England camp on high terror alert before Volgograd opener

Security is tight in Volgograd as England prepare for their opening World Cup game in the south-west Russian city on Monday.

There is a heightened police presence and military officers were seen scouring the area around the team hotel for improvised explosive devices.

A perimeter fence has been erected at the hotel where Gareth Southgate’s squad are staying for two nights, amid warnings that the city is a potential target for Islamic State terrorists.

A security expert told the Guardian Volgograd’s proximity to the bitterly disputed North Caucasus region, home to many returnees from Isis-controlled territories, made the city a more accessible target than Moscow or St Petersburg.

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England’s hotel, and that of their opponents Tunisia, is being closely guarded. Military officers with sniffer dogs scanned the surrounding area 24 hours before they arrived, while police lifted manhole covers to check for hidden devices.

On arrival, England players will be subjected to full airport-style security checks by several guards on the door. All bags must go through a scanner and any phones or portable electronic devices are switched on to check they don’t pose a threat.

Alex Kokcharov, an analyst for Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency centre, said Russian authorities were well prepared. “For any Islamist insurgency, aspirational targets will be Moscow and St Petersburg because they’re high profile and the exposure in terms of international media presence there,” Kokcharov said.

“However their capability there is much more limited, especially when you take into account that the Russian security services have taken a large number of arrests and detentions in the last six months of individuals linked to various extremist cells.

“From a geographical point of view, the host cities located in the south of the country, including Volgograd and Rostov, would probably present a higher security risk because of proximity to the traditional hotspots of Islamist militants in Russia,” he added. “Those are the ethnic republics of North Caucasus, such as Chechnya and Dagestan.”

World Cup: Russia 2018 venues (PA)[/caption]

Russia has fought two bloody wars and an insurgency since the 1990s in the North Caucasus region. In 2013, twin suicide bombings at the Volgograd train station and on a local trolleybus killed 34 people. Russia later claimed to have killed the mastermind behind the bombing in Dagestan, a republic in Russia adjacent to Chechnya that has been a hotbed for Islamic fundamentalism.

Andrei Bocharov, the governor of Volgograd, told the Guardian last month that the government was taking “all steps necessary” to prevent a terrorist attack during the World Cup, including sharing information with British and other foreign intelligence agencies. A veteran of the first Chechen war, Bocharov was first appointed and then elected governor of the Volgograd region in 2014 on a law and order platform just a few months after the twin bombings took place.

The city has taken extraordinary security precautions during test football matches at Volgograd Arena, where England will play Tunisia. At the Russian Cup final between FC Tosno and Kursk Avangard in May, swaths of the city were shut down, streets blocked off and public transportation cancelled. The degree of security is so extreme that the city declares match as days public holidays, because so many residents complained about problems getting to work.

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“Russian security services are well aware of that so activity will be more elevated and pronounced than in other host cities,” Kokcharov said, “The main risk is probably from lone individuals or small groups, there have been no complex attacks, in the style of the organised attacks in Paris and Brussels, in Russia since 2012.”

At the fan park on the banks of the river Volga, England fans mingled with Tunisians and locals to watch the three World Cup games on Sunday. They faced checks from friendly but thorough security staff to gain access with airport style scanners and additional inspections with security wands.

“The risk is there but the Russian authorities are mitigating it,” Kokcharov said, “There is messaging online, whether from Islamic State or sympathisers to launch attacks on the World Cup.”