Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia would “fiercely and consistently continue the fight against terrorists until their complete annihilation”

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that Russia would “fiercely and consistently continue the fight against terrorists until their complete annihilation,” the Interfax news agency reported.

 

The remarks in a New Year’s Eve address were Putin’s first public comments since suicide bombers killed at last 34 people in two attacks in the space of less than 24 hours in Russia’s southern city of Volgograd.

 

Earlier on Tuesday, police detained dozens of people in sweeps through Volgograd.

 

A man wounded when a bomber set off a blast in the city’s railway station on Sunday died overnight, bringing the toll in that attack to 18. Regional governor Sergei Bazhenov said 16 died in a trolleybus bombing on Monday.

 

There was no indication that any of those held was connected to the attacks.

 

Nobody has claimed responsibility for the blasts, but they underscored vulnerability to bombings and raised fears of attacks by Islamist insurgents whose leader has called on militants to prevent Russia hosting the Olympics in February.

 

Mourners laid flowers at the site of the suicide bombing that tore the bus apart.