From Abrosimov's testimony

Judge Olga Kudeshkina writes in the verdict that from Abrosimov's testimony it also follows that he knew Polonsky as an FSB officer who acted as a kind of guarantor during commercial transactions, saw his service ID and weapon. The FSB is not mentioned again in the verdict. But at the trial itself, this word was heard many times.

We heard how witness T., a close friend of the late Lazovsky, proved to the judge that Lazovsky was an FSB officer and acted on the instructions of this service. The witness explains the reason for the murder of Atlan Nataev as follows:
* Friends from Lubyanka brought Lazovsky a tape of a "wiretap" where Nataev promises to deal with not only Lazovsky himself, but also his wife and child for something.
* According to other testimonies, FSB officers drove Nataev to his execution.
* T. told the court how people from the FSB intimidated him in order to prevent his participation in the trial as a witness.
* T. also spoke about the participation in the group's affairs of former foreign intelligence colonel Petr Suslov, whom he had met more than once at Maxim's. (By the way, Suslov later collaborated in the "Eurasia" movement with Nukhaev).

Another witness (journalist Georgy Rozhnov heard this) said that before the bridge explosion, the explosives expert Shchelenkov consulted by phone with some "Volodya from the FSB."

PREDICTIONS

The Chechen trail leading to Lubyanka

On September 11, 1999, the newspaper "Moskovsky Komsomolets" reported: Caucasians are going to blow up three houses in Moscow. One house had already been blown up by that day, but, if the note in "MK" is to be believed, this information reached them even before the first explosion. Then a second house was blown up and the mining of another was discovered (in Kapotnya there were no residential buildings in the immediate vicinity of the warehouse). Both occurred after the publication in "MK".

Anonymous terrorist bombings had happened before. But, firstly, it was far away — mainly in the markets of the Caucasus; there, in the Caucasus, the first house explosion also occurred — in the military town of Buynaksk. Secondly, explosions with many human casualties occurred quite rarely, about once a year, almost every time the special services soon reported the capture of terrorists, and everything went quiet for a long time. It was hard to believe immediately that a house in Moscow had been blown up, and as for the fact that this would be repeated in the coming days, and more than once, probably no one truly believed.

How did this prediction get into the most popular newspaper?

Here is what the newspaper wrote:
"Unique details about the events preceding the explosion on Guryanov Street became known to 'MK' from sources in the Federal Security Service of Russia. It turns out that counterintelligence officers received information about a terrorist act being prepared in Moscow several days in advance.

According to information available to 'MK', on Monday morning a phone call was received at the editorial office of one of the German radio stations (broadcasting in Russian). A voice with a Caucasian accent reported that in a few days three residential buildings in residential areas would be blown up in Moscow. German journalists recorded this call on a tape recorder.

Having contacted the FSB of Russia via international telephone, the Germans played the tape for the counterintelligence officers. (...) As FSB operatives assured 'MK', the 'telephone' version will be checked in detail."

Anatoly Datsenko, an employee of "Deutsche Welle," claims: everything was not like that at all. There was no call to the studio, and no one made a tape recording.

• — I was taking a report for "Deutsche Welle" from our freelance correspondent in the Caucasus. His name is Alvi, I don't know his last name; it seems he published something in "MK" as well. This was in the first days of September. Alvi was talking about the battles in Dagestan. Suddenly, an outside voice with an accent appeared in the receiver. He said something like: "Hey, journalist, we'll soon arrange something like that for you in Moscow!.." Immediately after that, the connection with Alvi was cut off. I never make tape recordings. On September 9, after the terrorist attack, I went to the FSB reception room and told them the same thing I'm telling you now. Who gave the note to "MK" — I don't know.
• — Did you send a refutation to the newspaper?
• — I consulted with my management, and we decided not to do it.

In those days, battles were going on in Dagestan: Russian tanks and aviation for almost the entire month of August were expelling Shamil Basaev's detachment from the small republic. One of the first terrorist threats came from Dagestan. It was on September 3, immediately after the explosion in the gaming complex on Manezhnaya: "France Press distributed a sensational report. Alvi Zakriev, the correspondent of this agency in Grozny, was called by..."

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