Cambio 16 ("Exchange 16"), weekly magazine, Madrid

20.09.99 Russia, chasing terror (Carlos Bradak)

Indifferent terrorism - almost comparable to the Algerian one - has taken hold of Russia. Its face is blurred. The Russian state insists on a "Chechen trace", based on the war in Dagestan, but many believe that the majority of the 300 dead are the result of a lethal campaign of intentions by the Kremlin itself for the sake of introducing a state of emergency, canceling the upcoming elections, and maintaining [or feeding] the "family" at the top of power. [...]

Five brutal strikes of hexogen and amosal as of noon on September 20 - four of them - hypothetical results of the offensive by former leaders of Chechen partisans against Russian military positions in Dagestan with the goal of creating an Islamic state - took the lives of more than 300 Russians. [explosions at Manezh Square - "Union of Revolutionary Writers" - and in Buynaksk - the legendary Basaev and Khattab].

Terrorism transformed into a large wave on September 9, 14, and 16, when hundreds of explosives pulverized residential buildings in large suburbs in the South-West of Moscow and for the third time - in the city of Volgodonsk. At least one school and one residential building were saved thanks to the mobilization of the population of Moscow in the search for explosives.

The Moscow elite, both the Kremlin and the opposition mayor Yuri Luzhkov, immediately blamed Caucasians. Police and military selflessly devote themselves to the search and arrest of "dark-skinned" and "dark-haired" people. Prime Minister, ex-chief of the KGB and the current FSB (Federal Security Service) Vladimir Putin, warned the Chechens that "revenge [or repression] will be devastating."

The Russian mafia, which controls part of the large fruit and vegetable markets in Moscow, asked Mayor Luzhkov to deport Chechen, Azerbaijani, and Armenian sellers, "because it is likely that these people are responsible for these massacres."

OMON, special units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, gravitate towards the immediate establishment of "fenced enclosures" to drive in all those who fit the scheme presented in the justification of "fear of Chechens." A street so close to the center as Kuznetsky Most, an old commercial tract from the times of poverty and Soviet Moscow, and now a commercial residence for gold and jewelry traders, was closed to pedestrian traffic from September 14 to 16, because the periodical "Novaya Gazeta" claimed on its pages that a Chechen center functioned there, whereas in reality it was about a traditional Spanish center for aging war veterans.

Minister of Internal Affairs Vladimir Rushailo added a "twist" with the assertion that 17 people of "Slavic appearance" were detained, "but this only confirms that Chechens hire Russians to carry out explosions," a possibility that can be refuted not only by the lack of evidence, but also by the relations of hatred that divide Slavs and Caucasians.

Map:

1. Karachay-Cherkessia. Inhabited by hostile nations, Cherkessians proclaimed their separation from Karachay-Muslims.
2. Kabardino-Balkaria. A situation of stagnation between Kabardians and Balkars occupying different positions in the Chechen conflict.
3. Abkhazia. With 300,000 Georgian refugees, the presence of Russian troops is evident here, it is a powder keg in the region and in Georgia.
   South Ossetia [marked on the map, without number and without comments]
4. North Ossetia. More than 50 people died in March of this year in a terrorist attack related to the conflict with the Ingush minority.
5. Chechnya. Maskhadov's government does not control the situation and Russia is preparing a strike against Islamic sectors.
6. Dagestan. Russia is unable to expel the Islamists, while the Russian population complains about the increased number of deaths.

[two sub-points in summary form]

Moscow is losing control

Starting from March, against the background of the collapse of Russia and the financial crisis, acts of violence in Karachay-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria, and North Ossetia. By coincidence, Eduard Shevardnadze in Tbilisi became the object of a third assassination attempt on his life. In Baku, on the same dates, the police reached a mutiny with the goal - according to the Moscow

Russian Security Services Intercept Explosions and Ban Wahhabism

Explosions in Moscow and Russia

• Russian security services were preventing various explosions that were supposed to take place in Moscow, according to an FSB representative quoted yesterday by the ITAR-TASS agency.
• Police have discovered various time bomb mechanisms in the capital over the last few days, intended to explode on specific dates, up to September 21, said FSB representative Alexander Zdanovich.
• Commenting on the explosion that caused 14 deaths yesterday in a building in Volgodonsk, Zdanovich said that it was a premeditated act. "All these explosions across Russia are links in a single chain."
• Zdanovich added: "We are confronting international terrorists who have precise plans."

Dagestan Bans Wahhabist Movement

• Dagestan yesterday banned the Wahhabist movement (radical Islam), accused of being at the source of two bloody rebellions in the Caucasian republic, according to the ITAR-TASS agency.
• The parliament of Dagestan approved a law banning "any organization that identifies itself with Wahhabism, and any other extremist organization whose activity is aimed at changing the constitutional order through violence and threatens the security of the State."
• Wahhabists are accused by the authorities of organizing two insurgent expeditions into Dagestan in August and September to establish an "Islamic republic" there, independent of Moscow.
• Federal forces, Russian and Dagestani, have in recent days finished the second operation undertaken from Chechnya by Islamists led by the head of the Chechen war Shamil Basayev and "commandante" Khattab, a Jordanian who became one of the conduits of Wahhabism in the Caucasus.

Table: Bomb Attacks

An explosion destroyed a large apartment block in the Russian city of Volgodonsk, in the Southeast of the country, near the unstable Russian region of the North Caucasus. Authorities suspect Islamic activists—fighting for the Independence of Dagestan—of responsibility for the recent terrorist attacks that claimed more than 300 lives. Volgodonsk, 6 a.m.: a truck exploded near a house

1. Aug 31: A bomb in a deluxe commercial center located a few dozen meters from the Kremlin. One dead and 40 suffered damage.
2. Sep 4: A car equipped with the equivalent of 300 kg of TNT exploded near a house inhabited by families of Russian military personnel in Buynaksk (Dagestan). 94 people died.
3. Sep 9: The explosion of a house in southeast Moscow resulted in 94 deaths.
4. Sep 13: At least 116 people died in the destruction by explosion of a second house in Moscow.
5. Sep 16: A car with explosives exploded near an apartment block in Volgodonsk, killing at least seven people and wounding a hundred.

Sources: Reuters, BBC World.
[full translation]

Related Reports

• ibidem: "Circassia wants autonomy"
  • 24.09.99 Offensive: Russians bombed Grozny airport. Islamist rebels are jumping from Dagestan to Chechnya and vice versa. Russian federal troops are now trying to undertake a final assault
  • "Moscow defines as 'terrorists' the Islamist insurgents based in Chechnya, whom it accuses of being the source of a series of explosions in Russia (about 300 deaths since August 31) and of having organized two insurgent expeditions into the neighboring republic of Dagestan"
• ibidem:
  • Bomb deactivated in Ryazan.
  • The psychosis of bomber attacks is growing in various cities of Russia

The discovery of a bomb, ready to explode, in a building in Ryazan (in the middle of the night from Wednesday to Thursday) [Friday's newspaper], shows that Russia continues

Terror Attacks in Russia

• The country remains a target of terrorist attacks, despite the unprecedented efforts of the police. These explosions have resulted in more than 300 deaths.
• A bomb with a large charge was deactivated by police in a 12-story building in a city of 530,000 inhabitants, located 200 km southeast of Moscow.
• The bomb consisted of three bags of hexogen mixed with sugar and detonators connected to a clockwork mechanism. It was found in a basement, exactly repeating the scenario of two deadly explosions that hit Moscow buildings earlier this month.
• The detonator's clock was set to 5:30 AM local time. According to Ryazan police, the device was discovered on Wednesday at 10 PM, thanks to one resident of the house who raised the alarm after seeing three people unloading bags from a car at the entrance to the house.

28.09.99 Offensive: Russian bombs devastate Grozny.

• Intensive military movements at the base in Mozdok seem to confirm the inevitability of Moscow's ground offensive.
• "Russia has been bombing Chechnya daily since September 5 and the capital, Grozny, since last Thursday. Moscow accuses Grozny of providing sanctuary on its territory to Islamist rebels who organized two rebel expeditions into neighboring Dagestan and whom Russia considers responsible for the bloody terrorist attacks of recent weeks in the Russian capital and in other cities of the federation."

30.09.99 Offensive: Moscow intensifies attacks on Chechnya

• The leader of two Islamist insurgencies in the neighboring republic of Dagestan in August and September, Basaev, is also accused by Moscow of being behind the terrorist attacks in Russia, which have resulted in 293 deaths since August 31.

04.12.99 Ultimatum to Grozny: Russians resist pressure.

• The NATO Secretary General considers the unbearable Moscow threat to the Chechens, but Vladimir Putin prefers to speak in proclamations.
• "The current Russian offensive in Chechnya started on October 1 under the pretext of putting an end to the military actions of Islamist Chechens in Dagestan and terrorist attacks in Moscow. De facto independent since the end of 1991, the Chechens resisted the first Russian intervention in 1994 with success, but at some point the enemy's military power had results, at the cost of the deaths of hundreds of civilians and the flight of thousands to Ingushetia. The main political benefits from the attack on Chechnya were received by Prime Minister Putin, leading in the relative polling for the '2000' presidential elections."
  • Source: "The Economist", London

18.09.99. Terrorists of Russia

• Five bombs in three weeks have brought the total number of people killed in the current campaign of terror in Russia to approximately 350.
• At least 118 died in one explosion in Moscow on September 13.
• The authorities branded unnamed "Islamic terrorists," but some opponents of President Boris Yeltsin hint that the bombs were likely "acts of provocation" designed to give him the opportunity to introduce a nationwide state of emergency.

Explosive politics

Terrorist Attacks in Russia

Terrorist attacks are always terrible, anonymous ones especially. Three mysterious bomb explosions in Moscow and two in the far south of Russia in the last three weeks have killed at least 350 people and maimed many more. Russia's capital, a city unaccustomed to terror, at least terror of the post-Soviet kind, is in an ominously nervous, intolerant state of mind. It seems there are no real clues to the mystery, but a number of disturbing theories.

Official and Political Reactions

• Russian authorities have no doubts. "It is obvious that we are dealing with well-trained international saboteurs," says Vladimir Putin, the Prime Minister. "It is absolutely clear that the terrorists are hiding in Chechen territory."
• Politicians of all stripes have united to demand the harshest measures against Chechnya, a quasi-independent Muslim republic in southern Russia.
• Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, apparently unfamiliar with Chechnya's mountainous topography, proposed fencing it off with a barrier similar to the Berlin Wall.

Alternative Theories and Conflicts

• Chechens are easy scapegoats, but hardly the culprits. Many of them feel revulsion toward Russia, which has treated them terribly.
• Chechen partisans, acting at their own risk, have fought Russian forces in Dagestan, a neighboring republic, in recent weeks.
• The Chechen government, which wants peace with Russia and international recognition, condemned the bombings. The same was done, more emotionally, by the most famous Chechen commander in the Dagestan battle, Shamil Basayev. His feud is with the Russian army, not with civilians, as he said.
• Russian officials—and some American terrorism experts—brand international Islamic terrorists. They say that Osama bin Laden, the infamous Saudi-born terrorist convicted of bomb attacks on American embassies, is setting up training camps in Chechnya to help the rebels in Dagestan.
• Mr. bin Laden has his own unsettled scores with Russia, but there is no firm evidence of his involvement, let alone his presence.
• No known terrorist organization, local or foreign, has claimed responsibility for the explosions.
• Mairbek Vachagaev, Chechnya's representative in Moscow, says Russian leaders cooked up the idea of a link to the Saudi to involve American interests and attract their sympathies.

