Press.
Concerns that Islamic militants have launched a terrorist campaign against President Vladimir Putin and the Olympic games are being raised, but Olympic officials claim the site of the games are extremely protected by layers of security, the AP reported.
The recent attacks took place in Volgograd, almost 400 miles from Sochi, a sign from the Islamist group that they have the capability of attacking targets outside their native area, according to the AP.
No group has officially taken responsibility for Sunday's attack at the Volgograd railway or Monday's bus explosion which occurred in the city but a Chechen rebel leader named Doku Umarov said civilian attacks would be carried out, including during the Olympics, the AP reported.
Islamist rebels whose goal is to create and Islamic state usually attack the North Caucasus region, but analysts say militants will begin to target major transportation routes like Volgograd, according to the AP.
Jane's analyst Matthew Clements, said Caucasus militants will attack civilian locations near Sochi to "embarrass the Kremlin" and scare visitors to the Olympics, the AP reported
"The attack demonstrates the militants' capability to strike at soft targets such as transport infrastructure outside of their usual area of operations in the North Caucasus," Clements said, according to the AP. "Although the very strict security measures which will be in place at the Sochi Games will make it difficult to undertake a successful attack against the main Olympic venues, public transport infrastructure in Sochi and the surrounding Krasnodar territory will face an elevated risk of attack."
Other experts say the attacks in Volgograd are an attack on Russia's pride because of the historic value of the city which helped the war against Nazi Germany, the AP reported.
"Volgograd, a symbol of Russia's suffering and victory in World War II, has been singled out by the terrorist leaders precisely because of its status in people's minds," Dmitry Trenin, head of the Carnegie Endowment's Moscow office, said on the office's website, the AP reported.
Though officials say security has been tightened on buses and trains, the security checks are known to be avoidable, making transportation easy for terrorist in the region, according to the AP.
Some of the security for the Olympics will include the banning of any vehicles outside the Olympic zone a month before the games begin and identity checks through passports will be conducted, the AP reported.
The White House offered their "full support to the Russian government in security preparations for the Sochi Olympic Games," according to spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden, the AP reported.
Russian commentators have warned terrorist may hit easier civilian areas as well as having planted "sleeper agents" near or in Sochi before the tighter restrictions we placed on transportation within the city, according to the AP. Other experts said the Olympic facilities could have been rigged with explosives during construction, but Russian officials have denied that could have happened.
On Monday, Russian Olympic Committee chief Alexander Zhukov said no more security measures need to be taken because "everything necessary already has been done," the AP reported.
