SPECIAL EXTRA: STOP THE SOCHI MADNESS NOW?!

Posted on January 24, 2011 | 47 Comments

The world must stop the Sochi 2014 madness. Now. 34 dead and 170 injured Russians today, tomorrow they will be foreign athletes and sports fans unless the world acts now. (Note:  The blast occurred at 4:30 pm on Monday January 24th.  As of 7 pm, two and a half hours later, state-sponsored Russian TV had reported nothing about the blast.  This is how the Russian government responds to risks to public safety, and how it will continue to respond.)

This entry was posted in domodedovo, russia, sochi, terrorism and tagged , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

47 responses to “SPECIAL EXTRA: STOP THE SOCHI MADNESS NOW?!”

  1. paul | January 24, 2011 at 7:30 pm | Reply

    http://www.investmentweek.co.uk/investment-week/news/1938965/russia-risky-iraq-research

    Russia ‘risky as Iraq’, research finds

    Russia is now in the same investment risk category as DR Congo, Sudan and Iraq, according to research from risk analysis firm Maplecroft.

    • Robert | January 26, 2011 at 1:44 pm | Reply

      http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110125/tc_afp/russiaattacksinternetsociety

      With nationally-watched television channels under tight state control and only a handful of newspapers daring to criticise the Kremlin, the Internet has become one of the few outlets for public dissent in Russia.

      Some bloggers even alleged the authorities staged the Domodedovo airport blast that killed 35 to bolster their support early in a crucial year ahead of 2012 presidential elections.

      “Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! Of course we will elect you for a new term, just don’t blow us up any more, please!” blogger KorabelReal addressed Prime Minister Putin on his Twitter account.

      “This was a ordinary start to a pre-election year,” wrote KremlinRussia, one of Russia’s most popular Twitter blogs kept in first-person voice as parody on President Dmitry Medvedev’s Twitter KremlinRussia.

      Many Russian bloggers recalled the Moscow apartment building blasts in 1999, when Putin issued one of his most famous quotes: “We will chase terrorists everywhere… catch them in the toilet and wipe them out in the outhouse.”

      One theory has explained the 1999 blasts as a security operation to install Putin at the helm of the country. The theory’s proponent, Alexander Litvinenko, a former security officer, was later killed in London by polonium poisoning.

  2. H P J | January 25, 2011 at 10:59 am | Reply

    The post on Sochi was published shortly before the bomb. Insensitive, to say the least, to use this tragedy to support an unrelated point.

    LA RUSSOPHOBE RESPONDS:

    Uh, no it wasn’t. It was published afterwards, and contained a link to a story about the bombing.

    The whole point of the post is that the bombing proves the world’s athletes are in danger, nimrod.

    And what’s insensitive is to ignore that fact and send them to their doom in bloody horror, as you apparently would advise doing.

    • H P J | January 26, 2011 at 2:50 pm | Reply

      So why did you change the title from ‘Stop the Sochi Madness Now’ to ‘Special Extra: Stop the Sochi Madness Now’ after the event? Either way, I am believer ofthis blog but I just thought that was a little cheap.

      LA RUSSOPHOBE RESPONDS:

      You are simply mistaken, the title was not changed and the only content was a sentence linking to a New York Times report about the attack on the airport. The point of the headline was that the attack proves Sochi should not happen.

  3. The Australian | January 25, 2011 at 12:28 pm | Reply

    what most of you clowns don’t realize is that this is VVP and his crooked KGB crew staging the bombing for the upcoming election.

    they’ve already used this tactic in 1999, in Nord-Ost, in Beslan, on Nevsky Express and in the Subway.

    What do Chechens have to gain from this? It’s certainly work of Mr. Putin.

    No need to come down on all Russians for this though. Russians are great people. I pity them because they have to live under this retarded government.

    LA RUSSOPHOBE RESPONDS:

    Perhaps we fail to realize it because clowns like you fail to provide the slightest hint of proof of it.

    If Russians have retarded government and they do NOTHING about it, they are more retarded than their government and richly deserve the suffering they receive as a result. They voted their retarded government into office, you clown.