Conspiracy Theories

• Even more disturbing is the idea that a faction in Boris Yeltsin's besieged presidential court has prepared to use such measures to cling to power even after next year's elections.
• If this is true, one goal could be to prepare the ground for a state of emergency or a putsch; another—to somehow harm Yuri Luzhkov, the mayor of Moscow and the president's leading opponent.
• A third could be to distract attention from allegations of high-level corruption and money laundering. "Some of these people have a completely criminal mentality, and they are driven to despair," says one of the senior figures in Mr. Luzhkov's camp, who is certain that the Kremlin's cronies are at least to some extent involved.

Skepticism and Political Fallout

• Others doubt such a conspiratorial explanation. Boris Fedorov, the former (pro-market) Finance Minister, says that even the most nauseating parts of the Russian political spectrum only go for "private murders, but not for terrorist attacks in the center of Moscow."
• Of course, the bombs did not have such a far-reaching overt political effect. Politicians of all parties, including those allied with the Kremlin, stated that there was no need for a state of emergency and that parliamentary elections should take place on time on December 19.
• Mr. Luzhkov, like other leading politicians, called for vigilance and national unity.
• Financial scandals are steadily moving forward regardless—the most recent with detailed allegations by Yuri Skuratov, the country's prosecutor general, who was suspended for looking too closely at the Kremlin, that 3.9 billion out of 4.8 billion IMF loans given this year never reached Russia but were sold by the central bank directly to 18 well-known commercial banks.

All this could change if more bombs explode. What is already clear is that Russia's fragile commitments to human rights and the rule of law

Are weakening.

Remarks about Chechens even from liberal politicians smell of racism. Mr. Luzhkov called for the re-registration of people who arrived in Moscow from other places "with special attention to Chechens." This could make life in the capital even more risky and insecure and more pitiable for Russian Muslims and Caucasians, who even to this day have often felt the heavy hand of the police. Mr. Vachagaev says that more than 500 Chechens have already been arrested in Moscow "simply on the basis of their nationality."

He also fears spontaneous acts of revenge that the police will not prevent. "A group planned to storm our office on Tuesday," says the envoy. "When I asked the authorities for protection, they said they would send a second policeman."

And all this before the election campaign in Russia has barely begun.

Photo: a line of people facing a bus, hands up - "Where else are you from?"

25.09.99. South of Russia: Still disorder

The bombs in Moscow have stirred Russia's instinct to use force on its troubled southern borders and involve nearby countries in them.

Never worry about evidence. Move to fight. This, at first glance, seems to be Russia's reaction to the flood of bombs in Moscow and in cities and territories on Russia's rebellious southern fringe, which has cost about 300 lives in the last month. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is urging "the harshest measures" against the perpetrators—terrorists from Chechnya, as he says.

• bombings
• preparation for war
• seeking help on the diplomatic front
• accusations against Georgia and Azerbaijan
• support for separatists in Abkhazia and refusal to withdraw bases
• bombings of Georgian border villages
• Islamic rebellions in Central Asia and Russian intervention

...The shadow of the old Warsaw Pact? Unlikely. Russian leaders are ready to ensure full readiness to make a bad situation even worse.

"L'Express", Paris

23.09.99. Under cover: The perverted and corrupt Tsar

["Grab the looted!", xenophobia and the need for mythology]

Police raids, conducted mainly against residents of Caucasian origin, have led to more than 11,000 arrests. An article in the daily "Novaya Gazeta," inspired (or "of the inspired" - grammatically impossible to determine), according to multiple signs, by the FSB (ex-KGB), even hints at airborne sabotage groups whose members, Ukrainians and Russians, are allegedly paid $50,000 by the leader of the Chechen war, Shamil Basayev, to sow terror in the country's large cities. This is his sore spot, because, for the most part, the latter does not hesitate to widely and loudly take credit for his ostentatious actions. But Basayev strongly denies any involvement in this terrorist wave. Just like one of the leaders of the Islamists of Dagestan, Sirazhdin Ramazanov, who accuses: "These terrorist acts are connected with an unprecedented battle for power unfolding in Moscow." While the war spreads in the North Caucasus with daily bombings of Chechnya, the most generally accepted thesis attributes responsibility for the terrorist attacks to the current government, or at least to certain Machiavellis from the presidential circle, who would be the "commanditistes" (no Russian equivalent - an investor in a limited partnership).

• bad pre-election prospects and the country's financial situation

14.10.99. Caucasus: big Russian maneuvers. Chechnya: Moscow's ambitions (Sylvain Pasquier)

• deployment of preparations for war and the danger from Russia for all countries.
• Russia's incitement of separatists in Transcaucasia.
• Russian military bases in

Georgia. Caucasus region

"Anti-Western rhetoric has never been so poisonous since the fall of the USSR"

Chechen combatants are officially equated to terrorists. They are accused of being the authors of the deadly explosions in Moscow and Volgodonsk—about 300 deaths between August 31 and September 16.

The Russian authorities pursue a dual goal: on the one hand, to subdue Chechnya; on the other, to restore their guardianship over the South Caucasus.

Gazeta Wyborcza ("Election Newspaper"), Warsaw

10.09.99. Terrorist attack? Gas explosion?

Nightmare in Moscow. An explosion turned an 8-story residential building into a pile of ruins. The death toll could rise to a hundred. The explosion was so powerful that it damaged 14 surrounding buildings (Wacław Radziwinowicz).

Photo. Explosion exactly at midnight. Is this a coincidence?

When we were finishing this issue of "Gazeta", there were 32 dead and more than 150 wounded; 80 people remained under the rubble. 1.2 thousand lost the roof over their heads.
[unnamed policeman on duty - eyewitness] - More than 200 people lived in these two entrances. No one will come out of this hell alive [42-year-old Viktor Gerasimov, resident].

Was it hexogen?

According to the Federal Security Service of Russia, the force of the explosion was equivalent to 20 kg of TNT. Everyone is asking themselves only one question—what exploded. Gas? A bomb?

In the morning, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that gas had exploded. In the evening, however, no one confirmed this version anymore.

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov said that the echo of the war in the Caucasus had reached the capital. "The bandits wanted to take revenge for their defeat in Dagestan," he stated in the evening.

According to Luzhkov, hexogen exploded in the house—an explosive material used exclusively in military charges. Its explosive force is twice that of TNT.

The Interfax agency reports that yesterday an anonymous man called its Moscow editorial office and, speaking with a "distinct Caucasian accent," stated that "the explosions in Buynaksk and Moscow are a response to the Russian bombings of villages in Dagestan and Chechnya."

Radio "Ekho Moskvy" even claimed that the FSB is already looking for the perpetrators of the explosion. Allegedly, their portraits, made from memory, are already ready. [the situation in the country is getting worse].

15.09.99. The ghost of a purge

[purge - a term with the label "polit.", borrowed from a neighboring language, having no related words]. The Russian Prime Minister wants a revision of the peace with Chechnya. The Moscow street is confident that the "Chechen trace" leads to the actual perpetrators. People demand a bloody response in the rebel republic and applaud the policemen detaining people of "Caucasian appearance" on the streets (Wacław Radziwinowicz).

Photo of a mass roundup: about a hundred people squatting.

On the night from Monday to Tuesday after the explosion on Kashirskoye Shosse, the southern districts of Moscow did not sleep. Residents every minute set the police on their feet with successive alarms about real and imaginary bombs. In the basement of a house near Borisovskie Prudy, sappers called by residents found 50 bags, in which—as the heralds of the Federal Security Service claim—there was sugar mixed with explosive materials.

Vladimir Rushailo, the head of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, stated yesterday that in other places in Moscow, warehouses with 3,080 kg of explosive materials were discovered.

FSB Detentions and Terrorist Attacks

The FSB announced that it had detained three persons whom it considers "having a connection to the terrorist attacks." As it later turned out, the detainees are simply people who recently rented out premises in the buildings on Guryanova St. and Kashirskoye Highway to a person using the passport of the deceased Chechen Mukhit Laipanov. It is assumed that it was in these premises that the authors of the terrorist attacks assembled hundreds of kilograms of explosive materials, with which they blew up both buildings. Investigative authorities "outlined the circle of persons directly responsible for the tragedy." This could be the fake Laipanov, as well as Denis Saitov, who recently lived with him in the same hotel room. Television shows photos of both of them, adding that Saitov left Moscow for the Caucasus.

[Talk "in the city" about the Islamic crescent of the map of terrorist attacks, starting from the Manege - "stars", Azerbaijanis in Luzhniki are being beaten by groups of teenagers, Putin: "Chechnya is a large camp of terrorists", about a sanitary cordon, primarily economic]

According to Putin, the authorities of Chechnya, which "is a part of the RF," "must hand over the bandits to us." The Prime Minister also announced a review of the agreement concluded in 1996 in Khasavyurt, which ended the Chechen war.

16.09.99. City under a magnifying glass.

More than 22 thousand police officers are combing Moscow.

• We have evidence that the terrorists who committed the terrorist attacks in Moscow have taken refuge in Chechnya, - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said yesterday. He wants to demand the extradition of terrorists from Chechnya (Reuters, AFP, MAW).

The official search for the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks has been given the code name "Vikhr" (Whirlwind).

• In Moscow itself, 22 thousand police officers are participating in the operation, who in five days conducted more than 18 thousand searches.
• 289 units of weapons and almost 4 thousand rounds of ammunition were confiscated.
• Almost 40 thousand rented dwellings were also checked.
• Control also covers hotels, bars, markets.
• In the process, the police arrested 134 criminals listed on wanted lists.
• Over 16 thousand persons without permanent registration in Moscow were also detained. If they fail to register within three days, they will be removed from the city. [The operation will expand to the whole country and the Caucasus; Igor Sergeyev on thousands of Chechen militants on the border with Dagestan]

Deputy head of the Moscow police, General Alexander Veldyayev, reported yesterday that the police and intelligence have established how the latest attacks in the Russian capital, in which more than 200 people died, were carried out.

• "Both attacks were carried out by Chechen militants. To cover their tracks, they used people with a Slavic appearance" - Veldyayev reported to journalists.

Since the first explosion on September 9, the Moscow police have detained 27 people. Neither their faces nor their nationality have been made public. However, the main suspects have vanished as if into thin air:

• A man using the passport of the Chechen Mukhit Laipanov, who has been dead for a year, who rented premises in both destroyed buildings.
• His accomplice Denis Saitakov, probably a resident of Tatarstan.

[Maskhadov complains about the raid on Shali, the Ministry of Internal Affairs talks about fundamentalist bases]

17.09.99. Finish off the bastard.

Russia: Terrorists kill, the government goes mad.

• 437 residents were registered in the 8-story building at 35 Gagarina St. in Volgodonsk. A bomb planted by terrorists killed at least 17.
• The Mayor of Moscow is seeking an answer in Chechnya (Wacław Radziwiłowicz).

Photo: Bomb over the Don. After the explosion, a crater 5 m deep and 15 m wide remained. In two entrances of building No. 35, the front wall collapsed, and a fire broke out on the fifth floor. In Volgodonsk, which has 200,000 inhabitants near the Don, already after the explosions in Buynaksk and Moscow, the police checked and sealed all basements and attics in residential buildings - Mayor Sergei Gorbunov assures.

A shell with a power - as experts estimate - equal to 300 kg of TNT was placed either on a GAZ 53 truck, which at 5:25, fifteen minutes before the explosion, drove up to the house, or in a sewer manhole. The explosion damaged 40 neighboring houses, a kindergarten, and a school.

