February 27 2003 at 12:18 PM No score for this post
(Login TsarSamuil) Forum Owner from IP address 212.181.9.227
Photos support Basayev's part in Grozny blast.
Òåêñò: Maria Tsvetkova Kavkaz-Center photo
Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basayev has provided evidence substantiating his claim that the government compound in Grozny was destroyed on December 27 last year on his orders. On Tuesday separatist website Kavkaz-Tsentr posted a series of pictures featuring the building before, during and after the attack, provided by the warlord in an e-mail.
In a statement accompanying the pictures Basayev said an ordinary Chechen family carried out the attack – a father, and his teenage daughter and son. Basayev’s statement contradicts the official theory still being investigated by the republic’s Interior Ministry.
In a statement, released by Shamil Basayev, and posted, along with the pictures of the explosion on the Kavkaz-Tsentr site on Tuesday, the Chechen warlord claimed responsibility for the explosion of the headquarters of the pro-Moscow Chechen government, which he calls ''the occupation administration''. Basyaev said the operation had been masterminded by the reconnaissance and sabotage brigade Riyad-us-Saliheyn, operating under his command.
Judging by an earlier admission from Movsar Barayev, the same group carried out the attack on a Moscow theatre in October last year. Barayev, who led that attack, referred to the organization as a battalion of ''shahids'' (martyrs).
The three people, who, according to Basayev, blew up the most guarded building in Chechnya, were also shahids. Driving a Kamaz truck and a UAZ jeep laden with explosives, they rammed through four rings of cordons at full speed. The vehicles blew up within several metres of the building. As a result of the blast the House of Government literally split in two. The section that housed the financial agencies was destroyed completely.
48 government employees died immediately in the blast, and dozens died later in hospitals of their injuries. The total death toll in the tragedy reached 83. Some 200 employees of the republican government and civil administration, police officers, the military and ordinary civilians who were unfortunate to be close to the epicentre of the blast suffered injuries of varying degrees.
In his statement posted on Kavkaz-Tsentr, Basayev claims that the House of Government was brought down by an ordinary Chechen family: a 43-year-old father and his two teenage children. The man was behind the wheel of the Kamaz truck with his 15-year-old daughter sitting at his side. The 17-year-old boy was driving the UAZ vehicle.
The three chose to become martyrs to avenge the mother and the eldest son of their family, allegedly killed in bombings. That assertion runs counter to the main theory of the official investigation. Several days after the blast the head of the pro-Moscow republican Interior Ministry Ruslan Tsakayev said that at least two of the suicide-bombers had been Slavs and spoke fluent Russian. At the same time, however, it is possible that Tsakayev had sought to exonerate the guards who failed to stop the terrorists at the checkpoints and to prevent the attack.
Their guilt was established immediately after the attack. The deputy prosecutor general Sergei Fridinsky said then that the rules governing the guarding and defending of the government compound in Grozny had been gravely violated, making the attack possible. In his statement Basayev reported how exactly that happened. According to him, the guards did not even try to stop the vehicles; on the contrary they dispersed in various directions, clearing the way for the bombers.
As regards to the power of the blast, according to the rebels, it was much higher than the official investigation established. Basayev claims that the vehicles carried much more explosives than the Russian authorities claimed – 4 tons of TNT in the Kamaz truck, and 600 kilos in the UAZ. Another interesting point in Basayev’s statement is that the attack was not just a spontaneous act of revenge on the part of a desperate Chechen family, but a thoroughly planned operation. Initially it was scheduled for December 23-25 but was postponed ''for technical reasons'' until December 27.
Basayev first claimed responsibility for the attack on the government compound on February 10. Then, Kavkaz-Tsentr reported information citing a Shari’ah news agency.
On Tuesday, however, Basayev did not only reiterate his claim but also provided photographic evidence. Those pictures were, undoubtedly, taken by a person who had been informed of the attack in advance and shot the building through a long distance lens before, during and after the blast. All the pictures are of a high quality.
Russian law enforcers, commenting on Basayev’s statement on Wednesday, were skeptical of his claim. By claiming responsibility for the December bombing the notorious terrorist Shamil Basayev simply wanted to draw attention to himself, Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky told Interfax. ''The terrorist's words can be assessed as routine bravado and a desire to remind people about himself,'' Fridinsky noted.
Some of Basayev's assertions are not true, he said. For instance, the investigators have determined that people with Slavic complexions were driving the trucks filled with explosives. ''However, Basayev's version will be checked during the investigation. It is too early to speak about his involvement in the crime,'' he said.
UN committee imposes sanctions on 3 Chechen groups.
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March 5 2003, 10:55 AM
UN committee imposes sanctions on 3 Chechen groups.
Interfax. Wednesday, Mar. 5, 2003, 12:03 PM Moscow Time
MOSCOW. March 5 (Interfax) - A UN committee for anti-Taliban sanctions has approved a proposal to include three Chechen groups on the list of organizations subject to UN Security Council Resolutions No 1267 and 1390, Deputy Foreign Ministry Yuri Fedotov told Interfax on Wednesday.
Russia, the United States, China and several other countries backed the proposal, which involves the following Chechen groups: the International Islamic Brigade, the Islamic Special Purpose Regiment, and the Riyad us-Salikhin Intelligence and Sabotage Battalion of Shakhids.
"This decision reaffirms the UN's official and clear acknowledgement of the terrorist nature of the groups acting in Chechnya and points to their direct links to the Al-Qaeda terrorist network," he said.
A rebel gang that specialized in murdering Russian generals has been neutralized in Chechnya, top republican prosecutor Vladimir Kravchenko reported on Wednesday. The members of the gang are suspected of perpetrating a series of major terrorist attacks against the top brass of Russia’s military.
In particular, the official said, the detained rebels had masterminded the murder of General-Lieutenant Igor Shifrin on November 15, 2002, when the car he was travelling in came under fire in the Chechen capital of Grozny. Shifrin sustained fatal wounds and died soon afterwards.
Members of the same gang also gunned down a Mi-8 helicopter in Grozny in September 2001, resulting in the three crew and ten officers of the General Staff of the Defence Ministry being killed. They were: General-Major Anatoly Pozdnyakov, General-Major Pavel Varfolomeyev, Colonels Igor Abramov, Igor Khakhalkin, Yuri Makhov, Vladimir Smolennikov, Sergei Toryanik, Nikolai Lyubimsky, Igor Tribuntsov and Vladimir Talayev.
''The group has committed a total of about 50 crimes, mostly heinous crimes. The leader and four members of the criminal group have been detained,'' Chechen Prosecutor Vladimir Kravchenko reported on Wednesday. He said that the leader of the criminal group was detained in January 2003. Shoulder-held missile launchers, Kalashnikov rifles, grenade launchers and fragmentation bombs were discovered during a search of his home. Also, a map indicating checkpoints and military bases was discovered, Kravchenko said.
''The detained rebel leader confessed that he had received orders directly from Shamil Basayev, and had killed Gen. Shifrin and shot down the helicopter at Basayev's order,'' he said. Three other detained members of the criminal group were involved in an attack on an Mi-26 helicopter in August 19, 2002, which resulted in the helicopter crashing near the Khankala military base, killing 119 people. The gang is also suspected of killing Lt. Col. Igor Yevseyev of the Federal Security Service in October 2001.
Kravchenko said that criminal charges had been brought against each member of the criminal group. The cases will be investigated and then heard in court.
A day earlier Colonel Ilya Shabalkin, the spokesman for the headquarters of the combined federal forces in the North Caucasus, reported that Russian troops had prevented a ''major'' terrorist act in Chechnya.
Shabalkin told Interfax that local residents helped to find homemade bombs made of three 122-mm shells, 50 grams of plastic explosive and an electric detonator hidden near a recently built bridge across the Argun River on the federal highway. The bridge facilitates traffic along the entire Trans-Caucasian highway, including Chechnya. ''Steps are being taken to establish and detain the persons who intended to blow up the bridge,'' Shabalkin said.
He said nine land mines were neutralized, while another 11 caches of arms, ammunition and shells and 15 mini-refineries for stolen oil were destroyed, and 10 pieces of small arms were confiscated in Chechnya in one day.
The combined forces' press centre told Interfax that Grozny remains the main target for rebels’ subversive activities. Up to 30 small rebel groups operate there disguised as civilians, making it difficult to find them, the centre said.
According to the headquarters, groups led by Doku Umarov are concentrated in the Oktyabrskiy District of Grozny, while field commander Isa Sadayev is trying to assume control over small rebel groups in the Leninskiy District. Military sources also say the situation in Chechnya's Achkhoi-Martan district may deteriorate. Under these complex circumstances, federal units are conducting planned law-enforcement efforts aimed at guaranteeing the civilian population's security, preventing terrorist attacks, eliminating rebel groups and their leaders, and blocking financial channels for criminal activities.
Senator for Chechnya Akhmar Zavgayev has devised a method to detain Chechen rebel leaders Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov. Zavgayev’s says they must be ransomed from the rebels for a high price. ''Rebels give teenagers $100 for [planting] a land mine, and we will offer $500 for information as to who ordered the terrorist act,'' Zavgayev explained.
The Federation Council member representing Chechnya in the upper house has suggested setting up a special fund under the council of veterans of the Chechen law enforcement organs. The fund will accumulate means that will then be used to finance special operations aimed at the detention and elimination of rebels, he reported on Tuesday. ''Work on the fund’s regulations is nearly completed, and a number of issues concerning its interaction with the Russian Interior Ministry is in the coordination phase,'' the senator explained.
According to Zavgayev, the fund will be sponsored by Chechen businessmen, who will have to donate rather considerable sums, since the apprehension of the Chechen resistance leaders Shamil Basayev and Aslan Maskhadov will require more than just one hundred thousand dollars.
''The fund has not so far decided on the amounts of money it intends to pay for information on the bandits' whereabouts, but for information on bandits like Basayev or Maskhadov it intends to pay a significant sum. It is a question of hundreds of thousands of [US] dollars,'' Zavgayev said.
So far, no Chechen businessmen have publicly backed Zavgayev’s initiative. However, they have, somewhat reluctantly, been spending money on the restoration of their republic. At the same time, the FSB [domestic security service] has repeatedly hinted that Chechen businesses sponsor rebel units. However, those charges have never been backed up with sufficient evidence.
Gazeta.Ru contacted the author of the initiative, Akhmar Zavgayev, and asked how the informal mechanism of fighting the rebel leaders should function. It is known that he bears a personal grudge against the rebels. In September they killed his son Said Ali, a police officer, who may have tracked down the rebels who carried out a murder attempt on the head of the Nadterechnyi District of Chechnya, Akhmed Zavgayev, the brother of Akhmar and Doku Zavgayev. Last week Chechen policemen reportedly shot the alleged organizer of that attack as the suspect attempted to escape.
''If an award is being offered for data on crime, it is solved in 99 per cent of cases. That’s statistics,'' Akhmar Zavgayev recounted. ''Keeping that in mind, we have held discussions with [pro-Moscow Chechen administration chief] Akhmad Kadyrov, with the FSB and the Interior Minister. We have no doubts that over half of all the terrorist acts can be prevented. You may wonder how. Well, because most of the terrorist acts are perpetrated with the help of teenagers of 12-13 years old. The rebels offer teenagers $100 for [planting] a landmine, and we offer $500 for the information on who has ordered them to carry out the terrorist act. Thus, we will save thousands of human lives.''