    • Andrew | January 26, 2011 at 4:31 am | Reply

      “The Australian” may have a point about this being a FSB inside job similar to the Moscow apartment bombings, as the Russian military has just deployed Tochka IRBM’s (the same weapons used to level Chechen towns) to Tshkinvali, along with large numbers of additional troops and Smerch MLRS systems, both of which are offensive in nature. In addition, the Russians have been dribbling on for months now about Georgian Special Forces supposedly training “Terrorists” from the North Caucasus.
      It is common knowledge that the fascists in the Kremlin would love, at the minimum, to install a pro Russian puppet administration in Georgia in order to gain a stranglehold over Azerbaijan, Armenia, and central Asian republics.

      Tbilisi Condemns Deployment of Tochka-U in S.Ossetia

      Civil Georgia, Tbilisi / 24 Jan.’11 / 21:21

      Georgian Foreign Ministry said reported deployment of short-range ballistic missiles, Tochka-U (SS-21 Scarab B) and other offensive weapons in breakaway South Ossetia “points clearly to the Russian Federation’s plans to launch open military aggression against Georgia.”

      “The deployment of the Tactical Operational Missile Complex “Tochka – U” and the artillery battalion equipped with Smerch multiple-launch rocket systems poses a direct and overt threat to the peaceful population and territory of Georgia. By taking such actions Russia follows through with its aggressive policy directed towards the destruction of the Georgian statehood and elimination of the peaceful population of Georgia, as well as towards causing large-scale instability in the Caucasus and throughout the Black Sea Region,” the Georgian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on January 24.

      Interfax news agency reported earlier on January 24, quoting unnamed source from Russia’s Southern Military District, that tactical-operational missile unit with Tochka-U rockets with maximum range of 120 kilometers had been deployed in the Russian military base in South Ossetia. The same news agency reported in December, also quoting unnamed Russian military source, that Russia had deployed Smerch (Tornado) multiple-launch rocket systems in vicinity of Tskhinvali.

      “It needs to be emphasized that it was with the use of “Tochka – U” systems that the Russian Federation completely destroyed the city of Bamut (Republic of Chechnya) and eliminated its peaceful population. The Ballistic missiles of this system can be equipped with cluster (consisting of 50 bomblets) and nuclear warheads,” the Georgian Foreign Ministry said.

      “The deployment of the offensive rocket systems in the occupied region points clearly to the Russian Federation’s plans to launch open military aggression against Georgia.”

      “[Georgia] demands strongly from the international community, international organizations and partner countries to adopt active and effective measures in order to pressure Russia to end its aggressive policy against Georgia, fulfill its international commitments, including 12 August 2008 ceasefire agreement, undertake a commitment on the non-use of force and ensure the full and immediate de-occupation of the Georgian territory,” it said.

      http://www.civil.ge/eng/article.php?id=23078

    • Robert | January 26, 2011 at 11:24 am | Reply

      LR. WTF? Seriously.

      First, The Australian is actually right and the “election campaign” officially kicked-off. What kind of “proof” do you want? Well, I can provide only this: all potential CSI evidence was totally destroyed within 1 hour since the explosion (as usual). Also the attack made no sense at all and was blamed on a group that doesn’t even exist anymore (under this name for over 10 years, at all for over 3 years). Proof in the other cases, and about the pattern? Try and read that book Litvinenko got radioactive-poisoned for.

      Now, NO, taxi drivers and even random foreigners do NOT “richly deserve the suffering” (or “poorly”), and it doesn’t even matter now whoever is inflicting on them. (Be it “Chechens” or other usual suspects, random persons “of North Caucasus or Arab appearance”, the Nogai Battalion, Al-Qaeda, Martians, or whoever you want to blame for inflicting this divine punishment.)

      This song is for you:

    • mccusa | January 26, 2011 at 6:59 pm | Reply

      Australian,
      Russians will be great people if they give up their so called empire which is in reality a great prison – they will never do this therefore they should suffer even more… All the terrorist attacks in Russia are in reality the civil war that has been brewing for a long time – the next step will be the bloodiest civil war in history of the world.

