TRAFFIC COP GUILTY IN MOSCOW AND VOLGODONSK TERRORIST ATTACKS

Svetlana MASTERKOVA
February 27, 15:02

An officer of the Kislovodsk Department of Internal Affairs (OVD) Traffic Police (GIBDD), whose name is not disclosed, is accused of aiding terrorists who blew up residential buildings in Moscow and Volgodonsk. The Stavropol Krai Prosecutor's Office has transferred the defendant's case to the Kislovodsk City Court.

According to the regional prosecutor's office, the policeman is accused of:
* Facilitating the unhindered entry into Kislovodsk in August 1999 of a KAMAZ truck loaded with 6 tons of hexogen.
* Personally accompanying its movement.

A month later, the contents of the truck were used by terrorists for attacks.

Recall that the explosions in Moscow occurred on September 8 and 13, 1999.
* Two residential buildings were blown up in the Russian capital: at 19 Guryanova Street and 3 Kashirskoye Highway.
* As a result, 228 people died, including 21 children.

In Volgodonsk, the explosion occurred on September 16, 1999, resulting in 19 deaths, including two children.

As the "Novye Izvestia" publication reported a year ago, State Duma Speaker Gennadiy Seleznyov was notified of the upcoming event in Volgodonsk three days before the incident. LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky reported that on September 13, 1999, at a meeting of the Duma Council, one of the secretariat staff brought Seleznyov a note, which the speaker read out to those present. It spoke of an allegedly occurred terrorist attack, but this information did not receive wide publicity.

Zhirinovsky stated: "Someone from the secretariat brought the note. Apparently, they called to warn the speaker about such a turn of events. Seleznyov read us the news about the explosion, then we began to wait for reports about the incident in Volgodonsk in the TV news. And after it happened three days later, I was the only one who asked the speaker about it at the plenary session on September 17, 1999."

Currently, the traffic police officer has been charged under:
* Part 1 of Art. 285 (use by an official of his official powers contrary to the interests of the service, committed out of personal interest and entailing significant violations of the state's interests protected by law).
* Art. 290 - receipt of a bribe by an official for illegal actions.

The organizers of the crime, commissioned by Chechen extremists, were Yusuf Krymshamkhalov and Adam Dekkushev.

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Grani.Ru - President and Special Services - Prosecutor's Office on the progress of the investigation of Moscow... Page 1 of 1

GRANI.RU: Dossier: http://www.grani.ru/fsb/facts/kusyakin/

Prosecutor's Office on the progress of the investigation into the Moscow bombings

General Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation
15a B. Dmitrovka St.
27.02.2002 # 27/1-55s-99

Tatyana Morozova and Y. Morozov
9015 North Iroqecsi Rd.
Milwaukee, WI 53217

Your appeal regarding criminal case # 103 has been considered by the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation with the study of the necessary materials.

I inform you that the Investigative Department of the FSB of Russia continues to investigate the criminal case regarding the acts of terrorism committed in September 1999 in the city of Moscow - the bombings of two residential buildings at 19 Guryanova St. and 6 Kashirskoye Highway, bldg. 3g, as a result of which 228 people died, and 502 citizens suffered moral and physical harm.

The totality of the collected evidence allows us to assert that the mentioned crimes have been solved.

After the bombings, none of the perpetrators returned to their places of permanent residence; they all went into hiding from law enforcement agencies.

Measures taken during the search for the perpetrators in the zones of counter-terrorist operations in March 2000 identified and neutralized the criminal group of Achimez Gochiyayev, consisting of M. Bostanov, A. Bostanov, T. Frantsuzova, M. Tuganbaeva, and M. Bayramukova, which was equipped and sent from the territory of Chechnya to commit further acts of terrorism in Moscow and the North Caucasus. During the investigation, the version of their involvement in the bombings of two residential buildings in Moscow was carefully checked; however, no evidence of guilt in committing these acts of terrorism was obtained. The criminal case against the above-mentioned persons was considered by the Stavropol Regional Court on November 14, 2001, and they were all convicted for participation in illegal armed groups and committing an act of terrorism.

Senior Prosecutor of the Department for Supervision of Compliance with Federal Security Laws of the General Prosecutor's Office of Russia S.I. Kuzyakin

The Morozov sisters (including Tatyana Morozova) on the investigation of the Moscow bombings

18/3/2002

full version
19.03.02
http://www.grani.ru/fsb/facts/kusyakin/print.html

Who framed Achimez Gochiyayev?

