WASHINGTON - Tensions rose Sunday about security preparations ahead of the Sochi Olympics, as several congressional leaders expressed concern about Russia’s willingness to share information about terrorist threats, while President Vladimir Putin asserted he would “do whatever it takes” to protect the thousands of visitors arriving soon for the games.
The separate remarks, made on Sunday morning news programs, came before a video was released online showing two young men who said they were responsible for suicide bombings in the central Russian city of Volgograd in late December that claimed 34 lives and raises fears of more attacks to disrupt the Olympics. In the video, the men promise additional attacks.
Extremists affiliated with the militant Doku Umarov have also vowed to disrupt the Olympics. Umarov is a former Chechen nationalist leader who now leads a broad Muslim separatist movement and advocates global jihad.
Rep. Mike Rogers,R-Mich. and the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Sunday that U.S. officials working with Russians ahead of the games had “found a departure of cooperation that is very concerning.”
With an estimated 15,000 Americans planning to travel to Sochi for the games, which begin Feb. 7, Rogers said Russian security services should provide their “full cooperation.”
In particular, Rogers said on the CNN program State of the Union that “they’re not giving us the full story about, what are the threat streams, who do we need to worry about, are those groups - the terrorist groups who have had some success - are they still plotting?”
In his remarks on ABC’s This Week on Sunday, Putin said Russia would “do whatever it takes” to protect people attending the games.And he reiterated that Russia would welcome athletes and visitors of any sexual orientation, despite recently enacted laws in Russia that are widely viewed as hostile to gay people.
Putin said a full panoply of security measures was being readied in Sochi and elsewhere in Russia. “If necessary, all those tools will be activated.”
He added that if foreign athletes wanted to provide their own additional security, “there is nothing wrong with that,” as long as they coordinated with the Russian authorities.
Rep. Michael McCaul,R-Texas and the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, also expressed concern about Sochi preparations, though he said he believed that “President Putin is taking this very seriously” and “taking all the precautions.”
But given the recent deadly attacks by regional terrorist groups and the threats of more to come, McCaul said he believed that attacks somewhere in Russia during the Olympics were “likely.”
With the Russians promising to surround Sochi with a “ring of steel,” McCaul said on This Week that “it’s more likely that the attacks would probably happen outside the perimeter - more soft targets, transportation modes.”
The congressman said he would travel to Sochi today to confer with security officials, in part to study their plans for evacuations in the event of an attack.
Several officials from the FBI will be in Sochi to attend to the security of the U.S. team. FBI Director James Comey said this month in Washington that “we have been in regular communication - including me personally - with their security organizations to make sure we’re coordinating well. I think that we are. We’ve improved our information sharing on counterterrorism and it’s important.”
The State Department has advised Americans who plan to attend the Olympics, which run Feb. 7-23, that they should keep vigilant about security because of potential terrorist threats, crime and uncertain medical care.
In a video and statement posted online Sunday, an Islamic militant group called Vilayat Dagestan claimed responsibility for the December suicide bombings in Volgograd. In the video, two Russian-speaking men warned Putin that “If you hold these Olympics, we will give you a present for the innocent Muslim blood being spilled all around the world: in Afghanistan, in Somalia, in Syria.”
They added that “for the tourists who come, there will be a present, too.”
The video claims that the two men, identified as Suleiman and Abdurakhman, were the suicide bombers in Volgograd and purports to show the explosives being prepared and strapped to their bodies.
There was no immediate reaction to the video from the Russian security services.
Vilayat Dagestan is one of the groups that make up the so-called Caucasus Emirate, which seeks to establish an independent Islamic state in the North Caucasus, a region just to the east of Sochi on Russia’s southern border.
Umarov, the Chechen militant, had ordered a halt to attacks on civilian targets in 2012, but he rescinded that order in July and urged his followers to try to undermine the Olympics.
The Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya claimed last week that Umarov was dead, but the claim couldn’t be verified.
The Vilayat Dagestan statement said the Volgograd attacks were carried out in part because of Umarov’s order, but didn’t specifically say he had ordered them.
Meanwhile, amid complaints from foreign athletes and officials about Russia’s nationwide ban last year on “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations,” which makes it a crime to mention homosexuality around minors, Putin insisted that visitors had nothing to fear.
The law has contributed to growing animosity toward gays in Russian society, with rights activists reporting a rise in harassment and abuse.
International worries about how gays will be treated in Sochi have been met with assurances from Russian officials and Olympics organizers that there will be no discrimination, and Putin reiterated that stance.
“In this country, everybody is absolutely equal to anybody else, irrespective of one’s religion, sex, ethnicity or sexual orientation,” he said. “Everybody is equal. So no concerns exist for people who intend to come as athletes or visitors to the Olympics.”
He said the law was aimed at banning propaganda of homosexuality and pedophilia.
Putin noted with pride that Russia saw more births than deaths last year for the first time in two decades. Population growth is vital for Russia’s development and “anything that gets in the way of that we should clean up,” he said, using a word usually reserved for military operations.
The law on propaganda has been used to justify barring gay-pride rallies on the grounds that children might see them, raising the question of how athletes and fans would be treated for any gay-rights protests during the Olympics.
When asked about this on ABC, Putin said protests against the law would not be considered propaganda.
Information for this article was contributed by Brian Knowlton of The New York Times and by staff members and Lynn Berry of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 01/20/2014