Thomas Bach wrote to President Vladimir Putin to express condolences（慰问，哀悼） for the "despicable" attacks that struck Volgograd within 24 hours.

 

Investigators¹ say the attacks on a railway station and trolleybus, which killed at least 31 people, were linked.

 

They struck just over a month before the Winter Olympics begin.

 

Volgograd was also targeted in October, when a suspected female suicide bomber² killed six people in an attack on a bus.

 

It is being widely assumed in Russia that the people who carried out the Volgograd bombings were involved in the Islamist-inspired insurgency³ against Russian rule in the Caucasus republics of Chechnya and Dagestan, and that the target was the Games, says the BBC's Moscow correspondent Daniel Sandford.

 

In a statement, Russia's foreign ministry⁴ did not blame any particular group but likened the attacks to acts by militants⁵ in the United States, Syria and elsewhere.

 

It called for international solidarity⁶ in the fight against "an insidious⁷ enemy that can only be defeated together", reported Reuters news agency.

 

Regional Governor Sergei Bozhenov said the bombings were a "serious test" for all Volgograd residents and all Russians.

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