The authors of the book "Blowing Up Russia," Alexander Litvinenko and Yuri Felshtinsky, are conducting their own investigation into the apartment building bombings in the fall of 1999. Especially for Grani.Ru, they talk about the circumstances of the appearance of new materials in the case and name the alleged name of a new person involved - an FSB officer.

Over the past few months, we have held telephone negotiations with several people who offered us to buy a half-hour interview with Achimez Gochiyayev, who, according to the FSB and other Russian law enforcement agencies, is one of the organizers of the September 1999 terrorist attacks. Gochiyayev himself says that he is an ordinary businessman, lived and worked in Moscow for many years, had nothing to do with Chechens, Chechnya, or Muslim extremism, and was "framed" by an old acquaintance who turned out to be an FSB officer. Today, as Gochiyayev claims, this person works for the FSB in Cherkessk. It is him whom Gochiyayev himself considers the organizer of the terrorist attacks in Russian cities in September 1999.

We were offered a tape of Gochiyayev's interview for 3 million dollars. We refused to pay for both financial and principled reasons. We did not pay any money for Gochiyayev's statement, received by us in April 2002 and released on July 25 during a Moscow-London video link with the Public Commission for the Investigation of the Circumstances of the Apartment Bombings. Actually, no one asked for money for this statement – they asked for a videotape with the names of people allegedly responsible for organizing the terrorist attacks.

At the end of June, other people reached out to us and offered to re-establish contact with Gochiyayev. Such contact was indeed soon established, but not with Gochiyayev, but with the participants of the terrorist attacks Yusuf Krymshamkhalov and Timur Batchaev. A new stage of our work began – obtaining testimony from Batchaev and Krymshamhalov about their participation in the 1999 terrorist attacks.

Timeline of Events

• On July 25, we also informed the Public Commission about the existence of these testimonies and their essence.

Early August Developments

• In early August, we received an "Open Letter" from Batchaev and Yusuf Krymshamkhalov to the Public Commission, dated July 28.
• We did not know whether the Public Commission had received the same letter or if it had been sent there.
• We decided to wait with the publication of the letter, which was not addressed to us; we began to collect additional information.
• We obtained a tape with the testimony of GRU Senior Lieutenant Alexei Victorovich Galkin, who found himself in Chechen captivity under unexplained circumstances shortly after the September terrorist attacks, and comments by Abu Movsaev, who conducted the interrogation.
• Very important new information was received that Batchaev and Yusuf Krymshamkhalov were not acquainted with Achimez Gochiyayev, and the latter was not acquainted with Khattab and had never been photographed with him.

Communication with Achimez Gochiyayev

• Communication with Achimez Gochiyayev was re-established.
• During this round of negotiations, we were allowed to draft questions for Achimez Gochiyayev. We hoped to receive detailed answers to them.
• Instead, we received a single handwritten postscript: "Answers to all questions are ready, discuss the details at the meeting."
• This referred to a meeting with the person who helped us organize the communication, but this meeting did not take place.

August 2002 Context

• It was August 2002. It was assumed that we would meet in Georgia.
• Everyone remembers how in August-September Moscow began to exert pressure on Tbilisi, unprecedented for relations between independent states, in order to force the Georgian government to take a tough stance regarding Chechnya and Chechen refugees.
• We knew that to a very large extent this pressure was caused by our activity in taking testimony about the September terrorist attacks from Achimez Gochiyayev, Yusuf Krymshamkhalov, and Batchaev, who were in Georgia at that time, which was no secret to anyone.

Timeline of Events

• Time was working against us. Communication was becoming rare.
• It was reported that the Russian side had paid large sums of money on a contract basis to several groups of people who undertook to detain or kill Batchaev and Yusuf Krymshamkhalov.
• Information arrived about the first (unsuccessful) attempts to implement this plan, about shootouts during detention attempts, and about the deaths of people.
• Verifying the accuracy of this information, of course, was not possible.
• Nevertheless, we abandoned plans to fly to Georgia, deeming them unsafe both for ourselves and for those we planned to meet.

September-October Developments

• In September-October, it did not get any easier.
• Communication with Achimez Gochiyayev was lost again.
• Regarding Batchaev and Yusuf Krymshamkhalov, it was only known that a real hunt was underway for them, the noose was tightening.
• We no longer expected to receive new information from them.
• On October 23, in Berlin, one of us (Yuri Felshtinsky) handed over the materials collected by that time to the editor-in-chief of "Novaya Gazeta," Dmitry Muratov.
• It was assumed that "Novaya Gazeta" would begin their immediate publication.
• On October 24, Mr. Muratov indeed urgently flew to Moscow.
• He was returning to a different country – on the evening of October 23, terrorists had seized "Nord-Ost."

