He said 124 suicide attackers have struck Russia over the past 13 years.
Air defense missiles, drones, high-speed patrol boats and sophisticated sonars capable of spotting submarines -- the array of high-tech gear deployed makes Sochi look like it's preparing for an enemy invasion from both air and sea.
The back-to-back December suicide bombings of a railway station and a bus in Volgograd, about 640 kilometers (400 miles) east of Sochi, killed 34 people and demonstrated the militants' ability to strike with shocking ease. A jihadist group in Dagestan, the epicenter of the Islamic rebellion against Russia that has engulfed the Caucasus, claimed responsibility for the Volgograd bombings and has threatened to strike Sochi. Dagestan is only a few hundred miles (kilometers) from Sochi.
Police in Sochi issued leaflets recently warning about three potential suicide bombers, one of whom, a 22-year-old widow of an Islamic militant, was said to be at large in the city. The notices have raised questions about efficiency of the rigid security measures in Sochi, which have involved the expulsion of thousands of migrant workers and blanket police checks of city residents.
