NEWS

Former Chekist found a terrorist

Achimez Gochiyayev will give testimony to society

Scandal

Yesterday, former FSB Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Litvinenko made a sensational statement that he had managed to establish contact with the main suspect in organizing the apartment bombings in Moscow and Volgodonsk, Achimez Gochiyayev, who allegedly provided him with "important information." Mr. Litvinenko promised to make this information public on July 25 at a meeting of the public commission investigating the terrorist attacks of autumn 1999.

Achimez Gochiyayev has been on federal and international wanted lists for two years and, as the FSB suggests, is "hiding in one of the CIS countries." However, according to other data, Gochiyayev has lived peacefully for the last three years in his native Karachayevsk, which is considered a Wahhabi nest, and therefore he is "inaccessible" to local law enforcement agencies. How the former Chekist Litvinenko, who published the book "Blowing Up Russia," was fired from the agencies, and received political asylum in the UK, found the elusive Gochiyayev remains a mystery for now.

It can be assumed that Gochiyayev, wanted by the FSB, will confirm Mr. Litvinenko's version that special services personnel were involved in the attacks in Moscow and Volgodonsk, possibly acting through Karachay Wahhabis. This version is particularly relevant for Mr. Litvinenko right now, when the Georgian side handed over one of the perpetrators of the attacks, Adam Dekkushev, to the FSB. The testimony of the latter, who will likely confess to participating in the attacks, could nullify all the efforts of Mr. Litvinenko and his associate, writer and historian Yuri Felshtinsky, who are trying to prove FSB involvement in the 1999 bombings.

Mr. Litvinenko himself, contacted by "Kommersant," claims that the statement about "important information" received from Gochiyayev is in no way connected with the detention of Dekkushev.

• "Contact with Gochiyayev was established long before the story of the handover of this person (Dekkushev.— "Kommersant"), and the commission meeting for July 25 was scheduled two weeks ago. So there is no connection between these events."
• "Where did you find Gochiyayev?"
  • "I cannot tell you."
• "Tell me at least, in Russia or abroad?"
  • "Actually, the contact was established by Yuri Felshtinsky."
• "And what did Gochiyayev say?"
  • "I will talk about this in detail at the commission meeting."

Mr. Litvinenko did not explain the reasons for his talkativeness, partly, perhaps, to intrigue the public.

"Regarding the versions of who blew up the houses in Moscow," Sergei Kovalyov, chairman of the public commission investigating the terrorist attacks in Moscow and Volgodonsk, told "Kommersant." "I cannot give preference to any version, as they all have a right to exist. Personally, I have strong doubts about the involvement of the so-called Chechen trace in this story. It is hard to understand why the combat forces would need this. On the other hand, the ready-made logic or scheme of Litvinenko and Felshtinsky's version that the FSB blew up the houses also causes me great doubt. Colonel Litvinenko differs from a terrorist who has done..."

Karachay terrorists practically neutralized

FSB representatives yesterday officially refused to comment on Alexander Litvinenko's statement, emphasizing that the entire chain of persons involved in the organization and execution of the apartment bombings has already been established. According to the FSB version:

• Khattab and Abu Umar financed the attacks, receiving money for these purposes from Islamic funds.
• The explosives were manufactured in Chechnya, packed into bags for granulated sugar and potatoes, and sent to Moscow and Volgodonsk.
• Transportation, placement, and detonations were carried out by a sabotage group under the command of one of the leaders of the Karachay Wahhabis, Achimez Gochiyayev.

According to the investigation, he also tried with Wahhabi accomplices to seize power in Karachay-Cherkessia and Kabardino-Balkaria, and when the putsch failed, he organized another series of terrorist attacks — in March last year, IEDs went off simultaneously in Mineralnye Vody, Essentuki, and the KChR.

• Two perpetrators of the attacks in Moscow and Volgodonsk have been arrested.
• Wahhabis who tried to seize power and organized explosions in the Stavropol Territory and the KChR have been convicted.
• A group preparing another series of explosions has been sentenced.
• Gochiyayev and several of his accomplices are wanted.