The senator refused to say how high the price for Shamil Basayev would be. In June 2001 General Troshev had already suggested offering a $1 million bounty for the head of the infamous rebel. ''Whoever brings it will get the million. It is not important, whether it is Chechens or our special-purpose troops,'' the general said.
''Well, the rebels knew that Troshev does not have $1 million,'' senator Zavgayev said. ''But here, there will be a public fund, guarantees, and everything will be different. This is not about Troshev – I know Gennady Nikolayevich [Troshev] well, and respect him. But this must come not from the state, but from our businessmen.''
When asked by Gazeta.Ru whether anyone had already agreed to participate, he replied that many people want Chechnya to be a place free from any evil, and passed the receiver to his colleague, Isa Kostoyev, who represents Chechnya’s neighbouring province of Ingushetia in the upper house of the Russian parliament.
''From olden times in the Caucasus, when there was still no OMON [elite police], no prosecutors and no judges, a person who had suffered from a crime would go to a market place, rise on a cart, introduce himself and say: ‘My kin has been murdered…or my cow stolen, I believe myself insulted and guarantee that under no circumstances will I disclose my source of information if someone tells me who has committed the crime.’ And then he would fix a price he was ready to pay for the data,'' Kostoyev said. People donating money to the fund need guarantees of their personal safety, and our task is to ensure it, he added.
Secular Separatist Movement Transformed by Militant Vanguard.
By Sharon LaFraniere
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, April 26, 2003; Page A01
KARAMAKHI, Dagestan -- This isolated southwest Russian village of dirt roads and one-story clay brick houses was profoundly peaceful, its residents say, until a Jordanian cleric named Khabib Abdurrakhman arrived in the early 1990s with a seemingly irresistible deal.
To a hamlet made destitute by the collapse of the Soviet Union, Abdurrakhman brought a slaughtered cow and a free feast every week. In a place where many people were left jobless by the demise of the local collective farm, he handed out $30 to every convert who came to his simple mosque. And to those adrift in the social chaos of the Soviet breakdown, he offered a new purpose in life -- a form of their traditional Islam rooted in fundamentalism and militancy.
Few questioned where his money came from, or who were the other Arabs who began to drift into the community. By the time questions did arise, it was too late.
By 1999, Abdurrakhman's growing band of followers had transformed the little settlement into an armed enclave, crisscrossed by tunnels and trenches and stockpiled with weapons for Abdurrakhman's true mission: severing Dagestan from Russian control and merging it into an Islamic state with neighboring Chechnya.
"They tried to lure people in a friendly way at first," according to Magomed Makhdiyev, the village imam, who says he tried to withstand the fundamentalists' influence. "But by 1999, they were saying, 'Join us or we'll cut your head off.' "
Abdurrakhman was part of a militant vanguard that deeply influenced what was then a secular separatist movement in Chechnya, recasting it in part as an international jihad that spilled over from the republic to neighboring Dagestan. Today the Russian government insists that it is impossible to understand the Chechen conflict without understanding the role of people like Abdurrakhman.
Russian intelligence officials say he is just one of hundreds of Arab radicals whose fervor and funds fueled fighting that has cost the lives of more than 4,500 Russian soldiers and thousands of rebels, plus many civilians, over the past 31/2 years.
Interviews with Chechen exiles, villagers in Chechnya and Dagestan, Western diplomats and terrorism experts confirm that Arab militants have played a significant role in the conflict. The full story has yet to emerge, however. Arab and Chechen commanders waging war in the republic are in hiding and could not be interviewed.
In the Russian government's view, Chechnya's war is nothing more or less than a terrorist enterprise, paid for by a combination of al Qaeda money and fraudulent charitable donations, commanded by Arabs trained in Afghanistan and fomented by outsider clerics such as Abdurrakhman preaching armed revolution under the theological justification of an Islamic strain known as Wahhabism.
"There are no more al Qaeda camps" in Chechnya, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in February. "But there is still al Qaeda money. . . . There are instructors who are working, there are mercenaries from a number of Muslim countries recruited by radicals. Unfortunately, all that still exists there."
A Change of View.
Until the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States, the Russian argument got little hearing in the West, where officials suspected that Russia was mainly trying to deflect criticism of human rights abuses by Russian troops.
But in recent months, U.S. officials have increasingly subscribed to the Russian view that Arab militants have helped Chechen rebels with money and weapons, although the Americans say the guerrilla war still has its roots in Chechens' decades-old resentment of Soviet, and later Russian, dominance.
"Obviously there is still a strong internal impulse behind the Chechen insurgency," said a senior U.S. diplomat. "But it has become commingled with the broader international agenda of the Arab fighters."
Bush administration officials say the United States has helped cut off outside support of the conflict by routing the Taliban in Afghanistan, helping drive Islamic fighters from the nearby Fergana Valley in Uzbekistan and forcing Georgia to police the Pankisi Gorge on the Chechen border. After denying for years that the valley was a rebel sanctuary, Georgian officials now say that until last summer, it was home to 800 rebels, including 80 to 100 Arabs in a unit that received funds from al Qaeda.
Some terrorism experts say the West erred by dismissing Russia's claims for so long.
"Chechnya and the Pankisi Gorge in Georgia partially replaced Afghanistan as a center for terrorist training," said Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert and the author of "Inside Al Qaeda." "The initial wave of terrorists who are now coming to Europe trained in Chechnya or Algeria," he said.
Col. Ilya Shabalkin, a spokesman for Russian forces in Chechnya, said Arabs still make up about one-fifth of Chechnya's roughly 1,000 active armed militants, who are increasingly confined to the republic's forests and mountains. "The Arabs are the specialists, they are the experts in mines and communications," Shabalkin said. He identified their leader as Abu Walid, a Saudi who showed up in Chechnya in the late 1990s.
The money, Russians say, comes from known terrorist groups such as al Qaeda and from some 40 organizations masquerading as charities in the Middle East, Europe and elsewhere. The flow of funds has diminished since U.S. and Russian intelligence began jointly clamping down on terrorist financing after the Sept. 11 attacks. Even so, the Russians say, $500,000 to $1 million a month still reaches Chechnya, delivered in small sums by couriers who travel Georgia's rugged mountain paths.
One source is a Saudi charity, al Haramain, according to Russia's Federal Security Service. In an internal memo provided by the agency, the FSB accused the charity of wiring $1 million to Chechen rebels in 1999 and of arranging to buy 500 heavy weapons for them from Taliban units.
The memo quotes what it calls messages exchanged between Arab commanders in Chechnya and al Haramain's director in Saudi Arabia. "Today, al Haramain has $50 million for the needs of the mujaheddin," one message from the charity read.
"The reason al Haramain provides assistance a little bit at a time is because it is afraid of the accusations it is assisting the jihad," said another.
Russia forced al Haramain to close its offices in Georgia and neighboring Azerbaijan in 2001, but its workers dispersed to similar groups that continue to work freely in Azerbaijan, Sergei Ignatchenko, the FSB spokesman, said in an interview.
A year ago, the United States and Saudi Arabia shut down al Haramain branches in Somalia and Bosnia after U.S. officials asserted those offices used charitable donations to finance terrorist activities.
Al Haramain says it distributed blankets, clothing and food in Chechnya but stopped its work there 14 months ago. "We do not have any relationship with any terrorist activities," said Shaykh Aqeel Aqeel, the charity's director. "We work under the supervision of the Saudi government."
Money From Bin Laden.
Russian intelligence officials assert that Osama bin Laden donated at least $25 million and dispatched numerous fighters to Chechnya, including Ibn Khattab, a Saudi who led one of the best-trained contingents. The United States now agrees that Khattab had al Qaeda ties, and cited those links when it added three Chechen rebel units to its list of terrorist organizations earlier this year.
American officials said that several hundred Chechen fighters were trained at al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and that bin Laden sent "substantial amounts of money" to equip Chechen rebels in 1999. Some reports suggest al Qaeda urgently requested that Islamic organizations in Kuwait provide $2 million to the Chechen fighters as recently as last May, the U.S. government said in a five-page explanation of its decision to add Chechen groups to the list.
Gunaratna, the author, said Russia is exaggerating al Qaeda's contribution but not bin Laden's interest in the Chechen rebel cause. According to Gunaratna, the terrorist leader used a Persian Gulf bank to help finance the militants, at one point ordering an investigation into whether some Chechen leaders had siphoned off funds for themselves.
U.S. officials said they uncovered one source of support for Chechen rebels close to home: a Chicago-based charity called the Benevolence International Foundation, which investigators said funneled $300,000 to rebels in Chechnya and Bosnia. The foundation's director, Enaam Arnaout, denied any connections with al Qaeda.
But U.S. investigators said they found handwritten correspondence to and from bin Laden in the group's office in Bosnia. In one letter, according to court records, bin Laden declared: "The time has come for an attack on Russia."
Ayman Zawahiri, who is the United States' most-wanted terror fugitive after bin Laden, also saw potential in Chechnya as a sanctuary for his Egyptian militant followers before he merged his organization with al Qaeda in early 1998, Russian officials have said. Zawahiri's plans for Chechnya fell apart after Russian authorities arrested him in Dagestan in 1997, jailed him for six months and then freed him before learning his true identity, according to FSB spokesman Ignatchenko.
Arab influence in the first war between Chechen separatists and Russian soldiers, from 1994 to 1996, was minimal. Independence-minded Chechens considered themselves able to handle their own affairs, said Shamil Beno, who served as Chechnya's foreign minister in 1992 and as the republic's representative in Moscow in 2000-2001.
Dzhokhar Dudayev, Chechnya's president from 1991 until his death in 1996, was afraid of terrorist funds, Beno said in an interview: "He wanted checks done to see if it was terrorist money or not."
Those scruples faded in the mid-1990s, as more and more Arab missionaries and fighters flocked to the republic, proclaiming Islamic law, or sharia, and promoting Wahhabist traditions. Warlords had come to dominate Chechen society, and some of them embraced the fundamentalist cause.
The Arabs' goal went beyond preserving Chechnya's freedom: They wanted to merge Chechnya and Dagestan to create an Islamic state. Chechnya and Dagestan were poorer than the rest of Russia, and Dagestan, though home to a mosaic of ethnic groups, was predominantly Muslim. Its access to the Caspian Sea and its oil and gas reserves gave it a strategic importance to Russia that Chechnya did not share.
One of the new leaders was Khattab, who fought with bin Laden in Afghanistan as a teenager and who had publicly praised the al Qaeda leader as the "main commander of the mujaheddin worldwide." Khattab's position in the rebel movement was assured when he won over Shamil Basayev, Chechnya's best-known militant.
Planning a Takeover.
Beno, who was once Basayev's close friend, said Basayev changed after he met Khattab in 1995. "He started moving from freedom for Chechnya to freedom for the whole Arab world. He changed from a Chechen patriot into an Islamic globalist," Beno said.
Basayev has told reporters he visited training camps in Afghanistan three times in the early 1990s to study the tactics of guerrilla warfare. In Chechnya, he and Khattab built their own training camp in the village of Serzhen-Yurt, complete with advanced communications equipment.
Their plans to take over Dagestan revolved partly around the village of Karamakhi, where Abdurrakhman, the Jordanian cleric, had begun preparing for jihad years earlier. By mid-1999, the village had been turned into a fortified base for rebels and religious fundamentalists.