  4. Eleutheropoulos | January 25, 2011 at 6:25 pm | Reply

    STOP THE SOCHI MADNESS NOW?!

    I fail to realize why do you guys bother. You don’t seem to earn enough to afford a transatlantic flight to go anywhere, thus you don’t have any reason to be afraid. G’night, sleep tight.

    P.S. State-run 24/7 news channel aired first news in about 15 minutes after the incident, by the way.

    LA RUSSOPHOBE RESPONDS:

    The combined income of the LR bloggers is well in excess of $1 million per year.

    PS: When did the stations that matter air it (RTR, ORT)? Your intelligence, and integrity, are pulp.

    BTW: Thanks for the proof about “24/7 news channel” whatever that means, goat.

    • The Australian | January 25, 2011 at 9:36 pm | Reply

      they voted him??? hahahaha ok you naive soul. have you ever heard of rigged elections? putin’s support was never above 30% nationwide.

      you need proof? there is COUNTLESS evidence online…videos, reports etc…about KGB blowing up the apartment buildings in 1999…of course the rest are just speculations but most russians know that some events were fabricated to rig elections and tell the nation that they need a “strongarm” president to handle the terrorists.

    • Eleutheropoulos | January 25, 2011 at 10:04 pm | Reply

      The combined income of the LR bloggers is well in excess of $1 million per year.

      Produce your money, bwahaha. Or do you mean a galactic year?

      When did the stations that matter air it (RTR, ORT)?

      There are no stations with above-mentioned names in Russia, <LR mode ON> you anacephal<LR mode OFF>. JFYI, they’re called Russia 1 and Channel 1, respectively, for years. So up-to-date and true is all your knowledge about Russia in particular, and the world in general.

      Thanks for the proof about “24/7 news channel” whatever that means

      There’s only one state-run 24/7 news TV channel in Russia, so you only prove your (lack of) cognitive abilities.

      Thanks again for a good laugh, my dear $1m guys! :-)

      LA RUSSOPHOBE RESPONDS:

      Produce your money, you hopelessly inbred, brainless ape.

      When did Russia 1 and Channel 1 air the story? And why are you afraid to answer, therefore dodging the question will silly drivel?

      • Eleutheropoulos | January 25, 2011 at 10:56 pm | Reply

        And why are you afraid to answer

        Who the heck are you to interrogate me? :-) I don’t come here to answer your questions, I’m here just to have some fun by trolling a bunch of fat Amurrican retards. By the way, Channel 1 isn’t a station ‘that matters’: it’s rather oriented on people like you, and you can’t expect an educated/intelligent person to watch it.

        LA RUSSOPHOBE RESPONDS:

        It’s one of only two channels broadcast to every corner of Russia, one of two that are paid attention by the whole country.

        You still have not answered our question, cowardly little liar.

    • mccusa | January 27, 2011 at 12:36 am | Reply

      Eleutheropolous,
      Yeah right, I can see those ‘rich’ russians – those 95% of population that live in the wholes in the ground somewhere in siberia; hungry, drunk and sick; with no running water, electricity or gas; those ‘rich and sohpisticated’ russians will be travelling to sochi or , better still they will be walking there – russia is beyond embarrasment – humiliation on daily basis that russia put herself through trying to pretend to be a global power is priceless – especially for Polish People…..

  5. free | January 25, 2011 at 7:18 pm | Reply

    It was on the Russia Today website in 15 mins. This shows the depth of contempt this website has to gloat about and manipulate the murder of 35 people to somehow push their fear agenda. Any sane person can see what this post is.

    LA RUSSOPHOBE REPONDS:

    Umm, but we’re talking about RUSSIAN LANGUAGE REPORTING TO THE RUSSIAN PEOPLE, you braying jackass.

    • Eleutheropoulos | January 25, 2011 at 9:51 pm | Reply

      It was aired on Rossia 24 (not for you but for stupid $1m worth bwahaha bloggers, it’s a Russian language channel) as well.

