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Discovery of alleged Russian plot points to growing jitters
As Russia congratulated its forces for foiling an alleged Islamist plot on Moscow, the discovery of the plan also pointed to the growing security threat before the 2014 Winter Olympics.Monday's killing of two suspected militants and arrest of a third in a sleepy town near Moscow was quickly followed by the killing of one of the leaders of an Islamist insurgency being waged in Russia's North Caucasus. For President Vladimir Putin, who built his reputation more than a decade ago in a war against rebels in the mainly Muslim Chechnya region, such successes are an opportunity to promote the image of a strong state and rally personal support. But there is also concern at the Kremlin over suspicions the alleged militants had trained abroad and had been linked to a group in the Central Asian state of Uzbekistan. With Moscow already trying to quell the insurgency in the North Caucasus, the fear is of a widening threat from better-trained groups before Russia hosts the Winter Olympics next February in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Posted by: tipper 2013-05-21 |
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