IZVESTIA JULY 26, 2002

Gochiyayev's mobile phone. It is just as easy to establish the identity of his strange acquaintance, who essentially managed the rented premises. If the fact of the calls is confirmed, then the FSB's version of Gochiyayev's organizational role will, to put it mildly, be severely shaken. Although, it must be admitted that even before these written confessions, the terrorist role of Gochiyayev as presented by the FSB looked quite doubtful literally from the very first day, which we, in particular, have written about more than once.

At yesterday's commission meeting, Mr. Litvinenko did not limit himself to making public the information received from Gochiyayev. He also reported that he maintains constant contact with two other suspects in the Moscow bombings case — Krymshamkhalov and Batchayev. According to Litvinenko, he has written testimony from these citizens as well, who are wanted by the FSB. The essence of the testimony is extremely simple: the wanted citizens state in writing that the organizer of the bombings is Mr. Patrushev, the supervisor is Admiral Ukolov, and the perpetrator is FSB officer Lozovsky. Mr. Litvinenko was unable to explain what evidence, other than the well-known "takes one to know one" principle, these accusations are based on. Therefore, it is currently just as difficult to take them seriously as it is the FSB's versions about the Chechen trail.

Yesterday's teleconference, the unprecedented hype around the commission meeting, the hurried comments from Lubyanka, which snapped back irritably rather than commenting — all this leads to sad reflections. The tragic events of three years ago are still being used by a huge number of citizens and structures solely to solve their own tasks and goals. Some built elections on this, launched military and PR campaigns, others molded careers, others wrote books... Everyone was busy with themselves, and few were engaged in a real search for the truth. Attempts by the public commission for the investigation of terrorist acts to obtain clear answers, cooperation, and help from official structures are bogged down in a swamp of formal replies or endless silence. The authorities stubbornly ignore the desire of their fellow citizens to finally receive a convincing, well-founded answer: who is actually behind the Moscow bombings? Instead, there is either a propaganda campaign with a Chechen trail, or a PR stunt regarding the detention and confession of Dekkushev, or a hunt for Gochiyayev, or a showdown with Litvinenko, whose mother-in-law was even searched when she was flying out of Sheremetyevo... The topic of the investigation is deliberately drowned in trivialities, in particular, in squabbles and cheap detective-novel versions. Moreover, all this is left to the mercy of Patrushev, who also has a strange role, to say the least, in this whole story. Especially if one recalls his behavior in connection with the "exercises" in Ryazan.

During yesterday's teleconference, the short speech by Tatyana Morozova — one of the victims of the Moscow bombings — remained the most unnoticed. She lost her mother because of these terrorist attacks. Tatyana did not accuse anyone. She only asked for one thing — to help find out the truth. She asked everyone who is capable of compassion. She has been asking for this for almost three years now. And all this time has been in vain. Neither our amorphous society nor our overconfident government hears her. A government that does not even try to deflect from itself the monstrous suspicion of involvement in the tragedy of 1999. Either it is too confident in its own strength. Or in the impotence of society.