Residents recall the sign that stood on the dirt road that led off the main highway: "This territory is under the jurisdiction of sharia law." A green Muslim flag was posted on a hill.
The hamlet's 14 policemen had been kicked out, and the Russian constitution declared invalid. Those caught drinking alcohol were beaten with sticks. Religious edicts were announced over a new broadcasting system, residents said.
Two rocket launchers, machine guns and explosives were hauled in and hidden. "There were so many Chechens and Arabs here we couldn't count them," said Makhdiyev, the imam. "They would come in carloads, 10 or 15 cars at a time."
Khattab visited the village, solidifying his ties by marrying a local 17-year-old girl. But the settlement remained divided between opponents and supporters of the Wahhabis. "Some people joined because they believed it was the right way," said Makhdiyev. "Others were just in dire straits. They went for these kopecks," or coins.
In August 1999, Chechen rebels launched incursions into Dagestan, but the operation failed miserably. Within a few weeks, Russian troops had driven hundreds of rebels under Khattab and Basayev back across the border into Chechnya. Russian troops announced the capture of Karamakhi in September.
That month, Moscow apartment houses were hit by a series of bombings that killed close to 300 people and were blamed by Russian authorities on Chechen rebels. Russian warplanes began hitting their positions and by October, 80,000 Russian troops were marching into Chechnya to reclaim the republic. Khattab was killed by Russian troops last year.
Villagers are still rebuilding what was destroyed by the Russian bombers. A new beige mosque is nearly finished, the ground around it a sea of mud.
A few rebel supporters, after being released from jail, asked their neighbors to forgive them and were accepted back into the village, said Makhdiyev.
"They say they were lost," he said. "They swore they would never do it again."
Re: Photos support Basayev's part in Grozny blast.
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May 12 2003, 10:27 AM
Monday, 12 May, 2003, 08:55 GMT 09:55 UK
Many killed in Chechen blast.
BBC
A lorry loaded with explosives has rammed into a local government building in Chechnya, killing at least 30 people, officials say.
The attack in the northern town of Znamenskoye is believed to be have been carried out by Chechen rebels, who are fighting for independence from Moscow.
Local government chief Sultan Ahmetkhanov said a truck filled with explosives had damaged part of an administration building and the headquarters of the Federal Security Service in the town, as well as about eight houses.
At least 30 people were killed and two to three times that number were injured, he said, adding that the death toll was likely to rise as rescue workers combed the debris.
The rebel campaign for self-rule has included the siege of a Moscow theatre in October, and the suicide bombing of a government building in December in the regional capital Grozny, which left 80 dead.
Deadly strike.
The incident occurred at 0600 GMT, 1000 local time.
If it is confirmed that the bombing was perpetrated by Chechen separatists, it would be their deadliest attack since the December incident in Grozny.
It would also be the most serious attack since a March referendum tied Chechnya firmly within Russia.
The vote was seen as a victory for Moscow, which has sought for almost a decade to quell the separatist rebellion which has claimed thousands of lives.
Human rights organisations have questioned the legitimacy of the referendum, which was not monitored by Western observers, and the separatists themselves fiercely opposed it.
Correspondents say that northern Chechnya, where the bombing took place, is considered the most stable part of the region.
It was the first area to come under the control of Russian forces that entered the republic in 1999, starting the second war in a decade.
VLADIKAVKAZ, Russia (AP) -- A truck bomb ripped through the compound of the pro-Moscow government in northern Chechnya on Monday, killing at least 30 people and wounding 70 others, officials said.
The blast, coming on the first working day following a series of state holidays, underlined the violence that continues to roil Chechnya even as the Kremlin claims the more than 3 1/2-year-old war with rebels is winding down and normal life returning.
Maj.-Gen. Ruslan Avtayev, the chief of the Chechen branch of the Emergency Situations Ministry, said the blast completely destroyed the two-story building housing the office of the Federal Security Service, the intelligence agency that is leading Russia's campaign in Chechnya, in the town of Znamenskoye. It also damaged four nearby administrative buildings.
At least 30 people were killed, said Avtayev and Sultan Ahmetkhanov, the head of the Nadterechny region, where the blast occurred. Seventy people were hospitalized, Avtayev said. Ahmetkhanov said eight residential houses were also damaged.
Other officials' estimates varied widely.
An official in Chechnya's Justice Ministry, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said at least 50 people had been killed. He said the Security Service building, the district police headquarters and the local administration building were in ruins and six apartment houses were badly damaged. The government buildings were full of people who had returned to work after a long series of May holidays, he said.
Chechen administration head Akhmad Kadyrov said at least 16 people were killed, the Interfax news agency reported.
Initial information indicated a truck carrying explosives exploded near the buildings, the ITAR-Tass news agency said. The blast left a crater up to 53 feet in diameter and six feet deep, Akhmetkhanov said. Other officials said it shattered windows 500 yards away.
Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky was heading to the scene, Interfax reported. A plane was bringing rescuers from the Emergency Situations Ministry headquarters in Moscow, Avtayev said.
Monday's blast was the latest in a string of truck- and car-bomb explosions in Chechnya, a technique the outmanned and outgunned rebels have used to strike at Russian forces and their Chechen colleagues.
In December, a truck-bomb attack on the headquarters of the Moscow-backed Chechen administration in the capital Grozny killed at least 70 people. The truck had passed through numerous checkpoints and the blast exposed the still-fragile state of security even in the most heavily guard part of the war-shattered region.
Kadyrov said the Znamenskoye attack showed that Russian and regional Chechen security services are unable to prevent all Chechen rebel attacks.
``It is necessary to be more alert and responsible, so that no cars with explosives can travel on the territory of the republic,'' Interfax quoted him as saying.
Northern Chechnya is considered the most stable part of the region. It was the first area to come under the control of Russian forces that entered the republic in 1999, starting the second war in a decade.
Znamenskoye houses a large refugee camp and has served as headquarters for international human rights monitors.
Russia's government minister for Chechnya said it would be ``senseless'' to increase the size of the Russian military contingent in the region -- tens of thousands of troops -- as a result of the attack.
``Large-scale hostilities are long gone, and it is impossible to prevent a terrorist attack with a large number of troops,'' Interfax quoted Ilyasov as saying. He said halting terror attacks would require ``targeted operations by the secret services.''
This message has been edited by TsarSamuil from IP address 212.181.9.227 on May 13, 2003 10:46 AM This message has been edited by TsarSamuil from IP address 212.181.9.227 on May 12, 2003 11:23 AM
Re: Photos support Basayev's part in Grozny blast.
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May 13 2003, 10:54 AM
Tuesday, May. 13, 2003. Page 1
Chechen Blast Kills 41, Injures 110.
By Yuri Bagrov
The Associated Press
A woman whose sister and four nephews are missing crying as she stands near what is left of a government building destroyed by the blast in Znamenskoye on Monday. Musa Sadulayev / AP
VLADIKAVKAZ, North Ossetia -- A truck laden with explosives blew up Monday outside a government compound in northern Chechnya, reducing eight brick buildings to rubble and killing at least 41 people, including six children. President Vladimir Putin called the attack an attempt to derail a political resolution to the more than 3 1/2-year-old war.
Most of the victims were government employees, who had returned to the office after May holidays, and local residents, taking advantage of the first working day after a long holiday period to settle government-related business, emergency officials said.
The blast, which exploded with a force of at least 1.2 metric tons of TNT, completely destroyed a regional government administration building in Znamenskoye and severely damaged the two-story office of the Federal Security Service, which is leading the military campaign in Chechnya.
Six small homes, each housing several families, also were leveled in the blast, emergency officials said.
Major-General Ruslan Avtayev said that 41 people, including six children under 12 years old, were killed and more than 110 people were hospitalized. Fifty-seven victims were in grave condition, many pulled severely wounded from under the debris, Avtayev said.
No one claimed responsibility, but officials immediately blamed Chechen rebels. Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky was quoted by Itar-Tass as saying three suicide bombers, including one woman, carried out the attack.
"All such actions are aimed at one thing: stopping the process of the settlement of the situation in Chechnya, the process of political settlement," Putin told Cabinet members in televised comments. "We cannot and will not allow anything of the kind."
Putin ordered the Prosecutor General's Office and the FSB to report to him on an investigation plan.
Akhmad Kadyrov, the head of the Moscow-backed Chechen administration, said the attack appeared an effort by rebels to "reanimate themselves in the eyes of the republic's population and overseas clients. ... They are trying to prove, at any cost, that they are still strong," Interfax reported.
Chechen voters in March overwhelmingly approved a Kremlin-promoted constitution that cements the region's status as part of Russia. Moscow, which has refused to negotiate with rebel leaders, has called the referendum a key step on the road to peace. But Monday's blast underlined the violence that continues to roil Chechnya. In December, a truck bomb at the headquarters of the Moscow-backed Chechen administration in Grozny killed 70 people.
FSB chief Nikolai Patrushev said Monday that a KamAZ truck carrying explosives blew up after it was halted at a security barrier about 30 meters from a concrete wall that protects the government buildings. However, the chief of police in the Nadterechny district, Usman Tunguzbiyev, said the truck crashed through the barrier and soldiers standing guard opened fire.
The blast left a crater some 5 meters deep and 10 meters wide. TVS television said the blast knocked out electricity and water for the whole town.
The military blocked off the area where rescue workers searched through the debris, and anxious residents crowded around trying to find out about their relatives. One woman said her sister and four nephews were missing; another man frantically hunted through the rubble for a missing toddler.
Northern Chechnya is considered the most stable district. It was the first area to come under the control of the federal forces that entered the republic in 1999, starting the republic's second war in a decade.
Russia links suicide attacks in Saudi Arabia and Chechnya.
No score for this post
May 13 2003, 3:51 PM
Russia links suicide attacks in Saudi Arabia and Chechnya.
Sydney Morning Herald ^ | May 14 2003
The Russian foreign ministry linked a series of suicide attacks in Saudi Arabia and Chechnya, as a top Russian official accused al-Qaeda of being behind the deadly blast in the breakaway republic.
"The blasts in Saudi Arabia, in Chechnya and other places - these are links in the same chain," Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said in a statement.
"This leaves no doubt that the problem of terrorism in all its forms has not only not disappeared, but that it calls for the further mobilisation and concentration of the powers of all countries to fight against this evil," he said.
Overnight, three blasts targeted residential compounds housing westerners in Riyadh, killing between 40 and 50 people on the eve of a visit by US Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Mr Powell, who was due to arrive in Moscow after visiting Riyadh, said the Saudi blasts had "all the earmarks of al-Qaeda".
Ilya Shabalkin, spokesman for the Russian military's anti-terrorist unit in the Northern Caucasus, accused Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov of receiving support from al-Qaeda to organise the truck bomb attack on a local government building in the northern Chechen village of Znamenskoye that killed at least 54 people.
"Recently, Maskhadov himself has threatened to carry out terrorist acts in the republic," he said, quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency.
The head of Chechnya's pro-Russian administration, Akhmad Kadyrov, has also accused the rebel leader of being behind the blast, but a Maskhadov spokesman denied the rebel president's involvement.
"The financing of all terrorist acts in Chechnya is undertaken with money from international terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda, through Arab mercenaries," Mr Shabalkin said.
"Maskhadov long ago became a puppet in the hands of international terrorists and he carries out their orders without discussion," he added.
Russian and Chechen officials insist the rebel leader is one of the main backers of separatist violence - a charge he has repeatedly denied.