Press and Conflict in the North Caucasus

• The press—to establish an Islamic republic, or perhaps it was about control over customs.
• The Ingush minority, whose lands after the expulsion were seized by Orthodox Ossetians supported by Moscow and branches of the old KGB, such as the paramilitary organization "Les" [Forest], live on the border with Chechnya.
• USSR repressions against Sufi brotherhoods, elections in Karachay-Cherkessia.
• Kidnappings—the main economic activity of Chechnya, the hijacking of a plane of the Russian presidential administration with a special Kremlin envoy.
• Pipelines as the reason for the region's vital importance to Russia at any cost, the prehistory of Russia's struggle with England for India in the 19th century.
• Paralysis of Maskhadov's government. Contraband. Adoption of Sharia and cooperation with Basayev and Raduyev—political suicide.

Integrist Struggle?

• Wahhabism is alien to the majority of Chechens.
• The "Naqshbandiya" ritual as a legacy of Sufi brotherhoods, "people of the mountains" as adherents of liberal concepts in religious ideas, have nothing in common with Saudi integrism, the promoter of Wahhabism.
• In 1995, the Wahhabis were a small detachment sent by Riyadh, whom Chechen commanders did not trust.
• The Jordanian Khattab invaded Dagestan.

Russian Interests

• Starting from 1996, Moscow shuddered before a large wave of terrorist attacks in city buses.
• Luzhkov, the Kremlin, and the Moscow press pointed to the Chechens.
• Subsequent confessions by former members of the security services revealed that FSB agents organized the terrorist attacks to provoke a devastating war—the explosions were in early August 1996—against the Chechens.
• Is there any logic in the recent terrorist attacks in Russia for the Chechens? None, except for the rise of anger and hatred, similar to 1996.
• Basayev took responsibility for the slaughter in Buynaksk, but denies his responsibility for the attacks in Moscow.
• A publication such as "Moskovskiye Novosti" claims that the oligarch and Yeltsin family accountant Boris Berezovsky financed Khattab's activities in Dagestan to justify an authentic strike by the State Palace in the Kremlin, which allows the president to rule under martial law and postpone indefinitely the parliamentary elections in December—which is of little importance, given the zero power of the Duma—and the decisive presidential elections next June.
• The Yeltsin family and Berezovsky, as well as 780 high-ranking functionaries, according to tax service investigations, are convinced that they will go to prison in the event of a loss in the elections; this is a real possibility, among a number of others, if only because it concerns the political party that represents them in the elections and which protects them before tribunals.
• It is no longer about the old accusations of the communists that the masters of the Kremlin liquidated the USSR. It is about the fact that Yeltsin, family members, high-ranking officials, and their associates, no fewer than 1,500 people, stole an amount equivalent to half of the Russian gross domestic product starting from 1993.
• The "Yeltsin Clan" is playing for more than just power, but to avoid standing trial and going to prison.

Photo - caption: Police register a Chechen - in reality, he has his hands up etc.

In the same place: "Final Solution"—a note about the inclination of Russian public opinion and a number of politicians toward the idea of solving the Chechen problem with nuclear weapons.

10/18/99 Russia again - the Chechen trap (Carlos Bradac)

"The lack of evidence regarding the 'Chechen' authors of the bloody attacks in Moscow—whose alleged authorship was the motive declared by the Kremlin for undertaking a new war in the North Caucasus—has already shown that the Russian goals were to violate the agreements of August 31, 1996... which left the final status of Chechnya in limbo until the summer of 2001, although they recognized that the legal definition of Chechnya would be given on the basis of International Law, which preceded the recognition of its independence."

[steps of preparation for war; "Yeltsin decided that his best election campaign leads through war"]

06.12.99 CHECHNYA Russia's dangerous [or malicious] path (Gonzalo Aragonés)

[refugees, the new "dauphin" V. Putin, Yeltsin's stunt at the OSCE]
Attacks, one excuse [or one pretext]

It is clear now. The Army and the Government used the terrorist attacks in Moscow to attribute them to Muslim Wahhabi partisans who entered the Republic of Dagestan, and an order was given to invade Chechnya because they believe that Aslan Maskhadov's government provided refuge to these "terrorist" commandos.

[Dudaev in 91: "Chechnya is [?] Kuwait"; Yeltsin, unlike Milosevic, is consistent, being a key piece of world geopolitics; victims of bombings; recently released Gantamirov refuses to negotiate with the legitimate president Maskhadov]

"La Croix" ("The Cross", Catholic newspaper), Paris

15.09.99 Moscow fears new attacks.

Fear takes hold of the Russian capital since Monday's attack caused 116 deaths. Three suspects have been arrested by investigators who are developing the Chechen trail (our corr. Maksim Yusin)

["the government cannot protect us", say ordinary citizens]

Since Monday morning, Konstantin and three friends created an "action group" responsible for the security of the house. ["we ask to be understood"...]

After the basements, Konstantin and his friends paid "visits" to two apartments in their building, recently rented by businessmen who arrived from Azerbaijan.

Moscow police announced that they searched several thousand basements and "suspicious" apartments in 24 hours. Many caches of explosives were discovered, one of which contained about 4 tons, but there is no certainty that these explosive materials were intended for the same kind of attacks. Three persons were arrested on suspicion of potentially helping terrorists. But the police will not be able to control the entire city with a population of 9 million. That is why the authorities welcome volunteer patrols. [police measures and hysteria of residents].

16.09.99. Unknown group claims responsibility for attacks in Moscow

In a phone call to the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS, a man with a Caucasian accent yesterday admitted on behalf of the "Dagestan Liberation Army" to carrying out the attacks that caused 274 deaths in recent days in Russia. The head of the Islamist rebels, Shamil Basayev, accused of them, denied on Monday (16th - Thursday) any involvement in the explosions. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin made a statement yesterday that the authors of the attacks are hiding in Chechnya. The day before, he proposed applying sanctions against the independentist Republic.

17.09.99. Russia: A new bomb caused 17 deaths and 25 seriously injured yesterday morning in Volgodonsk, in southwestern Russia.

Moscow, which accuses the Islamist rebels of Dagestan of being behind the wave of terrorist attacks, threatens reprisals against independentist Chechnya, the rebels' holy of holies.

The hypothesis of manipulation by ruling circles has not been discarded: Boris Berezovsky, a person close to the Kremlin, may have regular contacts with Islamists.

The Kremlin consistently favors the Islamic trail.

In Moscow, observers do not rule out meanwhile that some forces in Russia wish to sow panic in order to postpone elections and prolong Yeltsin's reign (our corr. Maksim Yusin)

The Authors of the Attacks

• A responsible representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that the authors of the attacks in Moscow and Volgodonsk are the same.
• Witnesses at the scene of the latest crime in Volgodonsk tracked a person already wanted for organizing explosions in the capital.
• This individual is described as a Wahhabi originating from one of the North Caucasian Republics, but not from Chechnya.
• Russian authorities consider the Chechen trail to be the primary one.

Accusations and Government Response

• Prime Minister Vladimir Putin directly accused Islamist leaders Shamil Basayev and Khattab of financing the terrorist attacks, defining both as "terrorists."
• The Kremlin demanded that Chechen President Alsan Maskhadov "immediately put an end to their activities" on the territory of the independentist republic.
• The Russian press has not ruled out a military operation against regions of Chechnya bordering Dagestan, where Islamist bases are located.
• The Russian government is also considering economic sanctions against Chechnya, specifically a blockade of its territory.
• The Rostov region is considered a potential target.

Arrests and Fugitives

• Moscow police announced the arrest of 27 persons potentially involved in the recent explosions.
• Authorities admit that the authors of the terrorist attacks have fled the capital to take refuge in Chechnya to prepare new attacks.
• The Rostov region, where many divisions of the Russian army involved in battles with Islamists in Dagestan are based, is constantly considered a potential target.
• Two months prior, the Federal Security Service (the ex-KGB) warned that Chechen terrorists were preparing actions against civilian targets in Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Rostov, and Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia.

Conflicting Claims and Theories

• No one claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack in Volgodonsk, unlike the attacks in Moscow.
• A man speaking with a strong Caucasian accent told the ITAR-TASS agency on Wednesday that the explosions in the capital were organized by the Dagestan Liberation Army, unknown until then, to avenge Russian operations against Islamists in the Caucasus.
• Yesterday morning, Moscow authorities announced the arrest of alleged organizers of another terrorist attack—the one that destroyed a residential building for military families in Buynaksk, Dagestan, on September 4 (64 victims).
• While the names of the alleged terrorists were not reported, Russian mass media believes they are Islamists who arrived from Chechnya.
• Valery Yakov, editor-in-chief of the daily "Novye Izvestia," suggested that terrorist attacks always have two trails: the Chechen and the Chekist (referring to the Soviet Secret Services, NKVD).
• Yakov stated he could not rule out that some forces in Russia are interested in sowing panic to introduce a state of emergency, cancel elections, and prolong the reign of Boris Yeltsin.
• Another Moscow newspaper, "Moskovsky Komsomolets," linked the capital's mayor Yuri Luzhkov to Boris Berezovsky, a press tycoon and billionaire close to the Yeltsin family, accusing him of maintaining regular contacts with terrorist leaders.
• The newspaper published a long telephone conversation between Berezovsky and two Chechen commanders that occurred shortly after the Islamist invasion of Dagestan.
• On Wednesday evening, the NTV television channel aired a tape presented by the daily's editor-in-chief, showing a conversation between two terrorists and a person with the voice and intonations of Berezovsky.
• Berezovsky, who was hospitalized, had not commented. His circle suggested the incident was a provocation organized by the special services and Luzhkov, an enemy of Berezovsky, while hostile media wished he be tried for high treason if the information was confirmed.

Conclusion

• A bomb killed 14 people yesterday at dawn in Volgodonsk, an ordinary city in southwestern Russia, which was not specifically predicted as a target.
• The attack in Volgodonsk demonstrates that nothing and no one in Russia is protected from bombs. Volgodonsk is described as the Russian hinterland, a faceless city of 200,000 inhabitants in the south.

Terror in Russia

West of the country, between Rostov-on-Don and Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad), and, what is especially important, only 500 km from the Caucasus and its Islamic rebels, accused by Moscow of organizing these explosions.

Yesterday morning, shortly before 6 a.m., a truck placed in front of an 8-story residential building destroyed part of the facade and damaged neighboring buildings, including the local police station. 17 people (author's discrepancies - 14 or 17) were killed and 25 seriously injured during the explosion.

Explosive Charge Details

• A charge equivalent to 300 kg of TNT
• According to the Russian police, the power of the explosive charge was equivalent to 300 to 350 kg of TNT.
• A group of experts from the FSB, the secret service, immediately arrived at the scene.

National Response to Terrorism

A few hours after the fifth explosion, President Boris Yeltsin stated that Russia has "the forces and means necessary to put an end to terrorism." Pious hopes: for the third time in a week, a building that is no different from thousands of others was hit by a bomb. Since August 31, the wave of terror has claimed 291 lives in Russia.

Never since the 1980 Olympic Games has the country known such a mobilization in the security sphere.

• In Moscow alone, 24,000 police officers are on duty.
• All trucks entering the capital are being checked.
• More than 26,000 apartments have already been searched.
• It was possible to search thirty thousand houses with a magnifying glass in this metropolis of 9 million inhabitants, stretching over more than 1,000 sq. km.
• The FSB stated yesterday that it had prevented six explosions by defusing time bombs throughout Moscow.

International Implications

According to the Moscow press, the FSB will be able to launch an "operation of international scale" to "liquidate" the alleged instigators of the terrorist attack:

• The leader of the rebels in Dagestan, Shamil Basayev.
• "Major" Khattab.
• Even the Saudi-born fundamentalist billionaire Osama bin Laden, enemy number 1 of the United States.

