Aslanova was a wife of 'General' Validzhanov, who was destroyed,' said a bulletin issued last month expressing concern over her whereabouts, and predicting she could make an attack. 'She went through a training in camps and can become a black widow and take part in preparing terrorist attacks on the territory of Russia', said the Dagestan Interior Ministry.
The attacks are believed to related to militant leader Doku Umarov, who in June, called for attacks of "maximum force" to stop the Winter Olympics in Sochi, which he labeled "satanic games to be held on the bones of our ancestors".
On Saturday, Russian forces killed an aide of Umarov in Dagestan. Umarov is suspected to be behind the bombing of a Moscow airport in 2011 and the bombing of the Moscow Metro in 2010. He publicly claimed credit for both attacks. The U.S. designated him a terrorist in 2010.
Dagestan and Chechnya are about 250 miles from Sochi.
Because security is already beefed up in Sochi, a Russian anti-terror official says "...terrorists will strike instead in these nearby cities like Volgograd." On the security at Sochi:
The security measures for the Sochi Olympics drafted in 2009 will be enforced by 42,000 police officers and 10,000 Interior Ministry troops, while 23,000 Ministry for Emergency Situations personnel will be deployed in the mountains and along the coast.
Chechens aren't taking Umarov too seriously. Many believe he's clamoring for attention to make people believe he still has relevance.
Meanwhile, just 50 percent of Chechens believe that Umarov’s statement was indeed motivated by resentment at Moscow’s choice as the venue for the 2014 Olympics of the ancestral homeland of the Circassians. In a poll launched in mid-December by RFE/RL’s North Caucasus Service, 10.5 percent of respondents attributed Umarov’s statement to the need to remind people he still exists, 7.9 percent to the belief that if he issues such threats, people will believe he is still a force to be reckoned with, and just 5.9 percent to the belief that he could force Russia to backtrack over the venue.
Ten days ago, Russian authorities said Umarov had been killed, and he released a video to dispute them (which made no mention of the Olympics.)
Back to the Black Widow:
Oksana Aslanova was reportedly born June 16, 1987 in Turkmenistan. She later moved to live in Russia’s North Caucasian Republic of Dagestan. She settled in the city of Derbent at 15/41, Rasulbekov Street and studied at the Dagestan State Pedagogic University.
She married Mansur Velibekov, a Chechen radical and member of the Southern (Yuzhnaya) criminal ring that was wiped in 2008. Upon her death, Velibekov’s widow became a so-called “Sharia wife” of the gang’s leader, Gasan Abdulayev.
Another report suggests that Aslanova was also married to a known terrorist, Israpil Validzhanov, who went under the nickname of Amir Hasan. He was eliminated on March 18, 2011 near the Dagestani village of Tashkapur.
She hasn't been heard from since 2012, leading authorities to believe she attended a training camp for suicide bombers.
In October, Naida Asiyalova, another female "black widow" bomber blew herself and others up on a bus in Volgograd.
The Olympics will, and should, go on.