Investigations 12 — 13

...[real]ly: they will either be killed or forgiven, because serious Russian special services are hunting them.
— So, Chechen groups are guarding them? Owning them?
— Owning them rather than guarding them. But they are guarding them, certainly.
— So a deal to sell the terrorists is possible?
— With Gochiyayev, it's 100% so. He is certainly not free in his desires. That is, it's not Gochiyayev who determines whether he will give an interview or answer questions.
— And you personally encountered this?
— That is the conclusion I have reached. I cannot say I encountered it directly, because I want to emphasize: I have not seen any of these people. Obtaining and collecting information happens in various ways, but neither I nor Alexander Litvinenko have seen any of these people even once. Therefore, I am speaking now about my feelings and conclusions. I think they are absolutely correct. The level of freedom for Krymshamkhalov and Batchaev is certainly fundamentally greater than for Gochiyayev. By the way, from the materials I passed to Novaya Gazeta, this is quite obvious.
— And if Gochiyayev, according to his claims, has nothing to do with it, then why is he guarded so much and kept under such control? Effectively almost in imprisonment? Why wouldn't he come to the Prosecutor General's Office?
— I think we shouldn't hold anything back here or present the situation in a rosy light. He cannot surrender to Russian law enforcement agencies, as these are interested parties. We would then never know the truth at all. However, the problem boils down to the fact that the people controlling Gochiyayev are demanding money for his release.

During a teleconference from London in July of this year, Litvinenko and I were asked: why didn't we get the name of that very FSB officer from Gochiyayev, who brought hexogen in sugar bags to Gochiyayev's warehouses? After all, without this name, Gochiyayev's statement looks much less convincing than with it. Believe me, I tried to find out the name of the FSB officer repeatedly at every opportunity. All I managed to find out is that the FSB officer who stored the explosives at Gochiyayev's has since made a good career, advanced in service, and serves in the agencies to this day. That he is a well-known figure today. But further information can only be provided in exchange for money. And without money, Gochiyayev will not give the name. And since from the very beginning until today we did not intend to pay, explaining...

...I will not give a [moral] assessment of these people's behavior. This is the reality we faced. We faced the same problem when collecting testimony from Krymshamkhalov and Batchaev, who are controlled by other people. To the question of whether they know everything, they answer: yes, we know everything. To the question of whether they are ready to tell everything, they also answer "yes." To the question of whether they are ready to appear before the European Court in a third country, they answer: "Yes, we are ready." But until we are given money with which we can provide for our relatives, we will not give the information we possess. And do whatever you want.

— But, agree, this position is truly some kind of cannibalistic one, right? First, houses with living people, entire families with children, are blown up... Then the sadists say: yes, we blew them up, but in order to say who specifically participated in this, we need money to provide for our families...
— Yes, yes... But since I am the listening party, nothing depends on me here. All I can do is, like a parrot, say for the hundredth time that we have already been through this, that we do not pay money for information...
— And what to do next? Look: they exist, they are alive. Is that a conclusion? It is. They are under the control of certain people who do not currently belong to the federal structures of Russia. Or do they?
— They do not. Moreover, I am sure they belong one way or another to those people whom we call Chechen partisans and Chechen separatists. But this is again my assumption.

[Photo: 2002. Gochiyayev. A sheet with questions, the answers to which cost $3 million]

— And these people are trading terrorists held hostage by them! Can one say that?
— One can. True, Gochiyayev does not consider himself a terrorist.
— And for the terrorists to speak, they demand money from us, who are the hostages of the terrorists. Right? What to do next?
— Nothing. This is the reason why I personally believe that mine and Alexander Litvinenko's...

FROM THE EDITORS

AT THE PHANTOM SKETCH FACTORY

This is something completely new. Terrorists have become a commodity. Their producers demand a fee for a performance about the whole truth regarding the bombings in Moscow and Volgodonsk. $3,000,000.

Brief thoughts on this matter.

• Krymshamkhalov Yu.I. and Batchaev T.A. admit to being accomplices in the terrorist attacks. They write: yes, we are the perpetrators. It was us who brought the explosives into residential buildings in Moscow and Volgodonsk. True, we thought it was a warehouse and something else would blow up.
• Krymshamkhalov and Batchaev claim they dedicated their lives to the struggle for Chechen independence, and their patriotism was used blindly by the special services.
• Krymshamkhalov and Batchaev apologize to those to whom they "brought grief in September 1999."

BUT THE NAMES OF THOSE WHO USED THEM "BLINDLY," THEY WILL NAME FOR NO LESS THAN THREE MILLION DOLLARS.

Such a contract for the truth about the tragedy is demanded by the current owners of the popular performers (the whole country is covered in their portraits!) Krymshamkhalov and Batchaev. Those who are now hiding them in burrows and trading the common grief at small wholesale prices—intermediaries of the "thuggish" wing of the "militants"—approached the historian Yu. Felshtinsky themselves. They knew perfectly well that the researcher is acquainted with Boris Berezovsky, and a simple thought beat roughly like this: Berezovsky pays for exposing the regime, and the terrorists will sign anything they are paid for. Their statements resemble a promotional brochure: "Patrushev is mentioned repeatedly...", "we will dedicate the rest of our lives to the struggle for independence...".

But such information, obtained for money, has no value—only a price.

The deal did not take place. Similarly for Gochiyayev. Here he is in the photo with a piece of paper on which questions for him are formulated. A snapshot certifying that he is alive.

Terrorists do not deny their guilt. They themselves are under strict control. The controllers demand money so that the terrorists' testimony matches any paid order.

So far, their business of converting terrorist attacks into memoirs has not succeeded. But, I think, market research continues in other directions.

Then all three will be killed—when they get tired of washing dishes for them.

Now—personal feelings.

Some statist-patriots play their spy games. Sometimes they dress up Russian tank crews and, under the guise of Chechens, send them to ingloriously take Grozny. Sometimes they train Basayev's men to win a campaign in Abkhazia. Sometimes they hand over weapons to Dudayev, or make their agent Lazovsky a central Moscow gangster, or conduct "exercises" in Ryazan with real hexogen.

They played so much that they lost control. And they couldn't help but lose it. The "agents" began to live independently. Without looking back at the "office" [FSB].

They themselves spawned such a number of killers that they can no longer cope.

In Chechnya, as a result of sadistic sweep operations, a tribe of war has grown, thugs who no longer even know the language in which negotiations will eventually have to be conducted. These thugs, who have Gochiyayev, Batchaev, and Krymshamkhalov in their fist, are the future phantom sketches. War and death are all their muscle groups are fit for.

Unwillingness to negotiate with the sane will lead (or has already led?) to the fact that there will truly be no one left to talk to. Only for the generals is this a joy—the business continues! But for a person, it's a disaster. No matter how you look at it—it's Nord-Ost everywhere.

And it turned out that both the statist-patriots and the separatist-patriots have their own business, already inseparable from each other: war. And one "cover."