Terror Threat at The Olympics

Terrorists threaten the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, and despite repeated U.S. offers for assistance, Russia seems to be unwilling to allow us to help better secure the Games.

Since 2007, a Caucasus-based jihadist group called The Caucasus Emirate (CE) has been trying to force Russia from the region and to install an Islamic caliphate.

• The group is Chechnya’s most prominent terrorist organization and has sent suicide attackers to blow up a high-speed train (2009)¹, Moscow’s metro systems at rush hour (2010), and Moscow’s busiest airport’s arrival hall (2011).²
• The State Department in 2011 labeled CE a Foreign Terrorist Organization.³
• In July 2013, its leader announced that CE wants to target the Olympics with “maximum force”—a threat that continues despite reports he was killed.⁴

Russia is trying very hard to protect the Olympics—but it may not be enough.

• Russia will have 40,000 police and military forces in Sochi.⁵
• Sochi also has a security zone that extends about 100 km along the Black Sea coastline and 40 km into the mountains to the east.⁶

Sochi is however not 100% secure. Russia’s plans to vet the thousands of people going in, out, or using transportation within the zone are unclear.

Nevertheless, the U.S. is actively (if quietly) protecting our people as much as Russia will allow.

As with other Olympics, the U.S. is deferring to the host nation to protect the 250 American athletes there, as well as the 15,000 American officials, business people, and fans attending the Games.⁷ Nevertheless:

• The U.S. is stationing warships in the Black Sea to launch helicopters to evacuate Americans from Sochi, as well as have on standby C-17 military aircraft in Germany in the event of an emergency.⁸
• The U.S. is also in talks to provide sophisticated anti-IED technology to Russia, although so far no agreement has been reached.⁹

Unfortunately, if an attack occurs, Russia will have no one to blame but itself since it refused outside help. But America will continue to do as much as possible to keep Sochi as secure as previous Olympics.

For further information, contact Mieke Eoyang ([email protected]) or Aki Peritz ([email protected]).