FSB Announces Arrests of Terrorist Attack Organizers

The Federal Security Service of Russia has managed to catch the organizers of the explosions near the Moscow metro stations "Avtozavodskaya" and "Rizhskaya", in electric trains in Minvody, and at public transport stops in Voronezh and Krasnodar. This statement was made on Thursday by FSB head Nikolai Patrushev during a speech in the State Duma. The detainees are giving confessions.

Nikolai Patrushev stated during the "government hour" in the State Duma: "Khubiev, Panarin, and Shalaev, who are among the organizers and perpetrators of terrorist acts, have been arrested." According to him, the involvement of the arrested individuals in nine terrorist attacks has already been proven.

The head of the FSB reported to the deputies, according to the newspaper "Vremya Novostey": "A clandestine terrorist group was formed at the initiative of and financed by emissaries of international terrorist centers Abu al-Walid, Abu Kuteip, and Abu Dzeit. Currently, all of them have been liquidated."

Meanwhile, sources in law enforcement agencies hinted that not three, but four suspects in terrorism were arrested in total. This fourth person could well have been the "legendary" Pavel Kosolapov, who was wanted by the special services as the direct organizer of the terrorist attacks.

Pavel Kosolapov's Background and Alleged Activities

• Pavel Kosolapov is a native of the Gorbatovsky farm in the Volgograd region.
• He was once a cadet at a military school in the Rostov region, from which he was expelled for violating the regime.
• After returning home from the army, he met representatives of the local Chechen diaspora and soon left for Chechnya.
• In Chechnya, Kosolapov converted to Islam and underwent combat training in the camps of Arab field commanders.
• According to the investigation, he was tasked with organizing several terrorist attacks in Krasnodar.
  • Explosions occurred in August 2003 at transport stops in the city, killing 3 people and wounding 16 others.
  • In December, he allegedly organized a terrorist attack on an electric train in Minvody (45 people died, 150 were wounded).

It is assumed that Kosolapov organized the following attacks:

• The terrorist attack in the Moscow metro in February 2004 (42 people died and 250 were wounded).
• The bombings of gas pipelines near Chekhov, Podolsk, and Bronnitsy in the Moscow region.
• An explosion at a market in Samara in June of the same year (11 people died, 71 were wounded).
• Explosions at bus stops in Voronezh (1 person died and 6 were wounded).
• The explosion near the Moscow metro station "Rizhskaya" (10 people died, 51 were wounded).

Sources of "Vremya Novostey" in the law enforcement agencies of the Samara region claim that colleagues from Voronezh have already contacted them for information about...