Russian Police Kill Islamist Militant Leader Ahead of Sochi Olympics

Russian security forces kill a senior Islamist militant in a shootout in Russia's North Caucasus ahead of the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

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Police killed a senior Islamist militant in a shootout in Russia's North Caucasus ahead of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, the National Anti-Terror Committee said on Tuesday.

The shooting of Eldar Magatov, a suspect in numerous attacks on Russian targets, at a house where he had taken refuge in the Dagestan region was part of an intensifying security clampdown.

President Vladimir Putin has staked his political reputation on organizing a successful Olympics.

Magatov led an insurgent group in Dagestan, which has become the focal point of the insurgency, which is rooted in two separatist wars in neighboring Chechnya.

In a video published on Monday, two men said to have carried out twin suicide bombings in Volgograd City last month, warned Putin to expect more attacks if the Games go ahead.

The attacks in Volgograd killed at least 34 people and raised security fears before the Olympics, which open on February 7 in Sochi, a Black Sea resort on the edge of the Caucasus Mountains.

In Sochi itself, residents say posters have appeared of a woman from Dagestan whom the Russian authorities suspect could be planning a suicide bombing. 

Putin says Russia can cope with the security threat.

Russia program director at Human Rights Watch, Tatyana Lokshina, says almost daily military operations in Dagestan is a part of Kremlin's strategy to ensure security during the Games.

She says pressure by the authorities on the civil society has become less intense in the months before the Olympics and is likely to get stronger, if the world stops watching Russia closely.