Explosion in... 1999. State... us from terror... Volgodonsk. 1999.

"...damage cannot be compensated or fixed by this." How to evaluate it? The accents were set by the Moscow City Court, and then by the Supreme Court — four years later, the people of Volgodonsk heard the verdict: "Recover from the convicted." It sounds something like: "You'll get it from Pushkin" [a Russian idiom meaning "you'll get nothing"].

In their cassation appeal, the victims from Volgodonsk wrote: "With such compensation... the lack of equality between the rights of victims of a terrorist attack and government officials, for whom moral damage is calculated by courts using different standards and reaches many millions of rubles, is confirmed."

The authorities are doing everything to insure themselves against lawsuits. The executive branch claims that there was and is no war in the Caucasus, and therefore all terrorist attacks are not a consequence of incompetent policy, but almost accidents. The legislature does not want to pass a law "On Victims of Terrorist Attacks," although the need for it is obvious. The judicial branch makes decisions that run counter to the law, openly mocking people who have lost their health, relatives, and loved ones. Everyone has already gotten used to all this.

But even charitable aid — not state, but private — dissolves in unknown "black holes."

Charity Volgodonsk-style

Lyudmila Dubinskaya, a victim of the terrorist attack in Volgodonsk:

• When the terrorist attack happened, the whole country and foreign countries responded to our grief. Charitable funds were collected, which, according to our data, amount to 200 million rubles.
• These funds first went to the city administration's account, but the Ministry of Justice stated that this was illegal and a fund had to be created, as the victims were the legal owners of the money.
• After that, the city duma created a fund headed by Eduard Rykov, the former chairman of the city duma.
• In the Ministry of Justice, his... [text missing] ...increased their well-being.
• In the city duma, in the city health department, they did European-style renovations.

An unidentified official of the Volgodonsk city health department commented on it this way:

• Funds did not pass through the health department. We received an ultrasound machine from the Soros Foundation — it's impossible to misappropriate it.
• The medicines that arrived, we didn't pass through the city health department — they went through invoices through state pharmacies. Then they went to medical institutions.
• We were repeatedly checked by commissions and they found nothing reprehensible...
• They will tell you the same thing in the mayor's office, and in the city duma, and in the prosecutor's office... This is all, of course, wonderful. But where is the money for the victims?

Lyudmila Dubinskaya: "In the end, the court did recognize the illegality of creating the fund. Now it is being liquidated, but where is the money? And we started having serious problems when we turned to the Prosecutor General's Office about this. They started calling Irina Polyanskaya at home: they told her children that if their mother didn't stop fighting for her rights, she wouldn't live long. We had to be extremely careful: we tried not to go out in the evening, to stick together, not to open doors until we heard a pre-arranged knock. Once I broke this rule. My son didn't stay home that night. At half past four in the morning, the doorbell rang. I jumped up, heard from behind the door: "Mom, open up." Half-asleep, I opened it immediately. I saw two men on the doorstep. I received a sharp blow to the head and a blow to the groin. Losing consciousness, I heard: "If you don't shut your mouth, we'll kill you." The criminal case about this assassination attempt was hushed up." Just as, after some time, everything else was hushed up...

Anna KOGAN, Igor KOVALEVSKY

Israel's Law on Victims of Terrorist Attacks

If, after completing the rehabilitation course, a person is still unable to work, they have the right to apply to a state medical commission, which will determine the degree of disability. In case of total loss of work capacity...

The number of victims in Volgodonsk is growing: suicides and beatings [fragment]

State Duma

State Duma Building. Main Hall.

September 17, 1999. 10 o'clock.
Presided over by the Chairman of the State Duma Gennadiy Seleznyov

Presiding Officer. Dear deputies, good morning! Please, proceed to the hall.
Dear colleagues, please, take your seats.
Turn on the deputy registration mode.
Those without a card, please register at the secretariat.
Show the results.

Registration results (10:02:17)
* Present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 352 people . . . . . 78.2%
* Absent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 people . . . . . 21.8%
* Total deputies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 450 people
* Quorum is present

Quorum is present.
Dear colleagues, allow me on your behalf to congratulate Viktor Yakovlevich Medikov and Valentin Georgievich Stepankov on their birthdays. (Applause.)
Dear deputies, you have the agenda for today's work in your hands. I propose to vote for it as a basis.
Who is without a card and would like to vote?
Show the results.

Voting results (10:03:10)
* Voted for . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 people . . . . . 60.9%
* Voted against . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 people . . . . . 0.0%
* Abstained . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0 people . . . . . 0.0%
* Voted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274 people
* Did not vote . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 people
* Result: passed

Adopted as a basis.
In connection with today's agenda, with the "government hour", the floor is given to Boris Yuryevich Kuznetsov. Please.

Kuznetsov B.Yu., First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma.
Dear deputies, in the "Government Hour" section of our agenda today, the first item is the question of the activities of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defense, well, for brevity I will say, on Transnistria. This was introduced by deputy Zhanna Mikhailovna Lozinskaya, and the chamber voted on this issue.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Minister Ivanov personally and in writing (you have this letter, it was distributed today), and yesterday in an oral conversation with me, asked to postpone this issue to a later date. They are now intensively conducting negotiations with the Transnistrian Republic, Smirnov is supposed to arrive and meet with the Chairman of the Government. They very convincingly ask for a postponement and are ready to consider this issue on October 1. Our capabilities coincide with their proposal, and we can postpone this issue to October 1. If we are still going to consider it today, then it should be kept in mind that Minister Ivanov is on a business trip and Vasily Dmitrievich Sredin, State Secretary, Deputy Minister, is ready to come to us to participate in the work. The chamber must now decide: either to postpone this issue of our "government hour" to October 1, or still carry it out today in closed session, but the absence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs is recorded in the documents.
Thank you.

Presiding Officer. Well, it seems to me that a letter also came from the Ministry of Defense. There it is also proposed: at the level of heads of departments.
Dear colleagues, I do not see, unfortunately, Zhanna Mikhailovna Lozinskaya, the author of this document. Please, let's exchange opinions from the factions on how we should proceed with today's issue.
Vladimir Volfovich, please.

Zhirinovsky V.V., head of the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia faction.
I think the absence of the initiator of the question speaks best of all that the question is redundant, unnecessary. Leave our ministers alone today. Do you see what is happening in the country?! Remember, Gennadiy Ni-