But can vast Russia really stop terrorism?

Photo: "special forces in berets are driving a large column [of people] with their hands behind their backs down the street; caption: Moscow police systematically check all residents who represent a physical 'Caucasian'. Hundreds of individuals were arrested in this manner and for the most part released."

Arrests of the Alleged Perpetrators of the Bombings (29.09.99)

The Russian Minister of Internal Affairs announced yesterday the arrest of many individuals suspected of involvement in the recent wave of terror.

• "All participants in the terrorist attacks in Moscow, Buynaksk, and Volgodonsk have already been identified," added Vladimir Rushailo, while preparing the first assessment for President Boris Yeltsin of the unprecedented deployment of police forces following these terrorist attacks, which resulted in 292 deaths since August 31.
• Also according to the Minister of Internal Affairs, the special services allegedly thwarted plans for 16 terrorist attacks and seized 521 tons of explosives in many large cities of the country.
• Identity checks allowed for the arrest of 130 people for "terrorism." But this does not mean that they are necessarily involved in the terrorist attacks.

Additional Reports

• "Delo", Ljubljana
• 10.09.99. Powerful explosion in Moscow (Branko Soban)
  • According to preliminary estimates, about 200 kg of TNT was used.
  • Since Wednesday night, 1500 people were relocated from the most affected buildings in the district.... 648 people lived in 192 apartments. The flames destroyed 78 apartments.
  • A stranger called the Interfax agency bureau in the afternoon and stated with a Caucasian accent that the bombing attacks in Buynaksk and Moscow were "our response to the bombing attacks by Russian aviation on peaceful villages in Chechnya and Dagestan."
• 11.09.99. The terrorist attack claimed at least 88 lives (Branko Soban)

Agents of the Federal Security Service (FSB)

Agents of the Federal Security Service (FSB) found residues of hexogen and TNT among the ruins. Hexogen, also known by the abbreviation RDX, is an extremely powerful explosive (stronger than TNT), which is usually combined with detonators and used in the army and industry. Specialists say that hexogen is easy enough to make; the recipe can be found on the internet.

Unknown persons placed between 200 and 400 kg of this deadly cargo in a residential building. It was placed in the ground floor premises of the "Delko-2" enterprise, which, according to residents, had been vacant for a long time. The enterprises "Roksolana" and "Formantpe" also had their offices on the ground floor. Investigators say that among other things, they traded in chemicals.

TV channels broadcast a composite sketch of one of the terrorists. The image of a man with glasses would not remind anyone in Moscow of a Caucasian; special services agents report a group of young people who were sitting in front of the neighboring house the previous evening. Late at night, a "Ford Taunus" was parked in front of the house. Very heavy bags were dragged from it into the house. Then those who did it got into the car and drove away. A few minutes later, a terrible explosion shook the entire neighborhood.

Viktor Ilyukhin stated that the Kremlin is behind all this, wanting to compromise Luzhkov. Luzhkov suggested that Ilyukhin visit a psychiatrist.

14.09.99. War against Caucasian terrorists: (Branko Soban)

At 5:02 AM, a powerful explosion completely destroyed an 8-story building on Kashirskoye Highway. By evening, 55 bodies had been recovered.

An anti-terrorism headquarters has been established under the leadership of Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo. They are looking for a certain Mukhid Laitanov - perhaps the one hiding behind this name... the real Laipanov died in February in a car accident.

Regarding Volgodonsk, there is a standard story about a truck and a crater at the site of the explosion; Ryazan is absent.

02.10.99. Allah, oil, and Russian aspirations (Branko Soban)

• Moscow names Basayev and Khattab as the culprits of both the war and the explosions; possible involvement of bin Laden; possible oil pipeline routes from Baku; Primakov is the worst evil that could easily happen in Russia.

Aslan Maskhadov is obviously right when he is outraged that Russian security services are looking for a "Chechen trail" in the recent bomb attacks. Chechens simply would not have been physically able to organize terrorist acts of such scale. Their traces should rather be sought in Moscow, Maskhadov points out.

Diario de Noticias ("Daily News Gazette", published since 1864), Lisbon

10.09.99 Explosion: Moscow on the "Islamic trail".

Initial investigations into the explosion in a building in the Russian capital point to a "terrorist act" linked to the Caucasus.

Russian representatives yesterday showed themselves strongly inclined toward the opinion of a trail of a terrorist act linked to the war in Dagestan, based on the results of the first investigative actions regarding the explosion in a building in Moscow on the night from Wednesday to Thursday. The explosion resulted in at least 32 deaths and more than 50 missing.

"If it is confirmed that this is a terrorist act - and everything points to this version - it will have to be admitted that this echo of the war in Dagestan (Russian Caucasus) has become felt in the capital," declared Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.

An FSB communique indicates that the preliminary investigation into the explosion requires the conclusion that it is indeed a terrorist act. The bomb,

Terrorist Attacks in Russia

• The explosion used "the equivalent of 330 or 400 kilos of explosive material" or an "increased amount of pyrotechnic material," according to an FSB communique.
• Prime Minister Vladimir Putin stated that "the events in Dagestan are dangerous not only for the republic and for the Caucasus, but also for all of Russia."
• An anonymous interlocutor, "who spoke with a strong Caucasian accent," told the Interfax agency that the explosion was a response to military operations conducted by Russian forces in Dagestan and Chechnya.
• Leaders of Islamic separatists have repeatedly threatened Moscow with reprisals following bombings in the region by Russian aviation.
• A bomb attack in Buynaksk (Dagestan) on Saturday destroyed a building inhabited by Russian military personnel, causing 64 deaths.
• Radio Deutsche Welle reported that an unknown person "with a North Caucasus accent" announced "three explosions in Moscow" on Monday by telephone, calling the bureau of the German radio station in Moscow. This person claimed the act was "an act of anger against the bombings of Chechen villages by Russian military forces."
• Another explosion occurred in an underground passage in Moscow on August 31 near the Kremlin, causing one death. This explosion was attributed to radical Islamists who launched an offensive in Dagestan.
• Various high-ranking Russian officials yesterday favored the "terrorist" narrative regarding the explosion that destroyed a residential building in a working-class district in southeast Moscow overnight from Wednesday to Thursday.
• Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo suggested the disaster might have been caused by a bomb, adding that the final results of the specialists' investigation would be available soon, "in one or two days."
• According to the same source, the epicenter of the explosion was located between the ground and first floors of the building where 202 people lived.
• By the middle of yesterday evening, 23 bodies had been recovered from the ruins, 73 people were hospitalized, and about 50 remained on the list of missing persons.

17.09.99 Offensive: Explosion in Volgodonsk

• The secret service managed to prevent several assassination attempts in Moscow. Boris Yeltsin stated that terrorism is historically doomed in Russia.
• A bomb explosion in a residential building in Volgodonsk (South-East Russia) resulted in 14 deaths and 15 serious injuries, according to information from the city ambulance service cited by NTV television.
• The bomb had a potential equivalent to 300 or 350 kilos of TNT, reported ORT television, relaying a report from the regional police, Alexei Polnyasky.
• A truck parked near an 8-story building exploded shortly after 6 AM local time, destroying part of the facade and damaging neighboring buildings.
• Volgodonsk is a city with a population of 200,000, located between Rostov-on-Don and Volgograd.
• An investigation was opened under the "terrorism" article. FSB (Federal Security Service, ex-KGB) representative Alexander Zdanovich reported on NTV that a group of FSB experts had already left Moscow to go to the explosion site.
• This was the fifth explosion in Russia since August 31. The three previous ones in Moscow and one in Buynaksk (Dagestan) resulted in a total of 275 deaths.
• Meanwhile, Russian President Boris Yeltsin demanded the strengthening of the administrative border with the independentist republic of Chechnya (Caucasus) during a meeting with his Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, according to an "Interfax" report.
• Yeltsin then spoke about the Volgodonsk explosion, claiming that Russia possesses "all the forces and means necessary to put an end to terrorism."
• Moscow attributes the explosions to Islamists. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin stated on Wednesday (i.e., Sept. 15) that the instigators were hidden in Chechnya.
• The first four explosions were claimed by the mysterious Army for the Liberation of Dagestan, linked to Islamic extremists.

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)

Bombings, Refugees, and the Call for a Congress

Maskhadov announces the convening of a congress of the Chechen people, which will respond to how to react to Russian aggression.

The head of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Vladimir Rushailo, stated yesterday that the authorities have established who planted the explosive devices in Moscow, Buynaksk, and Volgodonsk (at the same time [peri etom] more than 300 people died). He did not, however, report either the names or the nationality of the terrorists. Some perpetrators have already been arrested, the minister stated.

The Investigation into the Bombings in Moscow (04.11.99)

The Russian Federal Security Service claims that it has arrested one of the perpetrators of the September bombings in the Russian capital, which killed more than 300 people—a Chechen. Moscow received this news with disbelief (Wacław Radziwinowicz).

Yesterday at a conference at the Interfax agency, Alexander Tsarenko, head of the capital's FSB, assured journalists that the investigative teams "already have a full picture of the crime, have learned the mechanism of the terrorist acts, and know who committed them."

• The FSB, said Chernenko, arrested one of the terrorists and brought charges against him. The detainee is said to be a "member of illegal Chechen bands."
• Those conducting the investigation also established the identities of two other terrorists, who are also "members of illegal bands" and are currently hiding in Chechnya.
• Tsarenko also has absolute confidence that the September bombings in the houses on Guryanova St. and Kashirskoye Highway were "ordered by well-known terrorists Shamil Basayev and Khattab," and "partial evidence" in support of this thesis is provided by "testimony of the suspects."

Details of the Explosions

• The explosion of the house on Guryanova St. on the night of September 8-9 destroyed two entrances of one house and damaged more than ten neighboring structures. 94 people died [Pogibl].
• Five days later, another explosion completely destroyed a house on Kashirskoye Highway. There, according to some sources, 130 people could have died.
• On September 16, another explosion of a powerful charge in the center of Volgodonsk near Rostov-on-Don in southern Russia killed 17 people and damaged 40 houses, school buildings, and kindergartens.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB immediately accepted [priyali] the version that Chechens were planting the bombs. Several times, those conducting the investigation announced the names of suspects and spoke of the detention of the guilty. Time and again, they announced reports of tons of hexogen found in Moscow or in the provinces, packed in bags with the inscription "Sugar factory [zadov] in Cherkessk," an explosive material allegedly used by terrorists blowing up Russian houses.

Inconsistencies in Ryazan

In Ryazan [Ryazami], a city south of Moscow, the FSB most obviously exaggerated. There, in the basement of a house, residents found bags "with Cherkessk [cherkasskim] sugar" and an attached and switched-on clockwork remote detonator. Initially, those conducting the investigation confirmed that there was real hexogen in the bags and the detonator worked. Then the FSB admitted that, testing the vigilance of the inhabitants, they themselves planted the bomb, but not a real one, only a prop.

Russians did not pay attention to these inconsistencies and allowed themselves to be carried away [uvlch] by a wave of anti-Chechen [sntichechenskoy] hysteria. They applauded the police, who were crudely "cleansing" Moscow markets of "persons of Caucasian nationality." They enthusiastically accepted the invasion of their army into Chechnya. Public opinion polls certify that the popularity of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin [putina] is growing lightning-fast; he tries to create the impression of a firm, simply crude politician, and says that he will "waste Chechen terrorists [terroristom] in the outhouse."

