OpEd - Moscow Blast Exposes Worries for Sochi Olympics

(ATR) I wasn’t at Domodedovo Airport when the suicide bomber attacked Monday. But it was still too close for comfort.

I have become familiar with Domodedovo after my airlines of choice to Moscow switched from the aging Sheremetyevo in the north of the city to this much more modern airport on the south side of the city.

After some unhappy travels through Sheremetyevo and its sister domestic terminal a few kilometers away, the emergence of Domodedovo as a gateway to Russia has been welcomed.

But the bombing Monday quite figuratively shattered my notion of Domodedovo as a traveler’s haven. But an even more disquieting consequence is the realization that Russia has a long way to go before there can be any boasts about security plans for the Sochi Olympics, now three years away.

Dismay and despair seem to characterize the reaction from Muscovites who have seen it all before. Last March, 40 people died and more than 100 were hurt when two women blew themselves up in the Moscow subway. In Nov. 2009, 26 died when the high speed train from Moscow to St. Petersburg was bombed off the tracks.

But there are twin beacons of hope that things will get better. The IOC and FIFA, both of which seem to have unshakeable faith that the 2014 Winter Games and 2018 World Cup will be safe.

"The IOC is confident that the Russian authorities will put in place all necessary measures to ensure that the Olympic Winter Games in Sochi are held in a safe environment," was the response from Lausanne after the subway bombings in March 2010.

And Monday’s bombing at Domodedovo failed to diminish the optimism of the IOC, either.

"At the Olympics, security is the responsibility of the local authorities, and we have no doubt that the Russian authorities will be up to the task," said an IOC statement.

"FIFA is confident that Russian authorities will ensure adequate security plans are in place," was the muted reaction from the football federation to the Domodedovo carnage.

The response from the Russian government to the airport bombing (at least as monitored from outside Russia) seems to consist of a blame game – and vows of retribution.

"You have to pay maximum attention to the anti-terrorist security of the APEC summit in Vladivostok in 2012, the Summer Universiade in Kazan in 2013 and the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014," is how ATR reported comments from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to senior security officials. Some of them have been fired since then.

Medvedev may be right to fire incompetent security leaders, but will those who replace them offer more expertise? Higher ethical standards?

Will onerous security checks become the norm for Moscow airports? And Sochi, too?

Optimism from the IOC and FIFA that security will be ready in time for their events seem to overlook the fact that security today is just as important for those traveling to Russia ahead of the Games.

Sponsors, broadcasters, NOCs, press and athletes are all among those making journeys to Sochi in the next three years. Dozens of athletes and officials head to the beautiful slopes of Rosa Khutor in February for the first test events for the 2014 Games.

Never has a sports event been a target of the terrorists who stalk Russia, never any attacks in Sochi. Is it simply good fortune?

Not to give anyone ideas, but the woeful Sochi airport is ripe for trouble of the sort at Domodedovo. And then there’s the political geography: Sochi lies 2500km closer to the restive enclaves in southern Russia that seem to be the home of the nation’s suicide bombers. Not to mention that the border with Georgia -- at one time not long ago at war with Russia -- lies just overthe mountains from the slopes to be used for the Winter Olympics.

Notably there’s a security issue in another place holding an upcoming Olympics and World Cup: Brazil and most notoriously Rio de Janeiro. But in the case of Brazil, efforts to battle drug-gang violence in the favelas are highly visible, whether bloody police offensives or peace-building community programs.

And yes, we have been reminded that the day after London won the 2012 Olympics in 2005, bombers laid waste to trains and buses in the center of the city. Since then, British intelligence and law enforcement have foiled other attacks. The same cannot be said of Russia, where there have been nearly 500 casualties in three bombings since 2009.

Who do I trust? Scotland Yard or a Russian police force known for corruption and obvious incompetence?

We are not privy to the discussions that take place between the IOC and the government about security for the Sochi Olympics. Maybe the Russians are convincingly detailing how the Games will be trouble-free.

But a third bombing in Moscow in 14 months tells me that Russia is far from neutralizing a shadowy movement of heartless terrorists who likely have as little respect for the Olympics as they exhibit towards their fellow Russians.

And I grimly look forward to my next trip to Russia – and the cold shiver I’ll feel as the doors open from baggage claim to the arrivals hall at Domodedovo, my haven no longer.

Written by Ed Hula.

Op Ed is a regular column of opinion and ideas from Around the Rings.

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