Time was working against us. Communication was becoming rare.
It was reported that the Russian side had paid large sums of money on a contract basis to several groups of people who undertook to detain or kill Batchaev and Yusuf Krymshamkhalov.
Information arrived about the first (unsuccessful) attempts to implement this plan, about shootouts during detention attempts, and about the deaths of people.
Verifying the accuracy of this information, of course, was not possible.
Nevertheless, we abandoned plans to fly to Georgia, deeming them unsafe both for ourselves and for those we planned to meet.
September-October Developments
In September-October, it did not get any easier.
Communication with Achimez Gochiyayev was lost again.
Regarding Batchaev and Yusuf Krymshamkhalov, it was only known that a real hunt was underway for them, the noose was tightening.
We no longer expected to receive new information from them.
On October 23, in Berlin, one of us (Yuri Felshtinsky) handed over the materials collected by that time to the editor-in-chief of "Novaya Gazeta," Dmitry Muratov.
It was assumed that "Novaya Gazeta" would begin their immediate publication.
On October 24, Mr. Muratov indeed urgently flew to Moscow.
He was returning to a different country – on the evening of October 23, terrorists had seized "Nord-Ost."
Post-Hostage Crisis
After the death of the hostages at Dubrovka, Russian special services became noticeably more active in Georgia.
In November, we received information that the situation was extremely serious and there was little chance for Batchaev and Yusuf Krymshamkhalov to survive.
Intuition suggested that we needed to hurry with the publication of the open letter while Batchaev and Yusuf Krymshamkhalov were still alive.
On December 2, "Novaya Gazeta" published Alexey Viktorovich Galkin's testimony.
On the same day in Helsinki, Yuri Felshtinsky gave an extensive interview to Dmitry Muratov.
It was published on December 9 along with the Open Letter of Yusuf Krymshamkhalov (detained in Georgia on December 7) and Batchaev (killed on the same day during detention).
December 7 Incident
What exactly happened in Georgia on December 7 is hard to say.
The information we received cannot be considered verified.