Related Articles

• In the same place, an interview with K. Borovoy: The structures are in a hurry
  • "The Guardian Weekly" ("Strazh - ezhenedelnik"), London
• 16-22.09.99. Explosive wave of terror for Russia (Amelia Gentleman)

Amidst a growing sense of panic, Russian special services began on Monday a search of 30,000 residential buildings in Moscow after a powerful bomb.

Terror Attacks in Moscow

• An 8-story residential building was turned into rubble, killing more than 100 people and destroying the lives of dozens of others.
• For the second time in four days, the target was an anonymous house in the working-class suburbs of the capital, which shook Russia to its foundations.
• President Boris Yeltsin gave the city mayor Yuri Luzhkov 24 hours for a comprehensive inspection of other residential buildings in the capital.
• On Tuesday, Russian officials stated that several tons of explosives were discovered in Moscow, including 3.8 tons in one place.
• The Minister of Internal Affairs stated that one building in the south of the city was "virtually prepared for an explosion" when investigators arrived.
• Details of an alleged Chechen conspiracy began to appear, aimed at striking fear into the heart of the Russian population and putting pressure on the Kremlin so that it would back away from the conflict in Dagestan.
• On Monday, a manhunt was launched for a man using the name Mukhit Laipanov, who recently rented office space on the lower floors of the two residential buildings where the bombs exploded.
• Images of a dark-haired man in glasses with a North Caucasian appearance were posted at bus stops throughout Moscow.
• The secret services stated that the explosive substances used in the explosions of both residential buildings originate from the Caucasus.
• However, the Chechen State Secretary Huseyn Akhmadov insisted that Chechnya "never resorted to such methods of military action to achieve political goals."
• A massive operation of the special services came into effect:
  • Police controlled city metro stations, grabbing anonymous individuals without proper identification documents.
  • A state of combat alert was introduced at all airports and at nuclear sites.
• Mr. Yeltsin addressed the nation on television, stating: "Terrorists are trying to frighten the people of Russia. They are trying to demoralize the state."
• Vladimir Putin, the former spymaster turned Prime Minister, also called for calm, saying of the criminals: "It is hard even to call them animals. If they are animals, then they are rabid."

Escalation of Attacks

• This was the fourth explosion to strike Russia in less than two weeks.
• The bombs were detonated in the early morning hours to maximize damage.
• At least 119 people, including 12 children, were killed during the last explosion, the Minister of Emergency Situations stated on Tuesday.
• The explosion this week occurred only a few days after an equally powerful explosion that struck another residential building in Moscow at night, killing 93 residents and seriously wounding dozens of others.
• A public opinion poll in Russia this week indicated that the deceased Soviet leaders Leonid Brezhnev and Yuri Andropov would have better chances than any of the living politicians to become the next President of Russia if they could appear next year.

Political Fallout

• 23-29.09.99. Yeltsin in the face of calls for him to resign. Bomb attacks and Caucasian rebels add to the pressure on the besieged President (Amelia Gentleman)
• Mr. Yeltsin's reaction to the recent wave of terrorism did not bring him popularity.
• While Mr. Luzhkov used most of the PR opportunities provided by the Moscow bombs—comforting victims on the scene under the full attention of television cameras—Mr. Yeltsin remained at his dacha, appearing only once, looking unwell, to tell the nation that Russia's anti-terrorist forces would respond to the attacks quickly and decisively.
• Police stated that they found evidence that the explosions were organized by a team led by Chechens and identified the ringleaders as Achemes Gochiyayev, a Chechen, and Denis Saitakov from Uzbekistan.
• Mr. Gochiyayev, who used a fake passport in the name of Mukhit Laipanov, rented premises on the lower floors of two Moscow residential buildings that were later blown up. Not a single person was found.

Terror in Moscow: Bombing and Security Crackdown

Detentions and Security Measures

• Two less central suspects were detained:
  • Timur Dakhkilgov, 32, from Chechnya.
  • Belmars Sautiev, 40.
• Both suspects reportedly had traces of explosives on their hands, though they claimed the charges against them were fabricated.
• Hundreds of Chechens were detained in overcrowded Moscow police cells amid rising anti-Chechen sentiment.
• These arrests are part of a broader wave of security measures across Russia, resulting in 11,000 detentions, which is causing fear among the 100,000 Chechens living in Moscow.

Movement Restrictions

• Although the Russian Constitution guarantees freedom of movement, Moscow has maintained the Soviet system requirement for obtaining residence permits.
• Mayor Mr. Luzhkov recently stated that all non-residents must immediately re-register.
• Police and soldiers are stopping thousands of people on the streets, focusing on those with a "Caucasian" appearance, or what Russians call "blacks."

Explosives Discovery

• A large "Mercedes" truck was used to transport over 11 tons of explosives, which were mixed into bags of sugar, apparently sourced from a factory in southern Russia.
• Over the past week, two large secret caches of explosives were also discovered, presumed to originate from the same source.

Responsibility and Political Context

• A previously unknown group, the Dagestan Liberation Army, claimed responsibility for the bombings in Moscow and Buynaksk via an anonymous phone call.
• There is a hypothesis that this organization may not actually exist and was used by the true perpetrators to divert attention.
• Most politicians labeled Chechen extremists as terrorists, suggesting the bombings were a reaction to Russia's six-week battle for control over Dagestan. This conflict involved Chechen-led rebels attempting to establish an Islamic state in the region.
• Despite denials of responsibility from Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov and rebel commanders Shamil Basayev and Khattab, these denials have been unsuccessful in a Russia leaning toward universal suspicion.

Source Notes:
* "International Herald Tribune", Frankfurt (11.09.99. Bomb in Moscow kills 32 people; terrorism blamed. Dozens missing in an apartment building (David Hoffman))
* "La Libre Belgique" ("Free Belgium", newspaper founded at the time of liberation from German occupation in 1918), Brussels (10.09.99. Fear: Escalation of terror in the Russian capital. Muscovites fear this anonymous terrorism, while the human drama becomes a campaign argument for politicians (our corr. Boris Tumanov))

Moscow Bombing Incident

• An explosion that split a 9-story apartment building in half on Thursday morning was caused by a bomb planted in a street-level warehouse.
• Russian authorities stated the bomb had the equivalent power of more than 200 kg of TNT.
• The explosion in the southeastern district of the city killed at least 32 people and injured 249.
• Dozens more people are presumed buried under the ruins.
• The blast, which occurred just after midnight, threw debris over 100 meters from the structure, and rescue efforts are hindered by fire and thick smoke.

Political Fallout

• The incident has led to a quarrel between the Kremlin and Luzhkov, described as "the leader of a powerful political bloc, who is now presented as the most fearsome (dangerous, formidable) opponent of the 'family clan'."

Terrorist Act

• The federal authorities, namely Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, firmly supported the version according to which it was a banal explosion of domestic gas due to improper handling of the city network.
• Goal: to compromise Luzhkov in the eyes of the national electorate, calling into question his competence as an administrator.
• In turn, the mayor attributed this tragedy to a terrorist act related to the war in Dagestan...
• The power of the explosion was recognized as equivalent to 162 kg of TNT.
• According to specialists, domestic gas could not reach such force.

Danger of Acts of Revenge

• Surviving victims did not feel the characteristic smell of gas either before or after.
• Some anonymous experts also pointed out to the press that the ruins of the house bear traces of explosives...
• Moreover, it is impossible to deny that the federal authorities knew that the war in Dagestan puts the residents of the Russian capital at risk of acts of revenge.
• Anonymous terrorism: [in Russia, terrorists prefer to remain anonymous]

14.09.99. Psychosis: Islamic grip on the Kremlin

Second attack in 5 days in Moscow of Caucasian origin? (AFP)

• The 8-story building, where about 120 people lived, was wiped off the face of the earth around 5 a.m. local time by a bomb equivalent to 200 kg of TNT, according to the police.
• "We are talking about a new terrorist attack," reported A. Zdanovich.
• Responsible persons in the police, quoted by the Interfax agency, gave their assessment that the explosion was connected with the conflict in Dagestan.

17.09.99. Car bomb in Volgodonsk (AFP)

• "A bomb explosion near a residential building in Volgodonsk, in southwestern Russia, caused 17 deaths, including two children, and 25 seriously injured, according to the preliminary balance of the local emergency committee, reports the Interfax agency.
• In total, 45 people were injured during the explosion.
• A truck parked in front of the entrance of an 8-story residential building exploded on Thursday shortly before 6 a.m. local time, destroying part of the facade and damaging neighboring structures, including the local police station.
• About 150 rescuers worked on Thursday morning at the site to dig out the bodies of buried people and limit the fire that had started.
• All approaches to the 200,000-strong city were blocked and rare witnesses were questioned.
• "This house was thoroughly searched as part of the anti-terrorist operation 'Tornado'" (launched across the country a few days ago).
• "We checked the basement and the attic. Perhaps the reason is that the terrorists planted explosives in the truck in front of the house," the authorities indicated.
• Russian special services, for their part, stated on Thursday that they had timely prevented many terrorist attacks that were supposed to take place in Moscow.
• The police found many time bombs in the Russian capital over these last few days, set for exact dates up to September 21, specified FSB (ex-KGB) press secretary Alexander Zdanovich.
• Commenting on the explosion on Thursday, Zdanovich stated that it was a terrorist attack.
• "All these explosions across Russia are links in one chain," he stated.
• "We are facing international terrorists who have a precise plan," he added.
• The first four attacks were claimed by the mysterious "Army for the Liberation of Dagestan," apparently linked to Islamic extremists.
• Police records and searches of buildings, which are multiplying across the entire Russian territory over several days, allowed for the arrest of 27 suspects in Moscow.

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.

Media Reports on Terrorism and Conflict

• There is no doubt that this wave of terrorism is linked to the conflict in Dagestan.
• In its September 13 issue, the weekly "Novaya Gazeta" explains that many terrorist groups, including those consisting of former Russian servicemen recruited by the leaders of the Chechen war, left Chechnya at the end of August, heading for Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Rostov-on-Don.
• A dozen explosions, the newspaper adds, are programmed for the future.
• The editor-in-chief of this newspaper, who has numerous contacts in Chechnya and Dagestan, claims that he received information from one of these terrorists.
• The FSB claims that it had no opportunity to obtain confirmation of this information.

Emergency Security Measures and Denials

• 15.09.99. Moscow falls into psychosis from new terrorist attacks (Francois Bonnet)
  • 200 calls from citizens to the FSB about "bombs"
  • On Monday, a few hours after the explosion, an FSB representative explained that "another explosion of the same type" was prevented because law enforcement forces discovered dozens of bags of explosives in a certain basement.
  • Minister of Internal Affairs Vladimir Rushailo further stated on Tuesday that many tons of explosives were discovered in Moscow, including 3,800 kg of them in one cache.
• "Special regime"
  • If the investigation is treading water, there is no doubt for the FSB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs that these explosions were organized by the leaders of the Islamic insurgency in Dagestan, where battles against Russian troops continue.
  • "What happened is the work of Basaev and Khattab, the work of their people," Vladimir Rushailo assured.
  • Chechen commander Shamil Basaev categorically denied his involvement in these terrorist attacks.

