Curious way to celebrate a symbolic date. Tuesday January 7, the city of Sochi marked the start of the last month before the opening of the Winter Games (February 7-23, 2014) by taking on the appearance of a forbidden city. The entry of all motorists is now filtered, and access is prohibited to vehicles coming from outside without special authorization.
This exceptional system, motivated by the double attack in Volgograd at the end of the year and by terrorist threats, will be maintained until March 23, one week after the end of the Paralympic Games (March 7 to 16). Some 37.000 police officers and army units will be mobilized to ensure the security of the Games.
These security measures had been decided a long time ago. But fears of seeing Islamist militants launch attacks during the Games were reinforced by two suicide attacks attributed to suicide bombers at the end of December, which left 34 dead in Volgograd (southwest), 700 kilometers from Sochi.
“Starting from January 7, all units responsible for the security of participants and guests of the Olympic Games will be ready to intervene at any time,” Russian Emergency Situations Minister Vladimir Puchkov said on Monday. Surveillance will also be carried out from the sky with a satellite system. In addition to severe restrictions on vehicle traffic, shipping in the Black Sea is also restricted from Tuesday.
On the army side, the military will have Pantsir-S anti-aircraft defense systems in Sochi, a new generation of surface-to-air missiles. Russia will also monitor all communications using a system that allows the FSB to access all telephone and internet exchanges, the existence of which was revealed at the end of 2013 by two Russian journalists. Not very festive, all that, but certainly necessary.