Mr Maskhadov was elected to a five-year term as president of Chechnya in polls held after the end of the republic's first separatist war in 1996, but was later disavowed by Moscow as well as many die-hard Chechen rebels who accused him of collaborating with the pro-Moscow regime.
Russia has regularly framed its nearly four-year-long war against separatist rebels in Chechnya as part of the global war against terror.
VLADIKAVKAZ, North Ossetia -- The toll in the truck bombing of a Chechen government compound rose to at least 54 dead and 300 wounded, rescue officials said Tuesday, and the head of Chechnya's Moscow-backed administration called for the region's own police to take over the fight against separatist rebels from federal structures to ensure better security.
Administration head Akhmad Kadyrov said the attack proved that security is lax and that it was necessary to "introduce changes in the conduct of the counterterrorist operation" in Chechnya, Interfax reported. He proposed that responsibility for fighting rebels be switched to the region's own Interior Ministry instead of the Federal Security Service and Russian troops.
As top officials of the Nadterechny region of northern Chechnya held their regular morning meeting in the government headquarters in Znamenskoye on Monday, three suicide attackers blew up a truck laden with explosives nearby. The blast reduced eight buildings to rubble and killed or injured government workers, civilians visiting government offices, shopkeepers and residents of neighboring apartments.
Major General Ruslan Avtayev, the Chechen emergency situations minister, said 54 people have been confirmed dead, including 16 women, seven children and 10 FSB officers. Of the 300 wounded, 114 had been hospitalized, 57 of them in grave condition, he said.
A Chechen government official in Grozny, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the death toll had reached 55.
Russian and Chechen officials quickly blamed Chechen rebels for the bombing, which closely resembled the December suicide truck bombing that devastated Chechnya's government headquarters in Grozny, killing at least 70 people. The local FSB branch and the regional education, tax and agriculture departments were located in the Znamenskoye compound.
Kadyrov accused Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov of masterminding the attack, and Stanislav Ilyasov, the federal minister for Chechnya, blamed rebel warlord Shamil Basayev as well.
This message has been edited by TsarSamuil from IP address 212.181.9.227 on May 14, 2003 9:24 AM
Eight people have been reported killed and dozens wounded in the second bomb attack in Chechnya in three days. Reports say that the attack was carried out by a female suicide bomber. It took place at 1500 local time (1100 GMT) at a religious festival in the town of Iliskhan Yurt, near the second city Gudermes. The BBC's Steve Rosenberg in Moscow said it could have been an attempt to assassinate the head of Chechnya's pro-Moscow administration, Akhmad Kadyrov, who was attending the festival.
Mr Kadyrov is not believed to have been hurt. Chechen officials said the bomb went off in a crowd of several thousand Muslims from various parts of southern Russia as prayers were being read out. They had gathered to remember three highly respected clerics from the village. Chechen officials revised down earlier reports of 20 dead. Most of the victims are said to be elderly. Experts from the Russian Emergencies Ministry have now arrived on the scene to investigate the incident.
Death toll rises.
Chechens have been remembering the victims of Monday's bomb.
Our correspondent says the attack is very embarrassing for the Kremlin, coming as Russian President Vladimir Putin prepares to meet visiting US Secretary of State Colin Powell. Mr Putin is also due to give his yearly address to the nation later in the week. The attack follows a suicide bombing in the northern village of Znamenskoye on Monday in which a government compound was destroyed. Officials said on Wednesday that the death toll in that attack had now risen to 59 after several people died overnight. Mr Putin linked the style and consequences of Monday's bombing to suicide attacks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday which left at least 29 people dead. The attacks come despite the insistence of the Russian Government with ever greater stridency in recent weeks that the situation in Chechnya is "normalising".
Investigators examining the scene of Wednesday's suicide attack in Ilaskhan-Yurt. Aslanbek Batalov / Reuters
A female suicide bomber blew herself up at a crowded Muslim festival east of Grozny on Wednesday in the second such attack in Chechnya this week, killing at least 14 people and wounding scores of others.
The attack was an apparent attempt to assassinate pro-Moscow Chechen leader Akhmad Kadyrov, who was among about 15,000 Chechens attending the festival marking the birth of the prophet Mohammed.
Chechen Emergency Situations Minister Ruslan Avtayev, denying earlier reports of 30 killed, said the death toll stood at 14 -- seven killed on the spot in the blast and seven dying later in the hospital.
A total of 145 people were wounded, of whom 45 were in a serious condition, the Chechen Emergency Situations Ministry said.
The attack dealt a further setback to President Vladimir Putin's plans to put an end to rebel resistance in Chechnya. Greeting U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who arrived from Riyadh where suicide bombers killed 34 people Monday, Putin said grimly: "We have again been confronted with manifestations of terrorism: the terrorist act in Saudi Arabia and two terrorist acts in Chechnya. The latest took place today."
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, standing alongside Powell, told reporters later in the day: "These terror attacks in Chechnya will not thwart the efforts of the Russian leadership to reach a political settlement in Chechnya."
Wednesday's attack occurred at around 3 p.m. in Ilaskhan-Yurt, a village about 30 kilometers east of Grozny. Chechen officials said the suicide bomber had intended to kill Kadyrov, a strong advocate of the Kremlin line. The woman pleaded to speak to Kadyrov because three of her sons had disappeared. She was stopped short, however, and a large explosion followed.
"Kadyrov was speaking into the microphone from a stage, calling people to pray for peace. The woman approached him, and his bodyguards rushed toward her. She then detonated the bomb," said Edi Isayev, Kadyrov's spokesman in Moscow.
"This was without doubt an attempt to assassinate Kadyrov and all the religious figures who support Putin's peace plan," Isayev said.
Kadyrov escaped unhurt. But Itar-Tass reported that at least four of his bodyguards were among those killed by the bomb.
Many of those killed were elderly.
Officials identified the bomber as Shakhida Baimuratova, 46, a rebel fighter whose husband was killed in 1999 during the ongoing conflict.
"Only her head remained after the explosion," Kadyrov's press service said.
Channel One television said that a second attacker, who also died in the blast, failed to detonate her explosives.
The religious festival was organized by the pro-Kremlin United Russia party.
Military spokesman Colonel Ilya Shabalkin accused rebels loyal to Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov of having a role in organizing the attack.
"Maskhadov, who is closely related to Arab mercenaries, is becoming increasingly close to terrorist leader Shamil Basayev," Shabalkin was quoted by Interfax as saying. Basayev is a Chechen warlord.
Maskhadov's envoy Akhmed Zakayev denied the leader's involvement, telling Ekho Moskvy radio from London that "these are not our methods or means."
The force of the blast strewed flesh and bones across a field outside a religious shrine on the outskirts of Ilaskhan-Yurt. A regional security official interviewed on Rossia television said roughly 400 grams of explosives had been hidden either in a belt or in a video camera.
Akhmet Abatsov, the leader of the local district that includes the village, said Kadyrov remained in the field and helped evacuate the wounded. He had removed his shoes during prayers and in the confusion could not find them.
A senior justice official in Chechnya said the authorities were studying the possibility that the rebels, frustrated by the tight grip of the military in the region, had now switched to a campaign of suicide bombings.
On Monday, three suicide bombers drove a truck loaded with explosives into a government office complex in Znamenskoye, located along the Terek River in a northern area that had largely escaped bloodshed during the war.
On Wednesday, officials said the death toll in that attack had risen to 59, as four more people died from their injuries overnight.
The explosion of a military truck in the Chechen village of Znamenskoye claimed the lives of 55 people, including women and children, and more than 200 injured people were hospitalised, with many of them in a critical condition.
Twenty-nine people, including 7 Americans, were killed and 194 wounded in an attack of bomb-automobiles driven by suicide bombers in residential districts mostly populated by foreigners in Al-Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
These two tragedies differ in the number of victims. However, the two acts of terror which were separated by 2,340 kilometres and a 14-hour interval look very much alike.
Both were very carefully planned. The latter was aimed against the Americans and timed to coincide with the arrival in Al-Riyadh by US Secretary of State Colin Powell. The former was designed to spoil the Victory Day celebrations in Chechnya and disrupt the process of political settlement there, which was successfully launched by the referendum on the Chechen constitution.
President Vladimir Putin had all reasons to conclude that the style of the two acts of terrorism is absolutely similar and their results are of the same scale. The Russian leader meant what the Kremlin has long been insisting on: the so-called separatist rebels in the predominantly Muslim Chechnya are just another front for the al-Qaeda world terrorist network which blew up the New York sky-scrapers, the disco hall on Bali, etc. (see the tragic record of developments of the past few months).
It seems that the acts of terrorism in Znamenskoye and in Al-Riyadh put a final equality mark between the "classical" international terrorism and Chechen terrorism which the Western mass media have for many years called shyly "people's resistance" or "an armed fight for national independence" or "anti-colonial movement".
Undoubtedly, the explosions in Znamenskoye and Al-Riyadh were ordered by one and the same "client", international Islamic terrorism. Philip Reeker, Deputy Spokesman for the US Department of State, said that the ruins of residential districts of the Saudi capital bore Al-Qaeda's imprint. In their turn, Russian Federal Security Service detectives say there is a connection between the explosion in Znamenskoye and the Arab terrorist group led by Saudi Abu Valid, a notorious agent of the very Al-Qaeda, which is operating in Chechnya.
Bin Laden's motherland remains a major exporter of terrorists both to the US and Chechen fronts.
The US' attitude to the Chechen conflict has been clearly breaking the deadlock since the September 11 events. US investigators seem to have woken up to look around and spot the funding source for Chechen gangs right near them, in Chicago. It was established that the Benevolence International Foundation which had found shelter there had managed to send more than $300,000 to militants in Chechnya. The search in the Foundation's office in Bosnia revealed an unambiguous hand-written order by Osama bin Laden himself reading: "The time has come to attack Russia." The time has also come to start treating seriously Moscow's statements about the link between Chechen militants and al-Qaeda, the US administration seems to have decided.
As a result, the US Department of State included three Chechen groups - The Islamic International Brigades, The Islamic Special Task Regiment and The Reconnaissance and Mining Battalion of Chechen Martyrs -in the black list of terrorist organisations. Their accounts in US banks have been frozen.
The explosions in Znamenskoye and Al-Riyadh again reminded Moscow and Washington that differences neither on Iraq, nor on the UN's role in international affairs or the ill-fated Jackson-Vanik amendment should not erase from memory Putin's telephone conversation with Bush right after the events of September 11, 2001. Then the two presidents decided to join efforts to counteract the global evil - international terrorism -- in all its manifestations, Chechen terrorism included.
At least 26 people were killed in a second suicide bombing this week, as a Chechen woman with explosives strapped to her belt blew herself up in a crowd of civilians who gathered for a Muslim festival in the village of Iliskhan-Yurt, east of Grozny. According to the latest reports the bomber was not alone. Her accomplice, who was carrying explosives, too, failed to detonate them. Pro-Moscow Chechens are convinced that the attack was an attempt on the chief of pro-Moscow administration, who also attended the festival.
The tragedy occurred during a Muslim festival marking the birthday of the prophet Mohammad. The event was organized by the Chechen branch of the United Russia in Iliskhan-Yurt, a place considered sacred to Caucasian Muslims as the birthplace of three respected 19th century sheiks, who preached in Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan.