Public Reaction and Political Speculation

• 16.09.99. Muscovites, "dark-skinned" people and the psychosis of terrorist attacks (Francois Bonnet)
  • Measures against "culs noirs" - black asses
  • On the radio, the Minister of Internal Affairs explains that 3.8 tons of explosives were discovered in one building and that another terrorist attack was prevented at the last moment.
  • In addition to the authorities, Muscovites are organizing.
    • One resident asserts that pensioners are trying to engage in "visiting basements and stairwells."
    • Another explains that his neighbors pooled their money and demanded that the kiosk worker on the corner, who sells bread, beer, and vodka, supervise those passing back and forth on the street.
    • A third regrets the almost complete disappearance of "support groups," those neighborhood agents who in Soviet times ensured the maintenance of buildings in order—and supervision of their inhabitants...
  • Basaev and Khattab deny: Certain clans in the heart of power—have they chosen a strategy of terror to plunge the country into chaos and derail the electoral process?
  • On Wednesday, the silliest rumors swelled. The Moscow Mayor's Office announced the discovery of a truck equipped with "1.8 tons of explosive substances."
  • Many Muscovites asked no other question than: where did the nearest bomb explode?

Military Escalation

• 19-20.09.99. Russia threatens Chechnya with a large-scale military offensive
  • The army is concentrating forces and bombing the independentist Republic.
  • In Moscow, the investigation into the terrorist attacks seems to be progressing, while the "hunt for faces" against Caucasians continues (Francois Bonnet).
  • Numerous military sources announced on Friday, September 17, that the Russian Ministry of Defense considers itself ready to enter into a "large-scale operation" against "bandits" on the territory of Chechnya.
  • A significant part of the Russian political class insistently demands urgent measures to normalize the situation in the North Caucasus, viewed as the hotbed of the terrorist attacks that have struck the country.
  • "The great fire of the situation must be stopped by the use of force," Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov just stated.
  • The Russian police at the same time stated on Friday that it

Terrorist Attacks and Military Tensions

Investigations into Moscow Bombings

• Investigators identified the "brain" of the terrorist group responsible for the bombings of two houses in Moscow on September 9 and 13, which resulted in 210 deaths.
• The identified person, Achimez Gochiev, is described by investigators as a Caucasian adherent of Wahhabism, a radical Islamic movement associated with the rebels who launched an offensive against Dagestan in August.

Progress in Terrorist Attack Investigations

• Parallel to threats of war, investigators in the case of the terrorist attacks after August 31 appear to be making progress.
• Publicly released elements point to Islamic forces deployed in battle in Dagestan.
• Police estimates indicate that one of the principal organizers of the Moscow bombings has been identified: a man of Caucasian origin and a militant Wahhabi.
• A dozen other suspects have allegedly been identified.
• According to NTV television, the bombings were organized by the same group, which was formed in an Islamic school in Tatarstan (a Russian republic with a Muslim majority) and subsequently sent to the training center of "Major" Khattab in Chechnya.
• In Moscow, excavations and security checks are ongoing.
• Investigators highlighted the logistics and professionalism of the terrorists:
  • Tons of explosives were to be transported by trucks.
  • Locations were rented several weeks before the attacks.
  • Concealed explosive material was used.
• The FSB (ex-KGB) estimated that the bomb that exploded on Thursday at the doorstep of a house in Volgodonsk, killing 16 people, had a power equivalent to at least 850 kg of TNT.

Political Commentary on the Conflict

• 09/25/99. Russians are bombing Grozny; the headquarters is preparing for a ground offensive.
• Denouncing the "party of war and generals in Moscow," deputy and human rights defender Sergei Kovalev estimated: "these bombings are another step toward a new war, which will mean the almost complete destruction of Chechnya" (Francois Bonnet and Agathe Duparc).

Deployment of Military Operations

• Moscow accuses Chechnya of serving as a rear base for supporting the Islamist militants of Shamil Basaev and "Major" Khattab, who were preparing new operations in the neighboring Republic of Dagestan.
• Russian authorities also accuse them of being the commanders of a series of terrorist attacks in Russia that have caused 292 deaths since August 31.
• Sergei Kovalev estimated: "These bombings are another step toward a new war, which will mean the almost complete destruction of Chechnya and its population."
• Kovalev, a deputy and principled opponent of the 1994-1996 war, denounced the "party of war and generals" looming over Moscow.
• He added, "The Kremlin may find in this conflict a justification for its huge mistake of 1994-1996 and think that this ultra-patriotism will fix the situation."

False Alarm in Ryazan

• 09/28/99. Strange false alarm regarding a bomb in Ryazan (A.Du.).
• Nikolai Patrushev, director of the FSB (secret services), explained on television on Friday, September 24, that the "three bags of explosives" discovered on Wednesday, September 22, in the basement of a residential building in Ryazan contained "nothing but sugar."
• Patrushev added that "It was an exercise designed to test the vigilance of law enforcement forces and the population."
• In the evening, Alexander Zdanovich, his press secretary, apologized to the population, congratulating the 240 "guinea pigs" of the test house, who were forced to spend a night of horror in a nearby cinema.
• The "fake bomb" of Ryazan once again raised speculative theories about the possible involvement of the Russian secret services in the "real" explosions.
• In weekend editions, most Russian newspapers questioned this incident. The newspaper "Segodnya" echoed a possible version of the "incident": "Their counterintelligence people planted a 'bomb' in the basement [of the house in Ryazan] so that at a favorable moment they could 'thwart the plans' for an explosion and reap the laurels. But this scenario did not work. Residents noticed the 'terrorists,' the local police intervened (...) the FSB leaders were then forced to talk about exercises."

Investigation into Terrorist Acts

A few weeks later, confusion reigns around the investigation into the wave of terrorist acts. On September 14, during the second explosion of a Moscow house, Russian law enforcement forces publicly released photos of the two main suspects: a man provided with a fake passport in the name of Mukhit Laipanov, and one Denis Saitakov, initially presented as a Tatar, then as an Uzbek. By chance, Mr. Laipanov, the No. 1 perpetrator of the operation, was identified on a videotape filmed in a "Wahhabi" training camp in Dagestan. Both remain elusive.

The Islamic terrorist trail, in which there are "no more doubts," as the head of the FSB just repeated, led to a dozen suspects, including two Moscow Chechens. On Thursday, September 16, investigators descended upon a certain dye shop in the capital. Tests were conducted there, intended to detect components of hexogen—the explosive used in Moscow, the FSB said then—on the hands of all the Caucasian workers at the dye shop. All tests turned out positive, but only one Chechen was arrested. And on Sunday, the head of the FSB announced that hexogen was only a less important component of the explosives used.

07.10.99. Intervention in Chechnya? (Editor's column)

If Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is to be believed, the Russians are restarting the war in Chechnya with a single goal: to destroy the bases of Islamic terrorists responsible, in his opinion, for the terrorist attacks that caused three hundred deaths in Moscow in September. To achieve this, for a month now, the Russians have been unrestrainedly engaging in massive bombings with no connection to the stated goal.

• They are not shelling the mountains with heavy artillery, where the location of the escaped terrorists could be called into question.
• They are bombing the gas and oil installations of this small Caucasian Republic, a member of the Russian Federation.
• They are destroying what remains of Grozny... [question of intervention like East Timor or Kosovo; Maskhadov has been calling for dialogue with Moscow for two years; Basaev is responsible for Dagestan]

But the Kremlin is not starting a war in Chechnya to destroy Basaev's group. The latter is undoubtedly manipulated by one of the clans competing for power in Moscow. Boris Berezovsky, a person close to President Boris Yeltsin, admitted that he financed Shamil Basaev. The Kremlin has never presented even the slightest semblance of evidence of Islamist involvement in the terrorist attacks in Moscow. [reasons of revenge for 1996 and distracting attention from financial scandals].

"Newsweek", New York

27.09.99. Russia's War Hits Home

Bombs shake the heart of the city, and the trails, it seems, lead to Islamic rebels in the remote Caucasus region. Suddenly, no one feels safe (Bill Powell, with Owen Matthews in Moscow, Steve LeVine in Almaty, Kazakhstan, and John Barry in Washington)

[explosion victim about themselves]

Russia's latest war hits home with a brutality that has stunned and frightened citizens of both the capital and vast regions. This is a war that most Russians considered over three years ago, a war with a humiliating truce in the breakaway Islamic Republic of Chechnya. But the conflict was reborn in the last month when Chechen-led rebels invaded neighboring Dagestan. They quickly retreated, defeated by Russian military planes and artillery, only to invade again at the beginning of this month. On September 4, a bomb exploded in a Russian residential building in Dagestan (map). The explosion, it seems, was the beginning of a sophisticated—and ruthlessly executed—terrorist campaign. Three deadly bombings followed—two in Moscow and one in the southern city of Volgodonsk. In total, about 300 people were killed in 16 days of terror. And the secret services prepared for more.

Authorities are branding Islamic extremists from the Caucasus region for the bombings and have rounded up thousands of dark-skinned Chechens, ordering them in reality

Returning to Chechnya

Police identified two people as the ringleaders of the bombing campaign: a Chechen named Achemez Gochiyayev and an Uzbek, Denis Saitakov. Officials stated that Gochiyayev rented storage space in both Moscow apartment buildings where the bombs were detonated. But neither of them was taken into custody. Secret services arrested two other suspects, both Chechens; as stated, traces of explosives were found on them or in their homes. One of the suspects said on Russian television: "They found nothing, absolutely nothing. This is a complete fabrication." Moreover, no one has taken responsibility for most of the bombs, although a previously unknown group calling itself the Dagestan Liberation Army claimed it directed one of the explosions in Moscow. Chechen leaders insist they have no connection to any of the bombs.

The Political Fallout

For Boris Yeltsin—ailing, aging, and now in the final year of his presidency—the bombings are a disaster. The Russian economy is in disarray, and allegations of massive corruption relentlessly follow him and his government. Now, for besieged Russian citizens (especially for the 10 million Muscovites), the most fundamental sense of security—being able to go to sleep at night with a reasonable guarantee of waking up the next morning—is lost. "We know the name of the enemy," Yeltsin said, "and it is terrorism."

To Russians, the president is so weak—and the political environment so corrupt and depraved—that the bombs have triggered a mechanism of wild speculation. Some rumors say the bombs were planted for the sake of politicians who want to succeed Yeltsin. Others say the attacks were intended to provoke a state of emergency that would allow Yeltsin to step down in favor of Vladimir Putin, his prime minister—and designated successor—at the appropriate moment. Other rumors say Yeltsin will fire Putin, replace him with Alexander Lebed, the former general who negotiated the Chechen truce, and then cancel the scheduled parliamentary and presidential elections.

There was not an iota of evidence in favor of any of the conspiracy theories. Which leaves Moscow face to face with a more likely, and equally harsher, reality: the conflict with Islamic rebels has now spawned a campaign of terror unprecedented in modern Russia. By all accounts, the rebels in Dagestan, a multi-ethnic region on the Caspian Sea, are led by two key figures. Both are ardent Islamic fundamentalists and were key commanders in the Chechen uprising that began in 1994 (and both deny any connection to the current bombing campaign).

• [about Basayev and Khattab, US intelligence speaks of funding for Chechnya and the rebellion in Dagestan by the Arab world and volunteers from Egypt, Pakistan, and Afghanistan]

But a certain official says that US intelligence is "unaware" regarding the connection between Muslim extremists and the Russian bombs—and even less convinced of the existence of any connection to bin Laden.

• [US aid to Moscow, Muscovites' hatred for "black [slur/faces]", apparent preparation for a new military operation against Chechnya, Slavic-looking victims of kidnappings found in Chechnya and Dagestan]

For Yeltsin, the slide toward the bombs could become the most unpleasant chapter.

Diagram: A Complex Campaign of Terror

In the first three weeks of September, four terrorist bombs shattered apartment buildings across Russia. Islamic extremists from the Caucasus region are blamed, but no one has taken responsibility, and not a single bomber has been caught.

