Terror Attacks in Russia

• The country remains a target of terrorist attacks, despite the unprecedented efforts of the police. These explosions have resulted in more than 300 deaths.
• A bomb with a large charge was deactivated by police in a 12-story building in a city of 530,000 inhabitants, located 200 km southeast of Moscow.
• The bomb consisted of three bags of hexogen mixed with sugar and detonators connected to a clockwork mechanism. It was found in a basement, exactly repeating the scenario of two deadly explosions that hit Moscow buildings earlier this month.
• The detonator's clock was set to 5:30 AM local time. According to Ryazan police, the device was discovered on Wednesday at 10 PM, thanks to one resident of the house who raised the alarm after seeing three people unloading bags from a car at the entrance to the house.

28.09.99 Offensive: Russian bombs devastate Grozny.

• Intensive military movements at the base in Mozdok seem to confirm the inevitability of Moscow's ground offensive.
• "Russia has been bombing Chechnya daily since September 5 and the capital, Grozny, since last Thursday. Moscow accuses Grozny of providing sanctuary on its territory to Islamist rebels who organized two rebel expeditions into neighboring Dagestan and whom Russia considers responsible for the bloody terrorist attacks of recent weeks in the Russian capital and in other cities of the federation."

30.09.99 Offensive: Moscow intensifies attacks on Chechnya

• The leader of two Islamist insurgencies in the neighboring republic of Dagestan in August and September, Basaev, is also accused by Moscow of being behind the terrorist attacks in Russia, which have resulted in 293 deaths since August 31.

04.12.99 Ultimatum to Grozny: Russians resist pressure.

• The NATO Secretary General considers the unbearable Moscow threat to the Chechens, but Vladimir Putin prefers to speak in proclamations.
• "The current Russian offensive in Chechnya started on October 1 under the pretext of putting an end to the military actions of Islamist Chechens in Dagestan and terrorist attacks in Moscow. De facto independent since the end of 1991, the Chechens resisted the first Russian intervention in 1994 with success, but at some point the enemy's military power had results, at the cost of the deaths of hundreds of civilians and the flight of thousands to Ingushetia. The main political benefits from the attack on Chechnya were received by Prime Minister Putin, leading in the relative polling for the '2000' presidential elections."
  • Source: "The Economist", London

18.09.99. Terrorists of Russia

• Five bombs in three weeks have brought the total number of people killed in the current campaign of terror in Russia to approximately 350.
• At least 118 died in one explosion in Moscow on September 13.
• The authorities branded unnamed "Islamic terrorists," but some opponents of President Boris Yeltsin hint that the bombs were likely "acts of provocation" designed to give him the opportunity to introduce a nationwide state of emergency.

Explosive politics