Akhmed Abastov , the head of administration of a district to which the village of Iliskhan-Yurt belongs, upon returning from the scene of the attack an hour after the tragedy, told Gazeta.Ru he had seen with his own eyes how six people died, and two others had their legs torn off in the explosion.
A representative of the press service of the head of the administration of the Chechen Republic reported on Thursday morning that the death toll after the attack had reached 26. Of them 12 people died on the spot, and about 140 people were wounded. The press service also reported the casualties among Kadyrov’s men. "According to various sources, 5 to 7 personal guards of Chechen leader Akhmad Kadyrov were killed," the report said.
Akhmad Kadyrov, the strong supporter of the Kremlin line, and one of the likeliest candidates to become the president of Chechnya by the end of this year. He stood meters away from the centre of explosion, but managed to escape unhurt, as his bodyguards shielded him with their bodies. Several of the bodyguards were killed, but the majority of other victims were civilians including children and elderly people. Two women terrorists lost their lives in the attack, albeit it was just one bomb that exploded.
The suicide bomber was identified as a 46-year-old Shakhida Baimuratova, a resident of Gudermes, whose husband was killed in 1999. The woman had explosives tied to her belt. Her body was almost fully destroyed in the blast. “Only her head remained after the explosion,” Kadyrov’s press-service said.
Some 15,000 Chechens arrived in Iliskhan-Yurt on Wednesday to take part in the festival. The head of the Chechen administration Akhmad Kadyrov, too, attended the gathering. As he was addressing the crowd from a stage, urging the Chechen people to pray for peace in their war-torn homeland, his bodyguards noticed a woman slowly approaching him and rushed to her, Kadyrov’s Moscow representative Edi Isayev told the press afterwards.
According to some reports, the woman sought to talk to Kadyrov about her sons who had disappeared during security sweeps. Chechen authorities are convinced that the terrorist intended to kill Kadyrov himself. “This was without doubt an attempt to assassinate Kadyrov and all religious figures who support Putin’s peace plan,” Edi Isayev said.
Sergei Fridinsky, Deputy Prosecutor General for the Southern federal district, which includes Northern Caucasus, however, said it was too early to say the attack was aimed at Kadyrov. “If the suicide bomber wanted to do that [kill Kadyrov] she would approach him, and not go into the crowd,” said the senior prosecutor, who arrived in the republic two days earlier to investigate the Monday terrorist attack in the town of Znamenskoye.
Fridinsky said criminal proceedings in connection with the Iliskhan-Yurt attack have been launched not under the article of the Criminal Code envisaging punishment for an attempt on life of a state official, but under articles 205 and 105 – “Terrorism” and “Premeditated Murder” respectively.
Investigators believe that the bomber, Shakhida Baimuratova, was a rebel fighter and belonged to a group of independence fighters loyal to rebel warlord Shamil Basayev. Her accomplice, whose identity is yet to be established, is believed to have belonged to the same group.
Russian security service officials allege that Chechen suicide bombers receive training from a Saudi citizen, Abu Walid. According to some reports, attacks in Iliskhan-Yurt and in Znamenskoye on Monday could be carried out by his trainees and the funding was provided from abroad. Chechen rebels received $1 million from abroad a week ago, Russian prosecutors said.
On Monday three suicide bombers drove a truck loaded with explosives into a government office complex in Znamenskoye, a relatively peaceful part of the region in the north. The total of 59 people, mostly civilians, were killed in the attack.
15 ÌÀß 12:21
This message has been edited by TsarSamuil from IP address 212.181.9.227 on May 15, 2003 10:30 AM This message has been edited by TsarSamuil from IP address 212.181.9.227 on May 14, 2003 4:39 PM
Financial Times
By James Harding in Washington and Andrew Jack in Moscow
Published: May 14 2003 21:49
The US is to investigate possible links between suicide bombs in Saudi Arabia and Chechyna after a second attack in the rebel Russian republic on Wednesday.
A female suicide bomber killed 14 people and injured scores more in a Chechen town , officials said. The attack came two days after a suicide truck bombing on Monday at a Russian government complex east of the capital Grozny, which killed 59 people.
The bombings have over-shadowed US Secretary of State Colin Powell's diplomatic mission this week. Terrorists struck three foreigners' compounds in Riyadh on the eve of Mr Powell's visit to Saudi Arabia. The second Chechen suicide attack came as Mr Powell was preparing to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
Wednesday's attack is deeply embarrassing for Mr Putin, who is looking at ways to offer Chechnya greater autonomy within the Russia republic.
The woman who carried out Wednesday's attack was named as Shakhida Baimuratova, a Chechen separatist rebel. She was targeting the pro-Moscow head of the region's administration, Akhmad Kadyrov, posing as a journalist, reports said, at a Muslim religious festival near the town of Iliskhan-Yurt, east of the Chechen capital Grozny.
"Kadyrov was speaking into the microphone from a stage, calling people to pray for peace. The woman approached him and his bodyguards rushed towards her. She then detonated the bomb," said Mr Kadyrov's spokesman in Moscow.
Mr Kadyrov escaped unhurt.
Ari Fleischer, the White House press secretary, said the FBI's assessment team was being sent to Saudi Arabia to investigate the Riyadh attacks, which claimed 34 lives including seven Americans.
Mr Fleischer said any connection between the bombs in Chechnya and Saudi Arabia would be investigated. He said there are known to be "links and ties" between terrorists.
Russian investigators have argued that the bombing on Monday bears some of the hallmarks of explosions in 1999 in Russia, and they have linked the latest blasts to Abu Walid, a leading rebel in Chechnya.
Mr Putin said the two attacks "bore the same imprint". Mr Fleischer also dismissed suggestions from some Senate Democrats that the Bush administration had allowed the resurgence of terrorism because its attentions had been diverted by Iraq. Bob Graham, Democratic senator from Florida, and a candidate for the 2004 presidential nomination, said on Tuesday that al Qaeda "has been allowed to regenerate" and carry out a series of attacks. "[This] indicates that they have significant capability to carry out complicated operations in a simultaneous manner," he said.
A female suicide terrorist blew up a bomb in a crowd of people in Chechnya.
Chechen woman Shakhidat Baimuradova, who committed an act of terrorism in the Chechen settlement of Iliskhan-Yurt yesterday, was a member of a group of female suicide bombers. A group of more than 30 women was trained to conduct acts of terrorism in Chechnya, the Interior Ministry of Chechnya announced.
"Baimuradova could be one of 36 suicide bombers that were trained by Chechen commander Shamil Basayev," chairwoman of the Chechen Interior Ministry press service Lilya Tsingiyeva told Interfax news agency. Baimuradova's implication in Basayev's armed group is considered to be one of the seven theories that investigators are working with.
Using women as suicide bombers in crowds is a new method that illegal armed groups use in their subversive activities. They call female suicide bombers "black widows." They are sisters, mothers or wives of Chechen men that have been killed in battles with federal troops.
On the threshold of the most massive religious holiday in the Gudermes region of Chechnya, Baimuradova pretended to be a journalist. She blew up a bomb in a crowd of people in the immediate proximity of head of the Chechen administration Akhmad Kadyrov. NTV reported that the bomb was hidden in a video camera. As a result of the act of terrorism, 26 people were killed, about 150 were wounded.
"Black widows" choose to die as a bomber in order to show the strength of the resistance. They can wear kamikaze bomb-belts, or drive a truck that is full of explosives. Separatists praise such actions. The hostage crisis in the Moscow theater took place in the same basic way: bombs were entrusted to "black widows" dressed like ninjas.
Chechen guerillas are inspired with the image of Khava Barayeva - she was the first to walk the way of martyrdom. Chechen rebels portray her as a hero, and they write poems and songs about her.
The leaders of the Chechen separatists also use the propaganda experience of other Islamic groups that have their websites on the Internet. A proclamation, which is most likely copied from a text that was written in the Middle East, became a very popular method to use among Chechens. The document runs in particular that it is a "sisters' duty" to help Mujahideen even on the battlefield.
Until recently, the leadership of the movement believed that the situation did not require women's participation in military actions. However, things changed on account of losses and the ideological influence of Islamic volunteers. Dozens of terrorists headed for Chechnya from Europe and Northern Africa, willing to help Chechen gunmen.
During military campaigns, female guerrillas used to render medical aid, basically. Chechen women were supposed to give food and water to their brothers; they also carried weapons and ammunition across the enemy's territory. Women played an important role in maintaining the guerrillas' morale during fierce battles. The leaders of the Chechen rebels think that women play a relevant role when they raise children. They are supposed to form their character, and make them strong so that they can become Mujahideen. Chechen rebels think that it is good to tell their children stories of martyrs. They teach children to save their hatred for Allah's enemies and unbelievers.
The Chechen sisters have a special mission. Until recently, Al-Qaeda used women for fulfilling tasks in the rear. Hamas, another Islamic group, refused to use female suicide bombers. Only non-religious groups like the Al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade used this practice in their activities, persuading a lot of women to wear bomber-belts.
Incidentally, the practice first appeared when a girl blew herself up by mistake. However, the idea to use women was developed after the reaction that followed the accident.
A document that is meant for female terrorists proudly runs: "Women's courage is a disgrace to a lot of modern -men.-"
Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev said Monday that his men were responsible for last week's suicide bombings in Chechnya, while separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov distanced himself from the violence.
The attacks last Monday and Wednesday killed at least 77 people, mostly civilians.
"By the grace of Allah, mujahedin fighters from our suicide ... brigade carried out two successful operations against the Russian occupiers and their local lackeys," Basayev said in a statement published by the Kavkaz Tsentr rebel web site.
Basayev said the attacks were "a tiny part" of a new campaign against what the Kremlin calls its "anti-terrorist operation" in Chechnya.
"And, God willing, this whirlwind will rage everywhere," he said.
Maskhadov, in response to questions submitted by Reuters, said he would never have sent his men to kill innocent people or Chechens working for the local pro-Moscow administration.
"I am totally convinced that those who kill Chechnya's civilians operate under the umbrella of Russian special forces with the aim of discrediting Chechen resistance fighters," he said.
Maskhadov said his fighters were gearing up for a "summer campaign" to "clear our land of the occupiers."
Deputy Prosecutor Sergei Fridinsky said Monday that investigators suspected three women had taken part in the suicide bombing at a religious ceremony Wednesday, and that attack and a truck bombing two days earlier may have been planned by the same people.
Fridinsky said a "pretty big sum of money" had been sent from abroad to carry out terrorist acts in Chechnya.
The militants were coming from abroad as well, he said. "There currently is a group of up to 700 people who periodically conduct military activity and travel from Chechnya to the Pankisi Gorge in Georgia and back again," Fridinsky said.
Russian-Georgian relations have long been strained over the rebel presence in the gorge and Georgia's rejection of Moscow's demands to let its troops flush the rebels out. Georgia launched an operation last summer to search the gorge for suspected militants, but Moscow called the operation largely useless.
Tensions faded after President Vladimir Putin and Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze agreed last fall on some joint measures to improve security on the border, and after Georgia extradited several suspected rebels whom it had detained.
However, Georgia's Supreme Court ruled on Friday that three alleged Chechen rebels should not be extradited to Russia and said they should stand trial in Georgia instead.
Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov accused Georgia of reneging on a high-level agreement to extradite suspected rebels to Russia.
"I see the Georgian side's latest judicial decision not to extradite them as a failure to fulfill the agreement that had been achieved," Ivanov was quoted by Itar-Tass as saying.