1. September 4. Killed: 64. Details: In Dagestan, an Islamic region of Russia, a truck exploded outside a building occupied by the families of military personnel. Investigators found that the bomb contained a complex explosive compound called RDX.
2. September 8. Killed: 94. Details: Dark-skinned men rented storage space in a Moscow apartment building and filled it with bags labeled "sugar." They contained RDX, which exploded several days later.
3. September 13. Killed: 119. Details: In another district of Moscow, the same pattern: storage space hired by dark-skinned men and filled with bags of sugar—again containing RDX.
4. September 16. Killed: at least 19. Details: The danger intensifies as the apartment building had been searched. But in Volgodonsk, a truck bomb exploded outside a building full of sleeping residents.

Photo: Russian artillery in Dagestan, Basayev, Khattab.

Diplomacy: Boris to Bill: speak up.

Relations between Washington and Moscow have faced a post-Cold War low due to Russia's brutal campaign in Chechnya (Bill Powell, with Deborah Rosenberg from Istanbul).

• Criticism of Russia at the OSCE summit and its defense: Chechnya is ungovernable.

Further, as justification for this war, the Kremlin points to the August invasion of Chechen rebels into the neighboring province of Dagestan - still a part of Russia proper - and the bombs last summer in two residential buildings in Moscow. The bombs killed about 300 people. Although rebel leaders, including supreme commander Shamil Basayev, adamantly deny any involvement and the Russians have yet to present any real evidence, Moscow brands Chechen terrorists for these bombs.

• Chechnya - a long-term problem; Russia and the countries around the Caspian.

...Boris Yeltsin made it clear over the past week that the Russian bear, though nowhere near as strong as it once was, is now vigilant over a wide area. And hibernation is not among its winter plans.

The Observer, London

Russia calls Chechens bomber-terrorists.

Doubts are growing that Yeltsin's underfunded, demoralized intelligence services can capture the terrorists who killed 300 people, reports Amelia Gentleman in Moscow.

In the early hours of last Tuesday morning, several families living in building No. 35 on Oktyabrskoye Shosse in Volgodonsk were awakened by telephone calls. "How are you sleeping, with death already around the corner?" an anonymous caller asked one person. The same snide voice asked another resident: "How do you feel in the face of death?".

Both hung up and went back to bed. Most of the building's residents, in any case, knew for certain that a few hours earlier the police had thoroughly checked the entire structure and declared it safe.

At 5:58 AM, the entire facade of the 9-story residential building was torn off when a massive charge of explosives hidden in a truck at the base of the building exploded. Eighteen people were killed as they slept in their beds, increasing the death toll collected by death this month in the wave of terrorism sweeping across Russia to 300.

For the fourth time in two weeks, the country watched in horror as state television broadcast images of rescuers scuttling among the debris in hopeless attempts to find survivors. The scenes of devastation had already become depressingly monotonous.

This was the most powerful explosion to date. The bomb's proximity to a nuclear power plant raised the level of alarm in Russia to a new height and intensified pressure on the country's anti-terrorist forces.

Officers are working seven days a week and leaves have been indefinitely canceled as the successor to the KGB, the Federal Security Service (FSB), and the police struggle to prevent further explosions and bear responsibility for this.

Yesterday, the hunt for two key suspects continued. Police stated that a certain Chechen, Achimez Gochiyayev, was the leader of those behind the attacks. They name ethnic Uzbek Denis Saitakov as his accomplice. News programs constantly broadcast their photos. They rented office space in the basements of both destroyed buildings in Moscow, and explosives were planted there. Saitakov regularly traveled to Chechnya, according to FSB sources, and they believe he stayed at a base maintained by the extremely wealthy Jordanian-born warlord Khattab.

Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov and Khattab deny responsibility for the bombs, but Russian forces targeted suspected Islamic guerrilla bases in Chechnya during air strikes over the weekend. Since the beginning of last month, Islamic

Terror Attacks in Russia

• Guerrillas twice crossed the Chechen border and seized villages in the southern Russian region of Dagestan.
• The location of the second explosion outlined the breadth of the zone that terrorists might choose. One officer of an anti-terrorist unit said hopelessly: "Although organizing a comprehensive search for bombs across Moscow is extremely difficult, it is theoretically possible. Organizing such a hunt across one-sixth of the world is equivalent in difficulty and expense to a flight to Mars."

Theories on the Attacks

• The location of this bomb also serves to support one of the most compelling theories regarding those behind the attacks.
• On the night of last Sunday, after three serious explosions in less than two weeks:
  • The explosion in the shopping arcade at Manege, near the Kremlin, which killed one and injured 40.
  • The bomb that destroyed a military housing building in Buynaksk, Dagestan, killing 64 people.
  • The explosion of an apartment building in Moscow on Guryanova Street, which killed 94 people.
• A respectable commentator on the situation in Chechnya, Vyacheslav Izmailov, stated on national television that he knows who arranged the explosions.
• If he is to be believed, he confirms the widespread suspicion that the terrorism was organized by Chechen extremists.

Alleged Conspiracy

• Sources in Chechnya told Izmailov that about 30 people were recruited by Khattab in Chechnya on August 18—exactly after he and Chechen commander Shamil Basayev suffered a temporary defeat in Dagestan.
• They were divided into two teams, and each person was offered $50,000 for participating in the bombing of targets in Moscow, Dagestan, Saint Petersburg, and Rostov-on-Don.
• Each team was given several hundred thousand dollars to buy what they needed and to rent premises to hide explosives there.
• A more detailed description of the alleged conspiracy and information about its sources was handed over to the FSB.

Aftermath and Investigations

• The morning after Izmailov's revelations, another apartment building in Moscow was wiped off the face of the earth, again in a faceless working-class suburb of the capital, killing 118 people—almost everyone inside the house.
• By the end of the week, the police had achieved significant results:
  • A huge Mercedes truck used to bring in more than 11 tons of explosives was discovered.
  • Two large secret caches of explosives, believed to be from the same source, were found.
  • In one Moscow house, officers found 76 bags of dynamite, as well as several remote detonation devices.
• Detectives suggested that this would have been enough for at least two more explosions somewhere in the capital.
• A massive sweep conducted by the security services across the country led to 11,000 arrests—most of which are not related to terrorism.
• About 30 of those caught in this hunt are suspected of involvement in the bombs:
  • Timur Dakhkilgov, 32, and Bekmars Sautiev, 40, both natives of Chechnya, were arrested on suspicion of involvement of one kind or another.
  • To date, no formal charges have been brought against either.

Claims of Responsibility and Security Concerns

• A previously unknown group called the Dagestan Liberation Army claimed responsibility—via an anonymous phone call—for the explosions in Moscow and Buynaksk, but there is a hypothesis that it does not actually exist and was used by those who bear actual responsibility to divert suspicion from themselves.
• There is a real fear that Russia's dramatically weakened security services are unable to cope with the task of identifying those behind the terror campaign.
• Sergei Goncharov, a former high-ranking officer of the elite Russian anti-terrorist corps "Alpha," told the "Observer" newspaper that the constant reform of Russia's anti-terrorist units, along with chronic underfunding since the collapse of the USSR, has made it very difficult for them to perform even routine operations.
• He stated: "Without agents and paid informants, you cannot prevent explosions. But Russia's security services are not well enough funded, and the powerful network of KGB informants and agents no longer exists."
• President Yeltsin's administration has contacted Ireland, Israel, America, and Great Britain over the past week, asking for help from experts who have dealt with this branch of terrorism.
• Prime Minister Vladimir Putin gave government agencies three days to come up with plans to strengthen security in the transport system, communications, power stations, and residential areas.
• At the end of the week, he actually backed down, and that was all the government could do, and he called on citizens to protect themselves.

What did little to calm the deep anxiety in the capital.

Almost every house organized its own defense committee. Locally, an atmosphere of Soviet-era suspicion flourished, with residents informing the police about the activities of their neighbors.

Russia's ethnic minorities - especially dark-skinned people from the Caucasus - are bearing the brunt of this hysteria. While most Russian politicians brand Chechens for these attacks, the police concentrate their attention on persons with a Caucasian appearance - raising increasing concern among Moscow's human rights organizations.

Are they the organizers? [Khattab and Basaev - brief characteristics]

"La Repubblica", Rome

10.09.99. Column "Russia in Chaos"

Moscow, the nightmare of terrorism. More than a hundred buried under the stone walls of the blown-up house (Alberto Stabile)

Hour of misfortune: 00:01.
Victims: dead - about 30, wounded - about 100, missing - 70-80 people may still be under the ruins.
Hypotheses:
* Gas - the disaster could have been caused by an explosion of a domestic gas installation;
* Terrorist attack - Chechen integralists who would have placed 200 kg of TNT in the building;
* Pyrotechnic materials - packed into an apartment and exploded by accident.

...Only in the evening did the security services decide to admit that the power of the explosion was "equivalent" to 200 kg of TNT and that, having designated a "circle of suspects", it even became possible to develop an identification system. Nevertheless, pending the study of the "explosion crater", the possibility of an accident is not being ruled out.

The security services also do not seem to believe a phone call received around noon by the independent agency Interfax. Someone with a conspicuous Caucasian accent (but attention to accents means little to nothing) called for the defense not so much of the motherland as of the right to the terrifying explosion, linking the tragedy of last night in Moscow with the car bomb that last Saturday killed 62 people in a house of Russian military personnel in Buynaksk, Dagestan.

"What happened in Moscow and in Buynaksk is our response to the bombings of villages in Chechnya and Dagestan," said the caller. [theater of military operations in the Caucasus, and now - in Moscow]

...a working-class district, inhabited mainly by workers of the "Moskvich" car plant. [...] ... they talk about another explosion at a lacquer warehouse. But why, one must ask, exactly here, on this anonymous periphery?... But why not in the houses of the powerful, not in the restaurants and shops of the center... here, where it is easiest to strike, among poor people, the most vulnerable to the effects of all types of war.

11.09.99. Anti-terrorists fear other bombs. Security agencies are studying a series of armed interventions to limit the possibility of new attacks (Alberto Stabile)

While the toll of the slaughter was fixed at the terrible figures of 90 dead and 47 wounded, some of the latter in hopeless condition, they finally begin to understand how the slaughter occurred, but there is no clear understanding of why, or because of whom the current state of affairs has arisen. The facts of the announcement of the arrest of two persons, according to yesterday's statement by the Interfax agency, do not yet serve to clarify. Chatter on this matter is limited to the hypothesis that two suspects could have a "connection with commercial structures that occupied the lower floor of the destroyed house". What type of connection is unknown, and it is also unknown why the structures in question dealt with lacquer, polish, and substances that are flammable but theoretically not explosive.

Moscow Explosion Investigation Summary

Explosive Material and Incident Details

• The lethal explosive capable of pulverizing a large residential building in Moscow is identified as hexogen, cyclonite, or RDX.
• It appears easy for a group to transport the explosive in bags to a warehouse on the lower floor of the building without attracting suspicion.
• Detonation was achieved using a remote-controlled detonator or a timer, which recorded the explosion at 23 hours, 59 minutes, 58 seconds according to the seismograph.
• Investigators determined that lethal cyclonite, an explosive three times more powerful than TNT used for artillery shells, was used to cause the devastation.
• Cyclonite leaves indelible traces, and the investigation estimates it was produced within one year.

Official Statements and Initial Findings

• A security service expert released a sketch of the facts, allowing Mayor Luzhkov to state that initially, no suspects or indications pointed to a terrorist scheme.
• Putin called for a speedy and full explanation and a new "anti-terrorist plan."
• Minister of Atomic Energy Evgeny Fedorov mentioned "additional security measures."

