World for the Week, No. 5, 25.9-2.10.99

A Blow to the Head with a Sack!

Alexander Portnov
Soviet Russia.
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Explosions of residential buildings in Russian cities have shocked the population. Therefore, the whole country breathed a sigh of relief when it learned that the residents of Ryazan miraculously managed to avoid another terrorist attack: a vigilant resident noticed how three unknown persons from a "Zhiguli" with a taped-over license plate were dragging some sacks into the basement of his 12-story building... The media spread the news throughout Russia that a mixture of hexogen explosives and granulated sugar was found in three sacks, detonators with a clockwork mechanism were attached to the sacks, and the explosion was planned for five o'clock in the morning...

MVD workers in Ryazan reacted promptly to the signal of a planned terrorist attack: in 15 minutes, they woke up and drove out into the street on a cold autumn night half-dressed, sleepy, and frightened residents from all the apartments of the 12-story building, including the elderly, the disabled, and infants... One disabled person remained in the apartment to await death, as he was unable to run out...

In Ryazan, the "Interception" plan was activated to catch the "Zhiguli" with the killers and, as usual, to no avail. But the main thing is that thanks to the vigilance of citizens, a terrible tragedy was prevented, and the residents, swallowing Validol and Valerian, dragged themselves back to their apartments. The head of the RF anti-terrorism headquarters, MVD Minister Rushailo, spoke in the media with a joyful report on the success of the MVD—a successfully prevented terrorist attack—and long-suffering Russia breathed a sigh of relief.

And then a series of some absurd and contradictory statements began. The head of the FSB Public Relations Center, A. Zdanovich, reported that there were no explosives in the basement on Novoselov Street, but there were "similar devices with remote control," and a test explosion of a portion of the substance from the sacks, carried out by specialists from Ryazan, did not cause detonation. Nevertheless, "vapors of an explosive substance of the hexogen type" were released. Does this mean there were explosives in the sugar after all?.. According to explosives specialists, the detonation at the testing ground did not occur only because of the small amount of the sample. As Ryazan UVD employees pointed out to journalists, "if all three sacks had been blown up, it most likely would have gone bang. And even more so if the terrorists had managed to bring in all the planned explosives!"

And suddenly... on the evening of the same day, the head of the FSB of the Russian Federation, Colonel General N. Patrushev, made an incredible statement that was at first difficult to believe: it turns out that the sacks and detonators were dragged into the basement of the 12-story building in the center of Ryazan in the dead of an autumn night by FSB EMPLOYEES who arrived in a car with taped-over license plates!!! It was with such original, mysterious, and as close as possible to real actions that the previously unknown new head of the FSB decided to demonstrate to Russians his general's qualities, implying the talent of a commander, combat savvy, resourcefulness, intelligence, and quick-wittedness.

Speaking on TV, Colonel General N. Patrushev, with a jaunty smirk and a steady, calm voice, informed the astonished listeners that in Ryazan, it turns out, there were... "exercises" and a "test" of the preparedness of the population and the MVD for terrorist attacks!!!

Everything seems clear to every Russian about the abilities of the head of the FSB of the Russian Federation, but a natural question arises: what RIGHT DID CITIZEN PATRUSHEV HAVE TO CONDUCT SUCH IMMORAL AND BRUTAL "EXERCISES" IN THE CENTER OF A LARGE RUSSIAN CITY??? Should we now expect that FSB employees will not limit themselves to Ryazan, but, according to Patrushev's instructions, will begin "educational" mining of the Kremlin, Red Square, Manege, Nevsky Prospect, etc.? And all this in order to check whether Yeltsin and his household and "Muscovites and guests of the capital" will behave "correctly" in extreme conditions; whether they will "notice" the FSB employees in time, whether they will react "promptly" to the sacks of explosives, etc. In short, in the process of such "exercises," one can make a mass of most interesting observations for the FSB leadership!

Of course, any normal person understands that such so-called exercises cannot be conducted in cities! By the way, Zdanovich himself in his statement reminded of the responsibility for a knowingly false report of an act of terrorism under Article 207 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation with a prison term of up to three years. But N. Patrushev apparently does not know this.

If a leader who has lost his mind and conscience wanted to know how people usually react to a situation that he so "resourcefully" organized for the residents of Ryazan, then for a start he should have "played it out" at night at his personal dacha near Moscow: it would be very interesting to know if his household, security, and janitor would run into the forest if armed people in masks dragged sacks of "sugar" with ticking alarm clocks and detonators into the underground garage of the general's dacha?..

Russia is in no mood for jokes now. Russians must understand that a mean and dirty game has been started in the country. The explosions in Russian cities suspiciously coincided in time with the start of large-scale military operations; they were very convenient for someone to unleash the bombing of peaceful residents of Chechnya! Tens of thousands of refugees on the borders of Dagestan and Ingushetia are victims of so-called precision strikes on unknown "militant bases"!

One cannot fail to notice the social orientation of the terrorist attacks: it is not luxurious banks that are blown up, not gilded offices where many dozens of chic limousines are parked... For some reason, it is exclusively the overcrowded houses of the poor that collapse, simple people are dying!.. The mysterious "glitch" in Ryazan clearly showed that the FSB's actions, criminal toward the citizens of Russia, were not coordinated with either the MVD leadership or the Prime Minister.

In that case, the story of the "FSB exercises" in Ryazan cannot pass without a trace. It MUST be studied in detail and with prejudice by the Prosecutor General's Office. In any normal country, the head of a security service who has committed such a shameful and anecdotal misdeed MUST RESIGN. But in Yeltsin's "ersatz-philia" [?] this is "not accepted." Unfortunately, for now, Prime Minister V. Putin also seems to "not notice" the absurd actions of his former subordinate. What a pity!