Le Monde ("The World"), Paris

11.09.99. Apartment building explosion caused more than 70 deaths in Moscow

The hypothesis of a terrorist act becomes clear (Agathe Duparc)

• Latest toll: 69 dead, 249 wounded, and no chance of rescue; about 50 bodies still under the ruins.

On Thursday (the 11th is Saturday) at the end of the day, FSB (counterintelligence) services, having hastily arrived at the scene from the very first hour, estimated that only an explosive charge equivalent to 400 kg of TNT could have pulverized an 8-story building into powder in such a way. In his communiqué, Vladimir Stavitsky, head of the FSB press service, indicated that it could be industrial explosives. Shortly before this, the FSB press secretary had not ruled out an accidental explosion. "In the basements of our houses, sometimes materials are stored that are simply incredible," he said.

• Luzhkov immediately speaks of a terrorist attack - an echo of Dagestan.

On Thursday morning, an anonymous interlocutor, speaking with a "strong Caucasian accent," claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack during a phone call to the Interfax agency. "What happened in Moscow and Buynaksk is an act of retribution in response to the bombing of villages in Chechnya and Dagestan," he stated. A few hours later, the FSB admitted that the call was not taken seriously.

• Moscow publications about "Chechen bandits" and the "Islamic trail" - without evidence.

14.09.99. At least 34 people killed during an apartment building explosion in Moscow

This new attack may also be linked to the war in Dagestan (François Bonnet)

On Monday, September 13, Moscow lived as if in a state of war after a new explosion, which completely pulverized a seven-story residential building in one blow at five o'clock in the morning. Of this brick house, which had about 60 apartments and was located on Kashirskoye Highway, in a working-class neighborhood close to the city center, nothing remained but a pile of debris and concrete blocks. [...]

"The same signature"

A little later, however, rescue operations were interrupted and the neighborhood evacuated after investigators sounded the alarm about the discovery of bags of explosives in a school right next to this house and in two other buildings. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Federal Security Service (FSB), there is no doubt that "we are dealing here with a terrorist act." "A new terrorist war is being waged against us," the FSB press secretary stated on the NTV television channel.

• The terrorist campaign is linked to the war in Dagestan; explosions on August 31 in the Manege and September 4 in Buynaksk.

According to the FSB, Monday's explosion bears "the same signature" as the one that occurred on the night of September 8 to 9. For two days, Russian security services did not, however, completely reject the hypothesis of an accidental explosion. Then they discovered many traces of an explosive substance described as having no possible origin other than military.

On Monday morning, General Nikolai Kulikov, chief of the Moscow police, publicly released some elements of the investigation, emphasizing that the same technique was used in both explosions in Moscow. He spoke of a single terrorist group. Security services released a composite sketch of a man who was a sub-tenant or tenant of commercial spaces on the lower floors of the two destroyed houses. Explosive storage facilities had been set up there.

This man, identified as Mukhit Laipanov, is now wanted, and General Kulikov appealed to the people on Monday morning, demanding help for the investigators. The Mayor of Moscow, in turn, announced the strengthening of security measures and systematic searches of basements and buildings in many neighborhoods of the capital.

President Boris Yeltsin likewise demanded that control be strengthened in provincial cities and around sensitive sites (nuclear centers, oil refineries, etc.).

Day of mourning.

Monday's explosion also fell on a day of national mourning declared throughout the country in memory of the victims of previous explosions. According to Russian mass media.