Meanwhile, a Chechen regional police chief was killed overnight in a clash with rebels, Itar-Tass and Interfax reported. Shakhid Muguyev, chief of police in the southern Vedeno region, was killed by automatic weapons fire. Muguyev had been on the job only two months, Interfax said.
Army commanders should read the recommendations; they are said to be helpful for waging a war
Development of new training regulations for the Russian armed forces is underway in Russia. Recently, when I made a business trip to the republic of Chechnya, I got a very strange document. It was a letter of a mercenary fighting in Chechnya. The letter was addressed to a general of the Russian Army. Some ideas mentioned in the letter sound dubious, while the author of the letter is perfectly right in most respects. It is sad that experience of military operations is not always taken into consideration, that is why the army still suffers losses. It may happen that meanwhile new training regulations are not adopted yet, this letter will help army commanders avoid more bloodshed in the future. I would like to publish this letter practically without corrections and editing.
Here is the text of the letter written by the mercenary fighting in Chechnya.
Comrade General, this is a former, so to say, terrorist writing to you. But first of all, I am a former Soviet Army senior sergeant. As I learnt later, my fellow soldiers had abandoned me on the battle field just few weeks before withdrawal of the Soviet troops from Afghanistan. I had several fractures of ribs, arms and legs. At the age of 27 I turned into a grey-haired Moslem. A Khazar man, who used to live in the USSR and spoke the Russian language a bit, gave me shelter; he restored me to health. When I already could understand the Pushtoo language, I learnt that the war was over, the USSR broke-up and so on.
Very soon I became a member of the man's family, but for a rather short period, unfortunately. When Nadjib (that was the name of the man who cared about me) died, the situation radically changed. First, my father-in-law didn't get back home from a trip to Pakistan. By that very time we had moved from the outskirts of Kandahar to Kunduz. When I once got back home late at night, a boy living next door told me that some people had asked about me and wanted to find me. In two days, Talibs seized me as well. This is how I became a mercenary "on my own free will."
During the first war in Chechnya, such Arabs and Chechens like me were trained for a jihad in the Chechen republic. The training was held in special camps near Mazar-i-Sharif, then we were moved to the outskirts of Kandahar. There were Ukrainians, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Jordanians and people of other nationalities among the trainees. When the training was over, NATO instructors gave the last instructions. Then we were sent to Turkey where camps for recreation and treatment of mercenaries meant for participation in the Chechen campaign were situated. I heard that highly-qualified doctors in those camps were former Soviet citizens as well.
We crossed the state frontier in railway cars; we crossed the whole territory of Georgia nonstop. We got passports of Russian Federation citizens. In Georgia, we were treated like heroes. At that very period, the first Chechen war was over.
But the training still continued; we started combat training meant especially for mountainous regions. Then we delivered weapons to Chechnya; the transportation was done via the territory of Azerbaijan, Dagestan, the Argun Gorge, the Pankissi Gorge and Ingushetia.
Being still in Georgia, I was appointed assistant to a field commander. As the second war broke out in Chechnya, our group was first sent to a region near Gudermes and then we entered the Chechen city of Shali. Majority of the gang were locals, they were paid for each fight and got back home. So, when the Russian army was searching for Chechen terrorists, many of them were sitting at home as ordinary citizens. With money paid for fighting they bought tinned stewed meat from men serving in rear. It even happened so that these Chechen terrorists under the guise of ordinary citizens managed to buy ammunition with this money, they explained they needed weapons "to protect themselves from guerrillas."
I participated in fighting, but never killed people; mostly my job was to remove wounded and killed soldiers away from the battlefield. We were pursued after one fighting; in the turmoil I killed an Arab cashier and left for Shamilka early in the morning. I paid $250 to be transported to Kazakhstan, then moved to Bishkek. I said I was a refugee. When I earned some money and got used to the place, I left for Alma-Ata. I knew that some of my fellow soldiers lived there and planned to find them. I even met veterans of the Afghan war and the people helped me very much.
I would like to touch upon the military tactics of both belligerents. Bandits know the Soviet army tactics perfectly well, even that one employed in the 1950s. NATO analysts studied it thoroughly, generalized the information and gave us instructions concerning the tactics already when we were trained in the camps. They openly declared that "Russians take no account of these problems", but they should take them into consideration, indeed.
Terrorists also know that the Russian army is not ready for fighting at night; neither officers nor soldiers are trained to wage a war at night. The army is not equipped for performance of operations at night. During the first Chechen war, up to 200-300 bandits saw how the Russian army units looked from inside; the people know that there are no ground reconnaissance radars in the Russian army, no night vision equipment and noiseless fire devices. Being perfectly aware of the inability of Russians to fight at night, terrorists prefer to prepare and carry out their operations at night when Russian soldiers are asleep. In the daytime, Chechens risk to carry out only well-prepared sallies that are sure to be a success. Mostly, terrorists spend their daytime having rests; women and children collect information, these are people whose husbands, brother, sons and fathers have already fallen victims of the war. Children are actively indoctrinated, after which they are even ready for self-sacrificing and jihad.
Why are losses of the Russian army so great in Chechnya? My advice to army commanders is that it is not a right way to transport soldiers in lorries covered with awning. It is necessary to transport soldiers in open lorries so that people could see the area of hostilities, they must face the enemy. Benches where soldiers sit must be placed in the center of the lorry, soldiers must sit facing the boards at that. The arms must be held in readiness. The placement of soldiers in military lorries practiced now is rather advantageous for Chechen terrorists. They employ tactics of an ambush; terrorists take up positions in two echelons. The first echelon opens fire first; the second one consists of sharpshooters. They first try to kill soldiers sitting near the board to block the ways out so that the rest of the group couldn't escape. If some still make attempts to get out from under the awning, the first echelon finishes them off. Soldiers sitting in the lorry cannot see anything because of the awning and consequently, they cannot return the fire. This is how terrorists prefer to liquidate Russian soldiers. Terrorists in the first echelon invented a technique of their own: they fire one after another, while one man is firing, another is re-loading weapons. This produces an effect of a numerous bandit group. Each echelon also has special soldiers who follow the fighting and remove wounded and killed from the battlefield.
As for taking hostages and captives, terrorists also have instructions of their own. The instruction says that bandits should keep an eye on "a wet chicken", which means that it is convenient to take hostages and captives in marketplaces: these crowded places make the task of taking hostages easier. That is how people were taken captives in Afghanistan.
Another recommendation of mine is that as soon as the Russian army finishes mopping up in some area, it must immediately hold a population census in that place. It is necessary to register all people in each house in every Chechen village. At the same time, all information obtained in the population census must be compared with official documents remaining in the regional administrations. The lists of villagers must be given to police so that officers could go about the houses and check the presence of all people previously registered. If some people registered during the population census are not available right at the moment of the check, it means that all of them belong to an armed gang. Special control must be established over these people. Similarly, when some new people come to the place, it is also important to find out where they come from and search their houses for weapons.
My last recommendation for effective fighting with Chechen armed groups is that the Russian army shouldn't scatter gangs. I would like to give an example here. My gang was given an order to immediately liquidate a column. However, informers reported wrong facts( the observer had information about departure of first machines, he reported the information and left; others were probably delayed). A Russian battalion smashed the gang up and won. The wounded were then treated and came back to service a bit later. In a month all of them were ready to fight again. This is the reason why field commanders manage to remain alive for a long time.
With respect, Akhmaid
And one more thing: to be a success with catching Chechen terrorist leaders, first find their wives. They may prove helpful.
Rappani Khalilov, perhaps the most notorious Dagestani-born warlord, has been killed during fighting with federal troops in Chechnya, Interfax reported Tuesday, citing a source close to Khalilov's family.
"They have learned from Chechnya that Khalilov died while fighting federal forces," the source was quoted as saying.
The military and the Dagestani Interior Ministry would not confirm the death Tuesday.
Khalilov is on a national wanted list for allegedly organizing attacks in Dagestan that killed more than 50 people. Perhaps the best known of those attacks was an explosion at a Victory Day parade in Kaspiisk last year that killed 45 people and wounded 170.
Khalilov's father, Abdullah, disowned him after the blast, saying he would burn his son alive if he ever caught him.
An alleged accomplice of Khalilov went on trial in January for the blast. Several Russian servicemen accused of selling the mine used in the attack are also being tried.
Khalilov also was behind the bombing of an army truck that killed more than a dozen soldiers in the Dagestani capital of Makhachkala in January, Dagestani Interior Ministry spokesman Mark Tolchinsky said.
"I would not call him the most odious, but he is indeed a most vile person," he said in a telephone interview.
Seven members of Khalilov's group were convicted in January of carrying out 13 attacks in the North Caucasus.
Meanwhile, the State Duma is to vote Wednesday on a Kremlin-backed amnesty for Chechen rebels who have not committed any grave crimes. The amnesty would apply to those who lay down their arms by August.
n Chechnya's chief prosecutor, Vladimir Kravchenko, denied Tuesday that there had been a new attempt on the life of the republic's pro-Moscow leader, Akhmad Kadyrov.
Kadyrov said Tuesday that one of his bodyguards was wounded overnight when his entourage came under fire near the Chechen village of Tsotsyn-Yurt.
Kravchenko said the shots were not directed at Kadyrov but from a shootout between rebels and federal troops.
A year after a terrorist attack claimed 45 lives at a Victory Day parade in Kaspiisk, the alleged mastermind of that vicious attack, Rappani Khalilov, has been killed in Chechnya. In his short life – he was only 33 – he had made plenty of enemies. His own father disowned him after the Kaspiisk tragedy and said he would burn his son alive should they ever meet again. The FSB had also promised to apprehend him in the near future.
The powerful blast that ripped through the Victory Day parade in the Dagestani town of Kaspiisk on May 9, 2002 killed 45 people, mostly military musicians and local children. 170 more were wounded. In the year that passed since the blast six Wahabbi followers (radical Islamists), suspected of being implicated in that crime were detained. However, Rappani Khalilov, who was believed to be the key mastermind of the attack, remained at large. According to some reports, he had been hiding in the Chechen highlands.
On Monday Khalilov’s relatives learned that Khalilov was dead. ''They were told by someone from Chechnya that Khalilov had been killed in a clash with federal sources,'' an informed source in Makhachkala told Interfax.
Authorities, however, refrained from disclosing any further details. ''So far, [there’s] no comment,'' a spokesman for the Federal Security Service in Moscow said on Tuesday. The regional operative headquarters directing the counter-terrorist operation in the Northern Caucasus has neither confirmed nor denied the report. The official theory is that Khalilov’s name is still on the federal and international wanted lists and his fate is unknown.
The latest official information concerning Rappani Khalilov came on April 28. In those reports he was still alive, and the FSB claimed he would be detained soon. After the discovery in a village in Nozhai-Yurt district of about half a ton of explosives packed in sacks, resembling those that were used by terrorists to blow up two apartment blocks in Moscow in 1999, the FSB directorate for the Northern Caucasus said it had learnt that Rappani Khalilov was preparing a new terror attack.
FSB officials alleged that Khalilov intended to stage the attack during the May holidays, and to carry it out in a crowded place causing numerous victims. ''In the nearest future we will come across the tracks of the organizer and detain him,'' the FSB said. The cache had been guarded by two rebels who were killed before they could shed any light on the whereabouts of their commander.