Investigation Progress and Suspects

• Investigators noted that figures vanished like smoke, and profiles moved in the night, evading the investigation.
• Three people transported bags to the central entrance of the building, where other shops and stores were located; their tracks are being sought.
• No summons for interrogation was issued for the tenant of one store whose description was published in a newspaper.
• The person described is a native of the Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia, a region near the Caucasus known for civil unrest.

Government Hypotheses

• The government remains reserved regarding the lethal substance.
• Putin presented two main hypotheses:
  • Terrorism, which security services also consider "prevailing."
  • An act of "criminal negligence," essentially a work incident involving a group of bandits.

Political Context and Media Speculation

• On Monday (September 11 - Saturday), the Prime Minister announced a day of national struggle.
• Public opinion included hypotheses about a "Chechen trace" and internal struggles related to this explosion and the one in the Manege.
• Izvestia reported on a connection scheme between the two bombs and the hypothesis involving Ruslan Gelaev, detailing alleged exhaustive telephone conversations between Gelaev and a security services emissary.

Related Incidents and Security Concerns

• 14.09.99. Russia in Chaos. Moscow, second slaughter.
  • The second incident in six days caused widespread fear in the capital, leading to dozens of bomb scares.
  • The incident in the employees' quarter involved the same quality of explosive and mysterious faces.
  • The death toll was extremely high (73, at the time of reporting).
  • New alarms distracted police, and rumors suggested another explosive charge was found in a local school, along with suspicious material in a nearby house.
  • Security services later announced that 43 bags of ammonal were found in the basement of a nearby house.
• Behind-the-scenes space [secret intrigues]: Hunting for "Mr. Death"
  • Questions arose about how many buildings might be mined.
  • The same person rented offices in two buildings that were blown up, leading the trail toward the Chechen war.
• A composite sketch was released, linking the individual to Basaev and Khattab, according to the Minister of Internal Affairs V. Rushailo.
• The composite sketch was broadcast with a cover name, Mukhit Laipanov, and the caption "fake." (The owners of both rented warehouses named him; the real Laipanov died in a road incident.)
• If the terrorist's mistake was appropriating the documents of a Caucasian citizen, a weak trail was improvised leading south.

Volcano, the Caucasus, and a "Holy War"

• A "holy war" is ignited against Holy Russia, seemingly subsidized by a pious and wealthy Saudi who has dedicated himself to the cause of the global Islamic revolution, named Osama Bin Laden.
• This, at least, is what Vladimir Rushailo and FBI head Louis Freeh say.
• [Reconstruction by Russian special services: the link between Khattab, Basaev, and Bin Laden, a subsidy of 25 or 35 million dollars, in exchange for Khattab's promise of asylum for Laden in Chechnya if his nest in Afghanistan becomes impractical; the war in Dagestan will "tie Russia down for the next 20 years", bombings in Moscow as revenge for the air raids; the "Moscow" group arrived in the last week of August, and the Manezh explosion is also their handiwork].

15.09.99. Russia in Chaos. "Soldiers Against Terror"

• After the bomb, Yeltsin mobilizes the army.
• The death toll of the latest terrorist attack has worsened: 118 bodies recovered from the rubble.
• People are fleeing to dachas or organizing night patrols to guard houses.
• Minister of Internal Affairs: "They want to strike in other cities of Russia as well. But it is impossible to say where and when".
• Three tons of explosives were found in the vicinity of the destroyed house.
• Photos of two new suspects have been distributed. Three arrests.

[Night patrols in poor neighborhoods; Yeltsin called the army to help the police]

• "According to information from various sources," reported Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Igor Zubov, "the bandits intend to commit terrorist acts in various cities of Russia. It is impossible to say where and when the strikes will be."
• The same ministry distributed photographs of two other wanted persons.
• Investigators believe that the terrorist attacks in Moscow were committed by the same cell.
• Perhaps the discovery on Monday night in a house not far from the targeted zone of an impressive amount of explosives—three and a half tons of ammonal—will force the terrorists to change their plans. Or perhaps a different tactic is already anticipated.
• Yesterday, the authorities warned Muscovites to pay attention to suspicious cars. Obviously, they fear car bombs.
• More specifically, investigators reported the arrest of two owners of a warehouse in the basement of the house blown up on Kashirskoye Highway, rented by the mysterious Mukhit Laipanov, a so-called furniture dealer, who presented documents of a person who had been dead for several months.
• Using techniques and a scheme of action absolutely identical to the previous terrorist attack, the fake Laipanov planted a bomb in this place instead of furniture.
• Along with the two owners, the driver who transported the unusual trunks to this warehouse was also arrested. Possibly having no idea what it was about. But it is hoped that the driver will at least be able to remember where he brought the cargo from.
• The lead being investigated is the Chechen trail, linked to the attacks in the "holy war" declared by partisan leaders Basaev and Khattab against Russia.

16.09.99. Russia in Chaos. Moscow, Truck of Terror. Army on the Hunt for Bombers from the Caucasus.

• According to Putin, the authors of the massacre are in Chechnya (Alberto Stabile).
• Tons of explosive substances, capable of blowing up entire blocks, were brought to the capital from the depths of the Caucasus, hidden among a batch of sugar bags produced at a Cherkessk factory.
• Part of the cargo was seized yesterday at a warehouse on the periphery of the city.
• But 1,800 kg of the deadly mixture used in the last two terrorist attacks, which caused more than two hundred deaths, has not yet been tracked and investigated.
• A Russian-made small truck is being sought.
• The driver [Chauffeur] is invited to report to the police: this man's life, investigators say on TV, may be in danger.
• [...] Many hundreds [literally: dozens of hundreds] of people have been detained as suspects, it is unknown how justified.
• Two prominent figures of the organization have been put on the wanted list; their faces are repeated on thousands and thousands of posters that can be seen in every corner of the city.
• Investigators are helping to better clarify the so-called Chechen trail.
• "It is an established fact that the attacks of these days were carried out by Chechen terrorists who used persons with Slavic appearance," said Deputy Chief of Moscow Police Alexander Vedyaev.
• "The authors of the massacre are hiding in Chechnya," added Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who would like to isolate the Caucasian.

The Republic in a "Security Cordon"

To strengthen suspicions, a raspy voice with an obvious southern accent, although these two elements could easily be faked, called the TASS agency yesterday, reading out in a fast and confident [calm, firm] tempo a communique in which the cause and authorship of the terrorist attacks were clearly stated for the first time. "The events in Buynaksk and Moscow are retribution," the manifesto reads, "for the terrorist operations of the Russian aviation against the civilian population of Dagestan and Chechnya. Not a single Russian bomb will go unpunished. We will answer death with death. Signed: Dagestan Liberation Army".

[Invasion of Chechen partisans into Dagestan and Russian bombings]

But no one had ever heard of the Dagestan Liberation Army until now. Chechen President Maskhadov, a moderate [conservative] who maintained a steady dialogue with the Russian authorities, stated that he did not know of its existence. Perhaps it is a cover name for an integralist group.

[I. Sergeyev on the new concentration of Basayev and Khattab near the borders of Dagestan]

17.09.99. Russia in Chaos. Russia, Strategy of Terror.

A truck bomb caused at least thirty deaths. 3 tons of explosives were prepared in the capital. Massacre in Volgodonsk, new sites of terrorist attacks discovered in Moscow.

Terror floods Russia. While mechanisms already prepared for explosions in a daily rhythm, up to September 21, are being discovered in the capital, the death toll struck a city 900 km to the south, Volgodonsk, close to a nuclear center, which fortunately has not yet been involved in the events. A truck packed with explosives with a power equal to at least 300 kg of TNT blew up a 9-story building where 400 people lived, immersed in sleep. 17 bodies were pulled from under the walls, another thirty are wounded, the lives of some are in danger.

Volgodonsk is the fifth terrorist attack since the beginning of September. The city, a large industrial center built around a dam and a not-yet-finished nuclear center, is located a hundred kilometers from Rostov-on-Don, the capital of this region bordering the North Caucasus, which was identified by security services among possible targets of the terrorist campaign. Along with Moscow, St. Petersburg, Krasnodar, and "other places" that were not precisely specified.

Specialists also foresaw the fact that terrorists are using changing tactics, using a bomb loaded into some medium, a car or a truck, rather than one previously hidden in the heart of the target, as was successfully applied twice in Moscow. The building on Oktyabrskoye Shosse in Volgodonsk was checked the previous day. But no one stopped this truck, which was noticed at the entrance to the building a little after 5:30 am. The driver was seen getting out of it and hastily departing. A quarter of an hour later - a roar. [at the site of the explosion...]

The investigation conducted in Moscow forced one to imagine the impressive scale of the operation planned by the terrorists. With another 3 tons and 800 kg of explosive material seized in recent days, investigators uncovered a warehouse in the industrial district of Kapotnya with three and a half tons of cyclonite hidden in sugar bags totaling about 60. The tally of terror already predisposes one to horror, with as many devices intended to explode before the designated day of September 21. The timers, alarmingly handcrafted, are made using Japanese watches that are easy to find on the market. But, according to the special services, this is the work of authentic experts in their field.

18.09.99. US Aid Against Bombs

Clinton, touching on the terrorist attacks, expressed solidarity with Moscow. The FBI will cooperate with investigators.

[Clinton's speech, the FBI will arrive in the near future]

Investigators, thanks to daily work, made it possible to destroy the terrorist network, which for two weeks or a little more left a trail in the form of five terrorist attacks in which three hundred people died.

Almost the entire group consisting of a dozen people, from whom the terrorist attacks in Moscow originate, has been identified. Two components of the cell, or those presumed to be such, have been arrested and shown on TV emerging from the darkness of a cell.

The Talk

The talk is about two Chechens, natives of Grozny: Timur Dakhikov, 32 years old, and Bekmarse Santiev, 40 years old. A paraffin glove test detected traces of deadly hexogen, the explosive used for the apartment bombings, on their hands. But these two, directly in front of the television camera, deny it. One said that everything was a deception. The other accused the police of staging a provocation, "while houses continue to explode," he added.

Investigators reconstructed the true identity of the mysterious Mukhit Laipanov, the terrorist who rented the locations where the bombs detonated in Moscow were hidden. This may refer to Achenere Gochiyaev, a native of the Karachay-Cherkessia Republic. Mukhit Laipanov's documents belonged to a person who died in a car accident in February.

All these people were connected, often visiting an Islamic school in Naberezhnye Chelny in Tatarstan, and, having adopted Wahhabi ideas, were transferred to Chechnya, to training camps led by the Jordanian Khattab.

But these successes, if one can say so, are not enough to reduce the fear that weighs on the population. The fear is justified, for example, by the fact that investigators continue to seize explosives hidden in various warehouses, but there still remains to find part of the 1,800 kilograms, a quantity sufficient to kill hundreds more people.

News Snippets

• 24.09.99. Russian bombs over Chechnya hit Grozny airport. Terrorist alert south of Moscow: mysterious bags connected to a timer seized.
• First bombings of the airport since '96; Putin: "If terrorists are at Grozny airport, we will attack Grozny airport" (without mentioning public areas)

Meanwhile, the fear of new terrorist attacks is growing everywhere in Russia. On Wednesday evening in Ryazan, a city with a population of 530,000 located 200 km southeast of Moscow, police seized bags containing a mysterious substance mixed with sugar and connected to a timer set for 5:30 AM. Upon testing with a detector, the substance mixed with sugar immediately turned out to be deadly hexogen. The building was evacuated. A short time later, however, experts from the FSB, the special services, established without a shadow of a doubt that the substance contained in the bags was not explosive. "Perhaps," says Ryazan Governor Lyubimov, "they only wanted to test our ability to react."