      LA RUSSOPHOBE RESPONDS:

      We never said it NEVER aired, you idiot. We asked WHEN. You did not answer, illiterate bufoon.

      Meanwhile, WHEN did it air on the MAJOR NATIONAL BROADCAST NETWORKS?

      Are you such a craven child that you cannot answer with proof from the sources?

      • Eleutheropoulos | January 25, 2011 at 11:05 pm | Reply

        You’re so smart that you have to read a simple phrase like ‘in about 15 minutes after the incident’ a hundred times to get it right. And if you don’t know that the Russian Broadcasting Company is a major national network with four major stations (Russia 1, Russia 2, Russia 24 and Russia K, along with some more thematic and regional ones), it only means you’re either banned on Google or have major apprehension probs (or both, whatever).

  6. Dr. Otto von Ras | January 25, 2011 at 7:49 pm | Reply

    Why stop the madness? Just ignore the games and don’t send any athletes there.

  7. Tal Shiar | January 25, 2011 at 9:10 pm | Reply

    RIA Novosti first reported smoke at 16:47 at Domodedovo:
    http://rian.ru/incidents/20110124/325680969.html

    Then reported explosion at 16:55, putting explosion time at 16:40
    http://rian.ru/incidents/20110124/325683295.html

    Granted, it is a website, not TV, but still reported very quickly.

    LA RUSSOPHOBE RESPONDS:

    80% of Russians have no Internet access. Did you get your brain from K-mart?

    This post HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH REPORTS ON THE WEB. PUTIN IS CRITICIZED ON THE WEB ALL THE TIME. THIS POST HAS TO DO WITH REPORTING ON NATIONAL BROADCAST TELEVISION, THE SOURCE OF NEWS FOR THE VAST MAJORITY OF ORDINARY AMERICANS.

    Please at least try to read our content before commenting on it.

    • The Australian | January 27, 2011 at 4:47 am | Reply

      ***LA RUSSOPHOBE RESPONDS
      80% of Russians have no Internet access***

      where do you get these figures, dream them up? or straight up lying about it?

      80% LOOOOOL!!!

      • free | January 27, 2011 at 10:21 am | Reply

        The ITU currently puts Russia at 42.8%. As usual this website is posting out of date info. Thats 59,700,000 people. The only country with more people than that online in the EU is Germany.

        • Andrew | January 27, 2011 at 11:03 am | Reply

          Actually only 20% of Russians have regular access to the internet, meaning more than once a week according to statistics.

          • The Australian | January 27, 2011 at 10:37 pm | Reply

            what statistics? where is the link to justify your claim?

            • Andrew | January 28, 2011 at 4:51 am | Reply

              Moscow, 15 January (Interfax) — As of autumn 2009, there were 42 million internet users in Russia, or 36 percent of the country’s adult population.

              The main body of internet users – those who log on daily – is almost 24 million, which is approximately one-fifth of adult Russians (21 percent), the Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) has reported. Its research was published in the latest issue of the newsletter “Internet in Russia.”

              http://www.sras.org/russian_internet_usage_increases

              So, if 21% log on daily, that means 79% of users do not log on daily.

              It seems Russian penetration figures include many people who simply use internet cafe’s, it would explain why the Russian statistics in internet use are mainly email and search engine usage.

              • free | January 28, 2011 at 9:51 pm | Reply

                First you are quoting out of date figures.
                http://www.internetworldstats.com/europa2.htm#ru

                Thats an increase of almost 20 million internet users from the out of date statistics you have referenced. Almost a massive 40 million more than the extremely out of date figures referenced by la russophobe. Thats 12% of all European internet users.

                The then does not take into consideration the difference in geography for example with half the population of the US, Russia is almost double the size. The scale of operation facing Russia is massive compared to any other country.

                LA RUSSOPHOBE RESPONDS:

                You’re simply lying. The statistics you refer to (a) have no source and (b) refer to people who have ever accessed the Internet, not who regularly can do so. Our blog is FULL of RECENT posts documenting Russian Internet usage, they can be read in the “Internet” category in our sidebar.