Gazeta.Ru has written a lot previously about Rappani Khalilov. Born in 1969 in the Dagestani town of Buinaksk, he grew up to become one of the most ruthless and unscrupulous Caucasian warlords. In his youth he served in the border troops on the border with Mongolia. After military service he returned home and started his own small bakery business. At the same time, the young man turned to drink, which he eventually gave up after marrying a sister of Khattab’s wife. [Khattab, an Arab national, played an active role in the Chechen resistance, but killed in early 2002, reportedly poisoned by Russian security agents].
Both women lived in the village of Karamakhi, from where Wahabbi followers in 1999 began their advance on Dagestan. Khalilov took an active part in that campaign led by Khattab and Shamil Basayev, and together with their units he retreated to the territory of Chechnya afterwards. Khalilov’s 100-strong unit then settled in the Nozhai-Yurt highlands, where they trained. Fellow Arab fighters nicknamed him Rabbani.
In March 2001 Khalilov sent his first trainees home, to Dagestan, whereupon a wave of terror attacks erupted through the small Caucasian province. The bloodiest attack before Kaspiisk was the explosion of a ZiL truck in January 2002, which was carrying Interior Troops to their base. 7 soldiers were killed as the truck hit a remote-controlled land mine.
After that tragedy about two dozen of Khalilov’s trainees were arrested, but this did not foil the plans of the others, and on May 9 last year a powerful explosion by a group of rebels sent from Chechnya rocked Kaspiisk.
So far, only 5 members of that group have been arrested, while according to some reports, the group was at least 20-strong. The investigation into the blast is continuing. Khalilov’s trainees, detained before the Kaspiisk blast, went on trial in January this year. Their supervisor Zaur Akavov was sentenced to life in prison; the others were handed lengthy prison terms, ranging from 7 to 22 years.
And yet, the Russian security forces failed to apprehend the key suspect. The Dagestani authorities asked the federals to allow their republican police to carry out a raid on Nozhai-Yurt on their own, but they were denied permission.
If Khalilov has indeed been found and shot dead, it will be good news for the Dagestani prosecutor’s office and the people of Dagestan. Without Khalilov’s elimination, the federals could have arrested alleged saboteurs endlessly – the Dagestani authorities admit that many residents of the republic support the Wahabbis.
Khalilov’s father, however, is not one of them. After the blast in Kaspiisk Abdullah Khalilov publicly disowned his son. ''Rappani, I am your worst foe,'' he said, talking to the press. ''If you are ever caught, I will burn you alive. I can no longer call you my son.''
He added that all his relatives shared that view; therefore, it is unlikely that they were distressed on Tuesday to hear of Rappani’s death. The circumstances in which Khalilov could have been killed remain a mystery, just like the case of his brother-in-law Khattab.
Some time ago the federal headquarters in Grozny reported that a large rebel group was attacked in the Nozhai-Yurt highlands. In such cases the rebels usually try to bury their comrades before their bodies are retrieved by the federals to be used as evidence afterwards. Incidentally, Khattab’s grave was never found.
As for Rappani Khalilov, his relatives learnt of his death through the Chechen ‘telegraph’ – rumours – which remains the most reliable source of information in Chechnya today.
21 ÌÀß 14:36
This message has been edited by TsarSamuil from IP address 212.181.9.227 on May 21, 2003 4:43 PM
Head of Chechen criminal group detained in Ingushetia.
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May 22 2003, 10:25 AM
12:34 2003-05-22
Head of Chechen criminal group detained in Ingushetia.
The Russian Interior Ministry's North-Caucasian operative department in Ingushetia /a republic in the North Caucasus/ has detained the head of a Chechen criminal group.
The detainee, whose name is kept secret in the interests of the investigation, is 23. Among separatists he is also known as Spaniard. During the detention he had an ID of a Musa Mezhiev.
The Spaniard's accomplices were acting near the Alkhan-Yurt village. Investigators believe the band is guilty of killing two civilians from the village as well as blowing up two cars belonging to federal forces, which killed 5 and wounded 3 military men.
Three abducted, two disappear in Chechnya on Thursday.
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May 23 2003, 9:53 AM
Three abducted, two disappear in Chechnya on Thursday.
Interfax. Friday, May. 23, 2003, 12:27 PM Moscow Time
GROZNY. May 23 (Interfax-South) - Three people were abducted and two, in particular a schoolboy, disappeared in Chechnya on Thursday.
Local government sources told Interfax that gunmen entered the apartment of Magomet Dzhalatkhanov in Grozny's Oktyabrsky district and forcibly took him away last night.
On Grozny's Lenin Street, gunmen posing as police officers abducted Ramzan Izhayev, a laboratory worker at the local Pedagogical Institute.
Musa Moltygov was abducted in the village of Novyi Sharoi. Third grade student Dzhabrail Bashtarov has not been seen since he left for school.
Luiza Amayeva, a teenager, disappeared in Grozny district.
Maria Bondarenko
Nezavisimaya Gazeta
05/26/2003 17:33
Chechnya-based Cossacks complain of being ignored.
The genocide of Russian people in Chechnya has been lasting for more than ten years already. Over 300,000 Russians have been ousted from the Chechen republic since 1990. The mourning list includes hundreds of people, thousands of rapes and robberies. However, the Russian government has not passed a law that would develop a mechanism to protect Russian people.
According to the official information from the Russian Ministry for National Affairs, more than 21,000 Russian people have been killed in Chechnya since 1991, not to mention Russian servicemen that have been killed during the two Chechen wars. Furthermore, more than 100,000 apartments and houses (owned by the people of non-Chechen nationalities) have been seized, more than 46,000 people have been virtually turned to slaves. No one will ever know how many Russians died in basements and pits, waiting for to be rescued. Russian military men often find hundreds of Russian passports when they liberate Chechen settlements.
Cossack ataman Nikolay Lozhkin (40 years old) was kidnapped and then brutally killed in the beginning of the current year in the Chechen settlement of Ischerskaya. Lozhkin has become the eighth ataman, who has been killed by Chechen bandits over recent years. Nikolay Lozhkin was deputy chairman of the local administration. His death caused an outburst of indignation among the Russian part of the Chechen population. Russian people have recently held a meeting near the ataman's grave. "We are tired of looking for any gratitude in the Kremlin's policy for mutilated lives, seized houses and stolen property," the statement from Chechnya-based Russian Cossacks runs. The statement has been sent to President Putin and to presidential envoy in the southern administrative district, Viktor Kazantsev.
Vasily Bondarev, the ataman of the Tersky Cossack unit in Chechnya believes that no one cares for Russians either in the federal center or in the Chechen government. Russian people continue leaving native Cossack lands in Chechnya, and the attitude to Cossacks remains scornful.
The Tersky Cossack district was formed in Chechnya more than a year ago. The district was meant to unite Chechnya-based Cossacks, although it had not been registered by the head of the Chechen administration. About 17,000 Russian people have stayed in Naursky and Shelkovskoy districts of Chechnya. "We have heard of the federal program to help people return to their homes, although we do not see that this program is being implemented. This might lead of the total ousting of Russians from native Cossack towns," ataman Cherkashin said.
Cossacks have been writing letters, complaints and statements to Moscow since 1995, but the government has not responded yet. Russians make up two percent of the population in Chechnya's Cossack lands, although the Cossack population in those areas used to reach 70 percent. The massive migration of the Chechen population from mountains to plains makes Russians leave their homes.
About two years ago presidential envoy Viktor Kazantsev said that he would like Cossacks to take an active part in the restoration of peaceful life in Chechnya. Atamans are ready to start, but they have no funds or support for it. Cossacks do not ask Viktor Kazantsev for help anymore, now they insist on a meeting with the president of Russia.
Nikolay Lozhkin's family decided to leave Chechnya for good. Cossacks of the Tersky district helped them buy a house in a settlement of the Stavropol region of Russia. That was all they could do for their killed ataman.
Re: Photos support Basayev's part in Grozny blast.
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June 3 2003, 11:43 AM
Kadyrov offers reward for Maskhadov's head.
Gazeta.Ru
Artyom Vernidoub
The head of the pro-Moscow Chechen administration Akhmad Kadyrov has promised a huge reward for any information revealing the whereabouts of the fugitive separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov. Kadyrov’s office would not disclose who exactly will provide the bounty, but Gazeta.Ru has learned that it won’t come from influential Moscow-based Chechen entrepreneurs.
The head of the Chechen administration announced his decision to pay a reward for information about the whereabouts of Maskhadov at a meeting with local administration leaders held in Gudermes on Saturday.
Kadyrov asked district officials to convey his announcement to all the residents of Chechnya. At the same time, the Chechen chief emphasized that the information must be provided to him personally, evidently, hinting at earlier information leaks that have prevented the separatist leader from being caught before now.
How much exactly Kadyrov is ready to pay he would not specify. His aides said that ''the reward will be sufficient for the children and grandchildren'' of those who shed any light on Maskhadov’s location.
Kadyrov did not say either where exactly he will get such a large amount of money. That is why the State Duma deputy for Chechnya Aslambek Aslakhanov in a live interview for Ekho Moskvy radio station demanded to know whether the republican budget would still have funds for the restoration of the region, after the reward is paid. At the same time, the deputy welcomed Kadyrov’s initiative in principle.
It was also welcomed by the Federal Minister for Chechen Affairs, Stanislav Ilyasov, but he assured those concerned that potential informers would not get a single kopeck from the budget means. ''I do not know where Kadyrov will take the money from, but it won’t be from the budget, that’s for sure. The budget of Chechnya has long been allocated, and there is no such provision to catch Maskhadov and to pay…for that,'' Minister Ilyasov said.
There have been conflicting rumours regarding the size of Kadyrov’s personal wealth. Of course, if an ordinary Chechen turns in Maskhadov, Kadyrov will be able to retrieve enough from his family budget to ensure prosperity for the informer and his children.
Kadyrov likes to reiterate that Maskhadov only has about three-dozen loyal men left by his side. However, it is hard to imagine that his security system can be destroyed by one ordinary Chechen. Judging by the mysterious story of Khattab’s poisoning, the federal security forces can only use people that the rebels trust. It is rumoured that the dead body of the radical Arabian Islamist Khattab, was found at a dump in Baku, and the other participants of the special operation died after being exposed to the poisonous substance used to eliminate him.
The operation to apprehend Maskhadov, too, will require many intermediaries, meaning the reward will have to be very large. Influential Chechen businessmen could provide that kind of money, but as Gazeta.Ru has learned, those businessmen do not appear very eager to get involved in the venture.
''This has nothing to do with me,'' president of the Plaza Group Umar Djabrailov, a Moscow-based Chechen businessman who ran for the Russian presidency in 2000, told Gazeta.Ru. ''That is why I am not going to comment on that [Kadyrov’s offer]. My proposal is different. Nowadays one can give money to the children and send them to plant a mine. This happens because children have nothing to do, but I will be opening computer classes under the slogan ‘Computers instead of Kalashnikovs’.''
The owner of the Russkoye Loto lottery Malik Saidullayev also refuses to donate his money. Earlier Mr. Saidullayev told Gazeta.Ru he would rather take charge of the commission for the protection of persons, to be released from custody under the new Chechen amnesty act.
An idea similar to Kadyrov’s latest initiative was first announced on April 23 by Akhmar Zavgayev, a member of the Federation Council, who urged rich Chechens to donate money to a fund that would be used to pay rewards to rebels who agree to turn in their commanders.
