I wouldn't be interested in writing about the retreats of some and the advances of others. Just as bullets fly across the steppes. Or rather, across the mountains. Or — between the mountains.

But one thing did interest me: what could guys from the MVD's main directorate for organized crime and from RUOPs be doing in Chechnya, where a war was raging?

They are not for this business... During a war, only a madman could give an order to fight the mafia. Or do they, in Moscow, in the Kremlin, not understand this? If dozens of military academies and schools couldn't create a team of generals and officers to fight, then perhaps it's better to retrain them as normal police officers, and police officers as soldiers?

That's what I thought then, not yet understanding the essence and nature of this war...

And I called Mikhail Egorov, at that time the First Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs and head of the Main Directorate for Organized Crime.

"Mikhail, I need to go to Grozny. Help me get in touch with your guys," I asked him.

"I won't let you go. You could be killed there," he replied.

"You can't let me go or not let me go. Just help me get to them..."

I'm quoting our dialogue almost verbatim.

"Alright, damn it," Egorov replied. "Tell me, when are you flying?"

"Tomorrow morning... To Mineralnye Vody..."

"They'll pick you up and bring you... There, to our people."

Yes, and then it was morning. Or rather, evening and morning...

Yes, one more thing. At the very beginning of January '95, I met Magomed Ugurchiev. At that time, he worked at the Ingush Permanent Representation in Moscow. About two weeks before this assignment, he came to "Litgazeta." During the January assault on Grozny, his two brothers went missing. There, in Grozny, where he and his large family lived even when Grozny was the capital of the Chechen-Ingush Republic, and where they continued to live even when Grozny became the capital of independent Chechnya...

His story was terrifying, and so we immediately printed a tiny note: "People Disappearing":

"In Chechnya, the male population is being taken away. They are mainly seized by representatives of the Ministry of Defense and the Russian MVD, taken to Mozdok, Stavropol, Krasnodar, Mineralnye Vody. There they are held in detention centers. They are demanded to confess that they are Dudayev's militants or Dudayev's spies.

Here are the facts we have.

On January 11, Ibrahim Ugurchiev, executive secretary of the Ingush republican newspaper "Sardalo," was detained upon leaving Grozny. As of today, it is known that he is in a pre-trial detention center.

Another example. Chingiskhan Amirkhanov, an employee of Ingushvodstroy, managed to escape from the Mozdok detention center. Today he is in Ingushetia. All his internal organs were beaten inside the detention center. This information was given to us by Askhab Yandiyev, manager of affairs of the Ingush Council of Ministers.

Another case. On January 5, Ibrahim Ugurchiev's younger brother, Adam Ugurchiev, disappeared."

Yes, I listened to all this, wrote it down, but, honestly, I hadn't yet felt all these misfortunes, which had befallen thousands and thousands of innocent people, in my heart.

Yes, and I flew with Magomed to Mineralnye Vody (flights to all other cities of the North Caucasus had already been canceled). Magomed needed to get to Grozny to find traces of his brothers.

"One brother isn't even from Grozny, he lives in Siberia... He came to visit, and then suddenly... He left the house, they grabbed him... Where is he now, how..."

Listening to Magomed, I was sure then that everything would be all right... The brothers would be found... We'd find them... Not yet suspecting that thousands and thousands of people would disappear into oblivion in Chechnya. Just like Magomed's younger brother, whose traces he cannot find to this day.

Incidentally, then, during the flight, I heard from Magomed Ugurchiev how he envisioned the origins of the entire Russian-Chechen conflict.