Cambio 16 ("Exchange 16"), weekly magazine, Madrid

20.09.99 Russia, chasing terror (Carlos Bradak)

Indifferent terrorism - almost comparable to the Algerian one - has taken hold of Russia. Its face is blurred. The Russian state insists on a "Chechen trace", based on the war in Dagestan, but many believe that the majority of the 300 dead are the result of a lethal campaign of intentions by the Kremlin itself for the sake of introducing a state of emergency, canceling the upcoming elections, and maintaining [or feeding] the "family" at the top of power. [...]

Five brutal strikes of hexogen and amosal as of noon on September 20 - four of them - hypothetical results of the offensive by former leaders of Chechen partisans against Russian military positions in Dagestan with the goal of creating an Islamic state - took the lives of more than 300 Russians. [explosions at Manezh Square - "Union of Revolutionary Writers" - and in Buynaksk - the legendary Basaev and Khattab].

Terrorism transformed into a large wave on September 9, 14, and 16, when hundreds of explosives pulverized residential buildings in large suburbs in the South-West of Moscow and for the third time - in the city of Volgodonsk. At least one school and one residential building were saved thanks to the mobilization of the population of Moscow in the search for explosives.

The Moscow elite, both the Kremlin and the opposition mayor Yuri Luzhkov, immediately blamed Caucasians. Police and military selflessly devote themselves to the search and arrest of "dark-skinned" and "dark-haired" people. Prime Minister, ex-chief of the KGB and the current FSB (Federal Security Service) Vladimir Putin, warned the Chechens that "revenge [or repression] will be devastating."

The Russian mafia, which controls part of the large fruit and vegetable markets in Moscow, asked Mayor Luzhkov to deport Chechen, Azerbaijani, and Armenian sellers, "because it is likely that these people are responsible for these massacres."

OMON, special units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, gravitate towards the immediate establishment of "fenced enclosures" to drive in all those who fit the scheme presented in the justification of "fear of Chechens." A street so close to the center as Kuznetsky Most, an old commercial tract from the times of poverty and Soviet Moscow, and now a commercial residence for gold and jewelry traders, was closed to pedestrian traffic from September 14 to 16, because the periodical "Novaya Gazeta" claimed on its pages that a Chechen center functioned there, whereas in reality it was about a traditional Spanish center for aging war veterans.

Minister of Internal Affairs Vladimir Rushailo added a "twist" with the assertion that 17 people of "Slavic appearance" were detained, "but this only confirms that Chechens hire Russians to carry out explosions," a possibility that can be refuted not only by the lack of evidence, but also by the relations of hatred that divide Slavs and Caucasians.

Map:

1. Karachay-Cherkessia. Inhabited by hostile nations, Cherkessians proclaimed their separation from Karachay-Muslims.
2. Kabardino-Balkaria. A situation of stagnation between Kabardians and Balkars occupying different positions in the Chechen conflict.
3. Abkhazia. With 300,000 Georgian refugees, the presence of Russian troops is evident here, it is a powder keg in the region and in Georgia.
   South Ossetia [marked on the map, without number and without comments]
4. North Ossetia. More than 50 people died in March of this year in a terrorist attack related to the conflict with the Ingush minority.
5. Chechnya. Maskhadov's government does not control the situation and Russia is preparing a strike against Islamic sectors.
6. Dagestan. Russia is unable to expel the Islamists, while the Russian population complains about the increased number of deaths.

[two sub-points in summary form]

Moscow is losing control

Starting from March, against the background of the collapse of Russia and the financial crisis, acts of violence in Karachay-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria, and North Ossetia. By coincidence, Eduard Shevardnadze in Tbilisi became the object of a third assassination attempt on his life. In Baku, on the same dates, the police reached a mutiny with the goal - according to the Moscow