Islamist rebel vows "maximum force" to stop Sochi Olympics

Reuters via Yahoo ^ | July 3, 2013 | Thomas Groove

[cunning_fish]

MOSCOW, July 3 (Reuters) - Russian Islamist rebel leaders urged their fighters on Wednesday to use "maximum force" to prevent President Vladimir Putin staging the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.

In an online video recorded in a forest, Doku Umarov said an order not to attack Russian targets outside the North Caucasus had been cancelled and likened holding the Games in the Black Sea city to performing "Satanic dances" on the graves of Muslims killed fighting Russian forces there in the 19th century.

Umarov sat wearing camouflage fatigues and a cap in front of a black jihadist flag, flanked by two fighters who, like him, were bearded. As he spoke, birds could be heard singing in the forest around him.

Sochi, which is due to host the Games next February, is a few hundred kilometres (miles) from the volatile and mountainous North Caucasus region in southern Russia where there is almost daily violence. It was the homeland of ethnic Circassians until they were expelled in the 19th century.

[windcliff]

New Olympic event.

[colorado tanker]

Holding a Winter Olympics at a Summer beach resort was pretty dumb to begin with, but holding it in the same neighborhood as Chechnya and Dagaestan is downright loony. I wonder how much the Russian mafia paid the Olympic Committee?

[rickmichaels]

Войска специального назначения.

[Buckeye McFrog]

One reason the NHL has been reticent to commit to these games is the hotel the players would be using is located about a mile from the troubled border with Georgia. WTH??

[colorado tanker]

The Olympics are a pain in the butt for the NHL as it is with them coming in the middle of the season. I didn’t know the Rushkies wanted to put the players near Georgia. The Georgians wouldn’t try anything, of course, but the muzzies will take advantage of any kind of uncertain situation.