Series

"I cannot assert"

Photographer: Sergei Ponomarev/Gazeta
OLGA REDICHKINA

The Litvinenko Accusations

• The teleconference with London, during which former FSB Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Litvinenko once again accused the FSB of the apartment bombings in Moscow and Volgodonsk, turned out to be a PR stunt.
• The testimony of Achimez Gochiyayev, presented by Litvinenko, cannot serve as evidence: in it, Gochiyayev only expresses the assumption that the person who instructed him to rent basements in Moscow buildings is connected to the FSB.
• Litvinenko cannot assess the degree of Gochiyayev's own guilt.

Background and Testimony

• Former FSB Lieutenant Colonel, now political emigrant Alexander Litvinenko promised to release another sensation on July 25 regarding who blew up residential buildings in Moscow and Volgodonsk two years ago.
• The teleconference with London, where Litvinenko now lives, was organized by the public commission for the investigation of terrorist attacks, created at the insistence of State Duma deputy Sergei Yushenkov.
• As a reminder, Yushenkov, along with Boris Berezovsky, is a co-chairman of the "Liberal Russia" party.
• Alexander Litvinenko presented confessions handwritten by Achimez Gochiyayev, whom the FSB is searching for as the main figure in the case of the Moscow apartment bombings.
• By the way, in the documents sent from London, Gochiyayev is written as Achimez, while he calls himself Achemez.
• According to Litvinenko, Gochiyayev reached out through intermediaries to Yuri Felshtinsky, an emigrant historian who co-authored the book "FSB Blows Up Russia" with Litvinenko.
• After some time, Gochiyayev — again through an intermediary — handed over materials, photographs, and videotapes to Felshtinsky.

Gochiyayev's Account

• From Gochiyayev's testimony, it follows that in 1999 he rented premises in the basements of Moscow buildings that were subsequently blown up, and in buildings where explosions were prevented — on Kashirka and on Borisovskie Prudy.
• An old acquaintance from school days, a certain [?] suggested he rent these premises as warehouses for food products that this person trades.
• After the explosions on Kashirskoye Highway and Guryanova Street, Gochiyayev realized that the buildings where he rented premises were being blown up and rushed to prevent new ones.
• He called the police, the ambulance, and the Rescue Service and reported the warehouses.
• After this, according to Gochiyayev, he was declared the main suspect and he has to hide.
• Gochiyayev claims that his sister was "frequently interrogated," offered money, then intimidated, in order to obtain testimony against him.
• In [that context?], her husband was sentenced to 13 years...