Terror Attacks in Russia: Developments and Allegations

Immediate Aftermath

• By evening, rescuers extracted 17 remains from the ruins.
• 310 people were injured, including 25 seriously.
• Putin called for action to "finish off the beast," while Luzhkov demanded "retaliatory steps" from the government against the "source of the terror attacks, i.e., Chechnya."
• A. Kornukov confirmed the bombings of "militant bases" and denied [villages?].
• The loud "anti-terrorist" action in the capital is taking on the character of ethnic or simply racial cleansing.
• In Russia, there is again talk that the terror attacks are organized by the special services, and the bloody intrigue is meant to lead to the declaration of a state of emergency in view of the approaching parliamentary and presidential elections and to keep power in the hands of today's Kremlin team [communists demand Yeltsin's resignation].

Updates and Investigations

20.09.99. The army moves against the gangs.

• Russia: The investigation into the terror attacks continues; as before, nothing is known.
• Russian aviation is bombing Chechnya.
• 30,000 Russian soldiers are concentrated along the border with the republic.
• Meanwhile, the inquiry into the terror attacks in Moscow and Volgodonsk is at a standstill (Wacław Radziwinowicz).

Preparation for war in Chechnya

• Investigations into the bomb explosions in Moscow and Volgodonsk—as it appears—do not bring concrete results.
• It is still not even known where the charge was placed or what its power was, the explosion of which on Thursday killed 17 in Volgodonsk and injured over 400 people.
• Those conducting the inquiry say the explosion was equivalent to perhaps 300, or perhaps 1,500 kg of dynamite.
• The charge was placed either in a truck or in a sewer manhole in front of the house that was the target of the attack.
• The only concrete information that the investigative teams have reported to the press so far is the size of the crater dug by the explosion—3.5 m deep and 15 m wide.

Investigation Details

• Moscow police and the FSB are following the "Chechen trace."
• In their opinion, the terrorists who blew up the houses on Guryanova St. and Kashirskoye Highway (both explosions killed at least 213 people) used a powerful explosive material—hexogen.
• It was supposed to have been brought by truck from the North Caucasus in bags labeled "sugar."
• Russian TV stations show police officers discovering more hexogen warehouses.
• Meanwhile, the Saturday newspaper "Segodnya" wrote that experts studying the sites of the Moscow explosions concluded that the explosive devices were a mixture consisting primarily of aluminum powder and ammonium nitrate—both of these components can be easily purchased at the capital's wholesale warehouses.

Arrests and Allegations

• Back on Friday [the 20th - Monday], Moscow police arrested two Chechens living in the capital "suspected of participating in the terror attacks": Bekmar Sautiev, a worker at the "Krasny Sukonshchik" factory, and his relative Timur Dakhkigov.
• The first was accused due to traces of hexogen on his palms, the other due to microparticles of the same explosive material that experts found on the door handle of his dwelling.
• The managers of "Krasny Sukonshchik" claim that the police studied the palms of all the factory workers and found traces of hexogen on every single one without exception.
• A reagent with a chemical composition similar to that of the explosive material is constantly used at the factory for dyeing fabric.

Racial Profiling and Witness Accounts

• In Moscow, the roundup of Chechens and generally of persons with a "Caucasian appearance" continues [beatings, including Tajiks and Uzbeks, etc.].
• The Moscow bureau of "Human Rights Watch" claims that the capital's police have already arrested 20,000 people with a "Caucasian appearance."
• Saturday's "Moskovsky Komsomolets" discovered new facts related to the Thursday explosion on Kashirskoye Highway, which do not quite agree with the version of the explosions adopted by the investigative teams.
• The newspaper writes that the residents of the house notified the police on the eve of the explosion that "something was not right" in their basement.
• A patrol arrived at the scene to check the basement.
• If the police officers had opened the doors, they would have found several hundred kilograms of explosive material, and the tragedy that claimed 188 victims would not have occurred.
• Someone, however, forbade them from entering, claiming that everything was "as it should be, because our people are here."

Future Outlook

29.09.99. Will Chechnya react? (Reuters, AFP, MAW)