Khasbulat's Claim

A person calling himself Khasbulat, introducing himself as a "responsible person of the Liberation Army of Dagestan," stated that the explosion in the shopping complex on Manezhnaya Square in Moscow was carried out by militants of this organization. He added, "Terrorist acts on the territory of Russia will continue until federal troops leave Dagestan," and then hung up.

The Informant Theory

The information from the FSB to "MK" (Moskovsky Komsomolets) was most likely brought by Alvi Zakriev—after all, he worked for both "MK" and "Deutsche Welle." Alvi, the FSB, and the management of "Deutsche Welle" knew about the threatening call to Anatoly. However, Alvi had no way of knowing about Anatoly's visit to the FSB, unless he himself went there on the same day or the next. Therefore, we will call the author of the note simply the Informant.

However, perhaps the publication was about a different call? This is especially true since the author of the note writes about "international telephone communication," while Datsenko, who hosted Caucasian themes on "Deutsche Welle," was in Moscow.

Let's assume there was a second call from terrorists to "Deutsche Welle." Then we would have to assume:
* The management decided not to inform its employee who received a similar call, but instead informed the FSB.
* Within a few days, two different employees of the same radio station approached the FSB.
* The person at the FSB, informing the journalist (Informant) about the recorded call, did not know about the call to Anatoly or, for some reason, did not supplement his story with this detail.
* After the publication in "MK," Alvi was not interested in it and did not ask Anatoly anything.

None of these assumptions seem completely improbable, but their coincidence seems improbable. Therefore, it can be considered practically certain that there was no second call to "Deutsche Welle."

The Two Messages from the FSB

So, "MK" received essentially two messages in one from the FSB:

1. About a call from the Caucasus to "Deutsche Welle" (other "German radio stations broadcasting in Russian," as far as we know, do not exist) and that radio journalists reported this call to the FSB.
2. That three houses would be blown up.

Who combined these messages into one—the Informant or the Chekists?

"MK" called its information unique. This means it was not reported at a press conference or briefing. This implies the Informant has closer contacts with the FSB than other journalists. It is difficult to assume that such an "especially trusted" journalist, on the way from the FSB to "MK," independently supplemented the Lubyanka message with a forecast about "three houses." In this case, after the real explosions, the FSB would have begun to disavow authorship of the forecast, just as State Duma Chairman Seleznyov disavowed the prediction of the explosion in Volgodonsk.

It is even harder to imagine a person who receives "unique" information simultaneously from both the FSB and real terrorists.

Volunteer Mylnikov

This is the most accurate of the predictors.

If we believe the journalists of "Komsomolskaya Pravda" (10.09.1999), he came to them on the evening of September 8 and warned that the next explosion (after the gaming hall on Manezhnaya) "was promised in seven days. The deadline expires tonight." At midnight, there was an explosion in Pechatniki.

Vladimir—this is how Anatoly Mylnikov introduced himself to the "Komsomolka" journalists—told them a touching story of his love. In January 1999, a certain Alexander Z. was sentenced to 15 years on murder charges. "Alexander's wife was left with two children. Since January, I began living with her." Alexander's cronies are beating his share of the murder fee out of his accomplice, who remained at large. The police accuse Alexander's wife, Natalya Z., of this extortion, and in June she goes to prison. According to "Vladimir's" version, certain Caucasians are now putting pressure on him, demanding that he secure Natalya's release. They call him and write to his pager: until Natalya is free, "there will be fireworks," "explosions will be repeated every day... no, every week."

The next day, September 9, the journalists met with Mylnikov again (he still hadn't told them his real name), and at that moment another message came to his pager: "We made a second firework. There will be a third if necessary."

If we don't believe the journalists, then it turns out that they made the prediction of the third explosion (the second house explosion) themselves: the newspaper came out on September 10, the second house explosion—on Kashirka—was on the 13th, having invented the story of the previous prediction that came exactly true for persuasiveness.

But the journalists did not invent the predictor himself. In addition to visiting them, the 53-year-old head of the economic security service of the "Zolotye Stranitsy" publishing house, Anatoly Viktorovich Mylnikov, sent warnings (but in a different form) to the Prosecutor General's Office and to "Novaya Gazeta."