On visit to Volgograd, Putin vows to 'annihilate' those responsible

President Vladimir Putin met wounded victims of two deadly suicide bombings in Volgograd Wednesday, heaping condemnation on the attacks that raised security fears ahead of the Winter Olympics.

Putin flew in before dawn, after vowing in his New Year's address to "annihilate" armed opposition forces in uncompromising remarks aimed at groups based in the North Caucasus who have plagued his time in office.

"No matter what motivated the criminals, there can be no justification for crimes against civilians, particularly against women and children," Putin said in televised comments at the start of a meeting with senior security officials.

"The vileness of the crime — or crimes — that were committed here, in Volgograd, needs no additional commentary," Putin said during the tightly-controlled visit to the southern Russian city.

A day earlier, eerily empty buses lumbered through the streets, police weighed down with body armor warily watched pedestrians near a fast-food restaurant, and members of Cossack units stood guard at bus stops. Volgograd was an ominous and jittery city on Tuesday, after two suicide bombings in two days that killed 34 people.

"People are afraid it will happen again — they're trying not to go outside if they don't have to," 20-year-old Yulia Kuzmina, a student told The Associated Press. "We get a feeling that a war has started."

That is a worry that extends far beyond Volgograd.

Although there has been no claim of responsibility for the bombing of the city's main railway station and a trolleybus, suspicion falls strongly on Islamist insurgents, whose leader ordered his adherents this summer to do all they could to derail the Winter Olympics, which start Feb. 7 in the Russian resort city of Sochi.

Games organizers have introduced some of the most extensive identity checks and security measures ever seen at an international sporting event. But even if security at the Games is tight, many analysts suggest that the Volgograd bombings show how public transit in Sochi and sites away from the sports venues are vulnerable.

Police reinforcements and Interior Ministry troops have been sent into Volgograd, regional police official Andrei Pilipchuk was quoted as telling the Interfax news agency. He said more than 5,200 security forces are deployed in the city of 1 million, but did not say how much of an increase that was from normal levels.

Officers and security guards searched the purses of young women entering a shopping center and waved metal detectors over both males and females.

The Cossacks guarding some bus stops added an unsettling note. Although these units are officially authorized volunteer patrols, they are descendants of the fierce horsemen who protected the czars and launched raids on Muslims in the Russian Caucasus, where the Islamist insurgency is now centered.

Volgograd authorities have canceled mass events for New Year's Eve, one of Russia's most popular holidays, and asked residents not to set off fireworks. In addition, all movie theaters have been closed until Thursday. In Moscow, festivities were to go ahead, but authorities said security would be increased.

"What blasphemy. They did it right before the holiday," said Arkady Chernyavsky, a 73-year-old retiree. He bristled at how the attacks stained the image of a city that prides itself for the tragic valor of the World War II Battle of Stalingrad, as the city then was called.

"This is supposed to be the city of heroes and things like this are taking place," Chernyavsky said.

Suicide bombings have rocked Russia for years, but the insurgents seeking to create an Islamic state have largely confined their attacks to the North Caucasus region in recent years. The blasts in Volgograd signaled that militants want to show their reach outside their native region. Volgograd is about 200 miles north of the Caucasus and about 430 miles northeast of Sochi.

In October, a female suicide bomber blew herself up on a city bus in Volgograd, killing six people and injuring about 30. Officials said the attacker came from the province of Dagestan, which has become the center of an Islamist insurgency that has spread across the region after two separatist wars in Chechnya.

After the October incident, Russian authorities said they had started taking saliva samples from religiously conservative women in the area, in order to identify the women if they became suicide bombers.  

China, host of the 2008 Summer Olympics, on Tuesday expressed confidence in the security of the Sochi Games.

"The competent authorities on our side have maintained close communication and cooperation with Russia in terms of the security work for the Winter Olympics. We believe that Russia is capable of ensuring security and hosting a successful Winter Olympics," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters on Tuesday.

The United States would welcome "closer cooperation" with Russia on security preparations for the Winter Olympics, White House spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said Monday.

Al Jazeera and wire services