Post-Hostage Crisis

• After the death of the hostages at Dubrovka, Russian special services became noticeably more active in Georgia.
• In November, we received information that the situation was extremely serious and there was little chance for Batchaev and Yusuf Krymshamkhalov to survive.
• Intuition suggested that we needed to hurry with the publication of the open letter while Batchaev and Yusuf Krymshamkhalov were still alive.
• On December 2, "Novaya Gazeta" published Alexey Viktorovich Galkin's testimony.
• On the same day in Helsinki, Yuri Felshtinsky gave an extensive interview to Dmitry Muratov.
• It was published on December 9 along with the Open Letter of Yusuf Krymshamkhalov (detained in Georgia on December 7) and Batchaev (killed on the same day during detention).

December 7 Incident

• What exactly happened in Georgia on December 7 is hard to say.
• The information we received cannot be considered verified.
• A passenger car with

Translation

• Five people, including Batchayev and Yusuf Krymshamkhalov, left the Pankisi Gorge.
• The car was driven by Alex Kavtarashvili, born in 1970.
• Next to him was Eldar Margoshvili, born in 1968.
• Both served under contract in the internal troops of Georgia.
• After passing through the village of Kabali, where mostly Azerbaijanis live, and through the neighboring Georgian village of Baisubani, the car began to enter a forest area where an ambush was waiting.
• An oncoming car caused an accident, and when the passengers got out of the first car, bursts of automatic gunfire rang out over their heads and everyone was ordered to lie down.
• Yusuf Krymshamkhalov, as the most valuable, was taken alive.
• The others were shot at point-blank range.
• There was no resistance from those detained.
• Neither Batchayev nor Yusuf Krymshamkhalov used "suicide belts."

In the same month, negotiations resumed with other people about purchasing a tape with an interview of Achimez Gochiyayev.

• Sometimes it seemed to us that just a little more and our interlocutors would give the tape for free.
• The initial amount of 3 million dollars was immediately reduced to 500 thousand.
• In the end, we bargained down to 150 thousand.
• We managed to agree on sending the first minute of the recording and a transcript of the entire interview text with one significant caveat: two names would be removed from the text – an FSB officer now serving in Cherkessk, an old acquaintance of Achimez Gochiyayev who set up his friend; and another person accidentally seen by Achimez Gochiyayev visiting an unnamed FSB officer.
• These two names were exactly what cost 150 thousand.

In January 2003, we indeed received these materials. The cut-out names were designated as "K." and "Kh.". Further hours of telephone negotiations were not successful. We were unable to convince our interlocutors to give the tape for free.

At the end of February, a printout of Achimez Gochiyayev's interview was handed over to Anna Politkovskaya for publication in "Novaya Gazeta". On March 3, Achimez Gochiyayev's testimony, although not in full, was published.

Document Translation

A one-minute recording of an interview with Achimez Gochiyayev is dated August 20, 2002. Of course, it does not follow from this that the recording was made on that day. The calmness of Achimez Gochiyayev, who is hunted day and night by Russian special services, is surprising. One gets the impression that Achimez Gochiyayev is giving the interview not from Georgia, but from some other country. However, these are only assumptions.

We would consider this stage of work completed if we were able to obtain the recording and find out who is hiding behind "K." and "Kh.". Former FSB investigator, colonel, now lawyer Mikhail Trepashkin recently discovered that since 1996 (as recorded in the Moscow Registration Chamber), another person was a co-founder of the "Kapstroy-2000" firm, which rented the ill-fated basements in Moscow, along with Achimez Gochiyayev – Alexander Yuryevich Karmishin. All this led Mark Ulensh, editor of the Somnenie.Narod.Ru website, who works closely with the Public Commission, to the idea that it is Alexander Yuryevich Karmishin who is the mysterious "K.". It is not difficult to check whether a person named Karmishin works in the Cherkessk FSB. It is more difficult to answer the question of why the investigative bodies of Russia are silent.

Achimez Gochiyayev was accused of involvement in the September terrorist attacks only on the basis that basements of the bombed houses were rented by him and in his name. Meanwhile, the co-founder of his firm, whose existence is known to both the investigative bodies and the FSB, is not only not accused of involvement in the terrorist attacks, but is not even named. We do not call for rushing with accusations. We demand that the public be informed who Alexander Yuryevich Karmishin is, whether he is related to the FSB or other Russian security agencies, where he is currently located, and why he was not declared a suspect in involvement in the apartment bombings in Moscow and Volgodonsk in September 1999.

The full transcript of Achimez Gochiyayev's interview is published on the TERROR-99 website.

Alexander Litvinenko, Yuri Felshtinsky
11.03.2003