                Your own figures show that MORE THAN HALF THE RUSSIAN POPULATION NEVER EVER GOES ONLINE.

                Please stop lying.

              • casasa | January 29, 2011 at 1:56 pm | Reply

                you should note that very often one internet account is used by a family of three or four people. So, your statistics sucks.

            • Eleutheropoulos | January 28, 2011 at 11:40 am | Reply

              Dare asking for the sources? You should trust in The Voice of Truth Coming from the Caucasian Mountains as is.

  8. Tal Shiar | January 25, 2011 at 11:11 pm | Reply

    I said granted, it is a website, not TV. That hardly warrants a response like “did you get your brain past K-mart?”

  9. Tal Shiar | January 25, 2011 at 11:40 pm | Reply

    By the way, Rossia 24 reported it – at the very latest – at 17:24. I cannot say for the other networks because they are not nice enough to put a clock right on their screen.
    http://www.vesti.ru/only_video.html?vid=316446

    So with this information, and that it had been posted on the web almost immediately afterward, this whole issue with Russian tv not reporting it soon enough is becoming less and less of an issue. Not surprising as it is based on a single tweet.

  10. Robert | January 26, 2011 at 10:50 am | Reply

    Do you think this had anything with their “response to risks to public safety”? Guess I’m supposed to believe anyone “of North Caucasus or Arab appearance” would smuggle a bomb through an airport security (this, or in the previous ones) just to blow up a bunch of mostly greeters and taxi drivers (instead of, say, an airplane, or just in the hall).

    And there was no investigation at the crime scene, which was literally immediately totally destroyed, of course (‘”We need to examine this,” a solemn-faced Medvedev said in televised remarks on Channel One.’):

    Extraordinarily, within an hour of the blast, the airport was back running at full capacity, with arriving international passengers passing through the same hall. “They’ve just covered up the blast area in tarpaulin,” said one British woman arriving from London three hours after the blast. “Everything was normal at passport control but there was a horrible smell and we could see some smashed shop windows.”
    http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/moscow-massacre-dozens-killed-in-suicide-attack-on-domodedovo-airport-15063257.html

    Pretty fast, considering for example the first ambulance arrived after 20 minutes. Why “of course”? Because this is normal express cover-up procedure when all evidence (including body parts) is destroyed in Russia as fast as possible, like in this case when also proles suffered and they pretended to care about them (and all the others, with no exception):

    http://themoscownews.com/local/20110119/188345570.html

    So what happened? The same as usual. Now prepare for “the law and the constiution” to be “adjusted” once again “to better counter terrorist threatts” before the upcoming “election season”.

  11. Robert | January 26, 2011 at 10:52 am | Reply

    Also,

    Putin announced that City Hall and the federal government would jointly pay 3 million rubles ($101,000) to the family of each killed victim, 1.9 million rubles ($64,000) to victims with severe and moderate injuries, and 1 million rubles ($33,600) to those with minor injures. Moscow’s City Hall and the Moscow region, where Domodedovo is located, declared Wednesday a day of mourning. Both also opened bank accounts for donations to victims, they said on their web sites.
    http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/putin-pledges-inevitable-retribution/429736.html

    Really? I don’t think such things ever happen when only people of “of North Caucasus or Arab appearance” suffer. They must be really shocked when it happened to taxi drivers, the high-profile hated targets of “a obscure rebel group, Nogai Battalion”.

    About “a obscure rebel group, Nogai Battalion”: it was mostly from Stavropol Krai (also northern Dagestan, northern Chechnya, Karchay-Cherkessia) and basically ceased to exist in 2007, and was called the Nogai Jamaat and not battalion since 2000 anyway. The whole Nogai ethnic group is 70,000 strong and they have Mongolian features (which obviously means “North Caucasus or Arab appearance” in the FSB newspeak).

    • free | January 28, 2011 at 10:07 pm | Reply

      This is what happens to newspaper readers who think they know everything yet have never been there. Now lets see how much of a man you are and retract this post since its inaccurate.

