A detonator based on a hunting cartridge was unlikely to have been made without soldering.
Judging by the appearance of the detonator, it was made according to a well-known terrorist technology—using a cracked lightbulb.
A hole was cut in the cardboard casing of the cartridge with a knife, and a lightbulb was inserted into it in such a way that the exposed filament was immersed in gunpowder, while the base remained outside (Fig. 3).
Circuit Element Assembly
The electrode on the base of a car lamp or a flashlight lamp has a diameter of no more than 3 mm, and it is extremely difficult to attach the end of a wire, especially a stranded one, to it purely mechanically (without soldering).
The closing element, made from a watch, could not have been made without soldering.
The circuit elements in such watches are very small: the size of the board contacts is about 1 mm, the gaps between them are fractions of a millimeter.
It is impossible to reliably attach wire ends to them, even single-core ones, or at least create the appearance of a real attachment without soldering.
Assembly Discrepancies
The fact that the setting and conditions in which the closer (watch) and detonator (cartridge) were made differed significantly from the conditions in which the power supply was made and the final assembly of the circuit was carried out is confirmed with high probability by the presence of several twists between the wires in the circuit.
Ideally, three wires would have been enough to make the circuit (Fig. 4).
These twists do not carry an "intimidating" function; on the contrary, they make the circuit look less reliable, while the closer and detonator give the impression of being made very carefully.
Consequently, the twists were needed to connect elements that already had leads coming out.
Watch Case Construction
The care taken in making the closer is also evidenced by the fact that the watch case in the photographs is closed, and no gap is visible in it.
Undoubtedly, a recess for the wires was cut into the edges of one or both halves of the case.
To ensure a neat lead-out of the wires and the snapping shut of the watch case requires time comparable to the time it takes to make the rest of the circuit (or even more, if the detonator is made with soldering).
To create a mock-up, this was completely unnecessary—it would have been enough to wrap the watch case with electrical tape.
This work made sense only in anticipation of either transporting the element or handing it over to less careful hands.
The concern for the reliability of the circuit's operation is also confirmed by the connection of a third battery that did not fit in the box. This battery does not add to the "intimidating effect," but it does add voltage.
Conclusions
The explosive circuit closer made from an electronic watch was NOT made in the same conditions as the power supply. The detonator made from a cartridge most likely was not either.
In the manufacture of the explosive circuit, the main attention was paid not to the persuasiveness of the imitation, but to the reliability of the device's operation.
Other News
They are no longer being sought
Anatoly Mylnikov was detained at the Ukrainian border while attempting to leave the CIS.
Taukan Frantsuzov, arrested in 2000, was sentenced in 2001 along with four comrades by the Stavropol Regional Court for preparing other terrorist acts. He received 13.5 years. The court dropped the charges of preparing the Moscow bombings for all the defendants.
It is unknown what happened to Ruslan Magayev. The press reported that in the fall of 1999 he was detained in Kislovodsk (a KamAZ truck in which explosives were stored was rented in his name) and placed in the FSB's Lefortovo detention center. No further reports on his fate were made. His name is mentioned neither in connection with the Stavropol trial nor in connection with the Moscow trial that has begun.
Alexander Kapanadze has disappeared—a retired warrant officer who in September 1999 gave "Novaya Gazeta" material for the publication "We know who went on that bloody raid"—about how the apartment bombings were organized by Basaev and Khattab. One of the soldiers' mothers promised three years ago to give us the Tbilisi address of Kapanadze's parents. It recently turned out that she was unable to reach us by phone then, and later...