      When you said, I don’t think such things ever happen when only people of “of North Caucasus or Arab appearance” suffer.

      Yet in the last attack in Vladikavkaz the exact same payment was made to the people of the North Caucasus after the market bombing there.
      http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100909/160531995.html

  12. Aborigenus | January 26, 2011 at 1:27 pm | Reply

    Bob, you’re far away of the reality… Mentioned “causasian or arab appearance” today in Moscow means each 3-rd of 10 (at least). And in airports 4-5 of 10…And you are in doubt to believe that anyone o such appearance in able to get a bomb through aiport security ? Do you really beleive that police or security (or KGB) manage to run such a control on appearance exclusively ? 0_O

  13. Robert | January 26, 2011 at 4:06 pm | Reply

    In other news, unfortunately Russian WikiLeaks operation appearantly isn’t quite what one what would hope:

    http://reason.com/archives/2010/12/14/the-assange-employees

    According to reports in the Swedish and Russian media, the broad strokes of which have been confirmed by a WikiLeaks spokesman, Shamir serves as the group’s content aggregator in Russia, the man who “selects and distributes” the cables to Russian news organizations, according to an investigation by Swedish public radio. In the newspaper Expressen, Magnus Ljunggren, an emeritus professor of Russian literature at Gothenburg University, outlined Shamir’s close ties to WikiLeaks and his position “spreading the documents in Russia.” (The article is illustrated with a picture of Assange and Shamir in an unidentified office.)

    During an appearance on Echo Moskvy radio, Yulia Latynina, a reporter at the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, wondered “What does it mean that Assange is allowing himself to be represented by an extremist?” Latynina also found that the Kremlin-friendly paper working with Shamir to promote the WikiLeaks material had already published “outright lies” Shamir claimed were supported by leaks. According to Latynina, Shamir faked a cable related to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech to the United Nations, which supposedly showed collusion amongst those who walked out of the talk in protest. That he would invent such a cable is perhaps unsurprising, considering Shamir has previously written an encomium to the “brave and charismatic leader” of Iran.

    So let us quickly recap the foulness of Shamir’s political views. As I noted last week, he has called the Auschwitz concentration camp “an internment facility, attended by the Red Cross (as opposed to the US internment centre in Guantanamo),” not a place of extermination. He told a Swedish journalist (and fellow Holocaust denier) that “it’s every Muslim and Christian’s duty to deny the Holocaust.” The Jews, he says, are a “virus in human form” and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is real.

    But wait, there’s more!

  14. Kate | January 27, 2011 at 11:22 pm | Reply

    It’s the ugly side of anti colonial resistance

  15. LES | February 2, 2011 at 12:14 pm | Reply

    Official: 4 Russian police killed in the Caucasus

    Today at 13:42

    ROSTOV-ON-DON, Russia (AP) — Two masked gunmen burst into a cafe in Russia’s restive Caucasus region Wednesday and shot dead four traffic policemen on their lunch break, officials said.

    One other policeman was hospitalized in critical condition following the attack in Chegem, a small town in the Caucasus province of Kabardino-Balkaria, Alexei Kolupayev, a police spokesman for the North Caucasus Federal District, told The Associated Press.

    The suspects escaped with their Kalashnikov rifles in a commandeered taxi, Kolupayev said.

    Read more:

    http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/96163/#ixzz1Cnq8n3ZI

    • Robert | February 2, 2011 at 8:01 pm | Reply

      @a small town in the Caucasus province of Kabardino-Balkaria

      NALCHIK. Feb 1 (Interfax) – More security forces have been sent to the
      Russian North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria to help stabilize
      the situation there, Kabardian-Balkarian President Arsen Kanokov said at
      a press conference on Tuesday.

      The additional troops have been deployed in Nalchik and in the Elbrus, Baksan, and Chegem districts, he said. “I would like the people living in Kabardino-Balkaria to have no doubts that we will do all we can to reverse the situation,” Kanokov said. “The earth will be burning under [the militants’] feet,” he said.

      #putinpeaceandstability

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