''When a reward is offered for information about a crime, 99 per cent of them [crimes] are solved,'' Zavgayev explained to Gazeta.Ru. ''The fund has not so far decided on the amounts of money it intends to pay for information on the bandits' whereabouts, but for information on bandits like Basayev or Maskhadov it intends to pay a significant sum. It is a question of hundreds of thousands of [US] dollars,'' Zavgayev said.
However, the likes of Malik Saidullayev, Umar Dzhabrailov, or Musa Bazhayev have not expressed a willingness to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars, playing down Kadyrov’s initiative as political populism.
It is also worth noting that Akhmad Kadyrov is ready to spend money only on Aslan Maskhadov, and not on Shamil Basayev, Maskhadov’s ally, an extremist rebel who has claimed responsibility for several of the bloodiest terror attacks of late. That can probably be explained by the personal enmity between the two leaders. Maskhadov condemned Kadyrov as a traitor after the former Mufti took Moscow’s side in 1999; Kadyrov would not even hear of talks with Maskhadov, although at the same time he does not reject contacts with other field commanders.
Kadyrov blames Maskhadov for every large terror attack, including the latest blasts in the villages of Znamenskoye and Iliskhan-Yurt, which claimed the lives of over 50 people, mostly Chechen civilians. In the latter case a female suicide bomber with explosives strapped to her body targeted Kadyrov himself, giving the top Chechen official even more reason to offer a reward for the one who attempted to murder him.
Commenting on Zavgayev’s initiative in April another Federation Council member, Isa Kostoyev, told Gazeta.Ru of an old North Caucasian tradition of paying for the source of information about one’s enemy. ''From olden times in the Caucasus, when there was still no OMON [elite police], no prosecutors and no judges, a person who had suffered from a crime would go to a market place, get up on a cart, introduce himself and say: ‘My kin has been murdered…or my cow stolen, I believe myself insulted and guarantee that under no circumstances will I disclose my source of information if someone tells me who has committed the crime.’ And then he would fix a price he was ready to pay for the data,'' Kostoyev said.
Three years ago the then-commander of the federal forces grouping in Chechnya, General Gennady Troshev, too, endeavored to make use of that tradition, promising as much as $1 million for Basayev’s head. But even such a generous promise produced no effect. The rebels did not turn in Basayaev, and it is highly unlikely they will ever turn in Maskhadov.
To prove that, on Sunday Aslan Maskhadov forwarded to Reuters a record of his own statement, in which the separatist leader said that his guerrilla forces would mount a summer campaign against Russian troops. In written remarks obtained by the agency Maskhadov said his forces had a range of operations planned, and listed a series of successful actions against troops. ''For this summer and autumn we have a lot prepared,'' he said. ''I do not think that the enemy will be able to remain, because the guerrillas are very determined.''
Re: Photos support Basayev's part in Grozny blast.
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June 5 2003, 12:10 PM
SEPARATIST LEADER MASKHADOV'S ARCHIVES FOUND IN CHECHNYA.
infocentre.ru
Russian federal forces have found an archive belonging to Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov in the village of Makhkety of the Vedeno district, spokesman for the regional staff for the antiterrorist operation in the North Caucasus Colonel Ilya Shabalkin told Interfax on Tuesday.
He said this is the largest of Maskhadov's archives found since the anti-guerilla campaign in Chechnya was launched.
The documents were found in the basement of a house belonging to a Makhkety resident, Shabalkin said.
The analysis of the papers contained in the cache gives grounds to assume that Maskhadov had large amounts of money denominated in foreign currency at his disposal in 1999, Shabalkin said. Finances allotted at that time from the Russian budget for healthcare programs, pensions, children's allowances and other social purposes did not reach those to whom they were transferred but got into the hands of Maskhadov and other dishonest Chechen leaders, he said.
All cases when large sums of money were provided to field commanders were registered in receipts, Shabalkin said. The matter involves hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars which did not reach ordinary rebels, he said.
According to the documents, prominent warlord Shamil Basayev received USD700,000 from Maskhadov on July 3, 1999. Shabalkin noted that this sheds some light on who might have been the real organizers behind the attack by gangs led by Basayev and Khattab on Dagestan and how this affair might have been financed.
Shabalkin also said Makshadov attached particular significance to organizing an information war against the federal forces and the Russian leadership. To this end, a detailed plan of action was drawn up under the code-name Lift, which entailed financing political figures and Western journalists. In particular, it envisioned the establishment of an official news agency called Chechenvoyenpress along with a telecommunications network and printed publications designed to distribute misinformation to benefit warlords in Russia and abroad, Shabalkin said.
The plan not only fully and clearly sets out the objectives and goals of an information war, Shabalkin said, but also shows how easily Lift's authors would appeal to the UN, OSCE and other international organizations and use world information resources.
In the spokesman's view, this task was obviously too difficult to accomplish for either Maskhadov, Basayev or prominent Chechen ideologist Movladi Udugov, which gives grounds to assume that the illegal armed formations in Chechnya were supported by special services from countries seeking to benefit from the escalation of tensions in the North Caucasus. To support his point, he also referred to the presence of foreign instructors and mercenaries in Chechen guerilla camps, the operation of Chechen information centers in various countries in Europe, Asia and America, and the fact that certain countries have given shelter to prominent Chechen separatist figures, such as Udugov, Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev and Akhmed Zakayev.
A powerful explosion has torn through a bus carrying a group of Russian air force officials and civilian experts, killing at least 15. The blast occurred on the road from Mozdok to a military base some 6 km away. The Defence Ministry said the explosion was caused by a female suicide bomber who approached the bus as it slowed down at a railway crossing and blew herself up.
The explosion occurred at around 0730 on Thursday morning in North Ossetia, an internal republic bordering Chechnya. The LAZ bus, carrying Russian air force officials and technical staff from the Mozdok air base, was heading from a city hostel to a military base, situated some 6 kilometres away. North Ossetia’s Interior Ministry’s press-service has told Gazeta.Ru that the attack occurred between Mozdok and the Prokhladny aerodrome.
The military have said the attack was perpetrated by a female suicide-bomber. ''The bus carrying the military was blown up by a terrorist – a female suicide bomber,'' the air force’s chief spokesman Alexander Drobyshevsky told Interfax.
Initially, it was unclear where the woman was when she detonated the bomb – inside the bus or nearby. The military said the explosion occurred as the bus was going over a railway level crossing. When the driver slowed down at the crossing, the woman could have approached the bus and detonated the explosive device.
However, North Ossetian Interior Ministry officials presented a different story of the terrorist trying to hitch a lift on the road leading to Prokhladny. The bus that was carrying the military staff to the heavily guarded air force installation stopped to pick her up. As soon as she boarded, the woman blew herself up, Interior Ministry officials told Gazeta.Ru.
Reports of the death toll also differ according to the source. According to the Defence Ministry’s Colonel Drobyshevsky, ''Out of the 27 people who were on board, 14 were killed, including 7 military servicemen – pilots and technical staff, and 7 civilians, who worked at the Mozdok air base.''
The Emergencies Ministry said the blast claimed the lives of at least 15 people, including 5 pilots and two civilian experts at the air base; the identities of 8 other victims are yet to be established. 5 people were killed immediately, the others died in hospital. The republican Interior Ministry said that there was only one air force officer on the bus.
Thursday’s attack is one of the few cases when Chechen rebels have successfully carried out an attack against the Russian military beyond the borders of the Chechen Republic. Being aware of the rebels’ hatred towards the pilots who regularly go on combat missions over Chechnya, the federal forces guard their North Caucasian air bases especially heavily.
The attack was probably intended to confirm Aslan Maskhadov’s promise to step up resistance, which he made earlier this week. On Sunday Aslan Maskhadov forwarded to Reuters a statement in which the separatist leader said that his guerrilla forces would mount a summer campaign against Russian troops. In written remarks obtained by the agency Maskhadov said his forces had a range of operations planned, and listed a series of successful actions against troops. ''For this summer and autumn we have a lot prepared,'' he said. ''I do not think that the enemy will be able to remain, because the guerrillas are very determined.''
05 ÈÞÍß 14:47
This message has been edited by TsarSamuil from IP address 212.181.9.227 on Jun 5, 2003 1:03 PM
Further documentary footage filmed by the killers themselves – picture 1. This is how these non-men dealt with those who got into their hands. According to Russia’s Interior Ministry, a total of 1,815 people were kidnapped in Chechnya between 1992 and 2000. Leaders of the groups that specialize in taking hostages are, above all, field commanders Basayev, Khattab, Barayev, Umarov, Bakuev and Akhmadov brothers.
Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov is ready to negotiate and has agreed to pursue a compromise on the Chechen conflict, according to his Moscow envoy Salambek Maigov. The reply from Professor Edi Isayev, a representative of the pro-Kremlin Chechen authorities in Moscow, was: ''Too late. There will be no talks now.''
''Maskhadov is prepared to have talks without any preliminary conditions,'' his Moscow representative Salambek Maigov told Interfax on Tuesday. Maigov noted that the Chechen leader was sending a clear message that he welcomes a compromise solution. ''I have held a number of conversations with Maskhadov, and can conclude from them that plans for Chechnya's separation are out of the question now. He is in favour of a compromise option,'' Maigov said.
The envoy would not elaborate on the essence of Maskhadov’s peace plan, recalling only that the Chechen separatist leader has repeatedly stressed that he considers a peace plan developed in Liechtenstein a viable option. The so-called Liechtenstein Plan emerged last year, at a meeting held in the small European princedom under the auspices of the American Committee for Peace. Akhmed Zakayev, Maskhadov’s aide, took part in the event. The plan offers Chechnya broad autonomy inside Russia.
''Maskhadov has repeatedly stressed the peace plan developed in Liechtenstein as a viable option. The plan grants Chechnya international autonomy inside Russia. In this case, the republic's autonomy would be guaranteed by the international community - the UN or the United States,'' Maigov told Interfax.
It is noteworthy, however, that this is not the first time that Maskhadov has declared his preparedness to talk. For instance, last year he addressed Vladimir Putin in an open letter urging him to stop military operations in Chechnya and to resume a dialogue.
In response, Putin’s aide Sergei Yastrzhembsky said that federal authorities were ready to talk with Maskhadov’s representatives. ''Nothing prevents Akhmed Zakayev from getting in contact with the presidential envoy to the Southern Federal District Viktor Kazantsev. There is no need to force an open door,'' Yastrzhembsky said then.
''He was offered talks. He refused. Now there will be no talks,'' a representative of the pro-Moscow Chechen administration in the capital, Professor Edi Isayev, told Gazeta.Ru after the Chechen leader’s latest statement.
''Who is he going to seek an agreement with? Putin? Kadyrov? Let him explain,'' Isayev stated. The official believes that there is only one option left for Maskhadov. ''He must lay down his arms and publicly apologize to the Chechen people. After that his fate will be decided in court.''
Isayev added that talks with Maskhadov are also out of the question due to the fact the mechanism of a peaceful settlement in the republic has already been put in motion. The Chechen people welcomed Putin’s address, a referendum has been held, the new republican constitution adopted, the amnesty act passed, and at the end of this year Chechen voters are to elect a new president and parliament, Isayev said.
As regards the plans of granting broad autonomy status to Chechnya and signing a power sharing agreement between the federal centre and the republic, Isayev recalled that Vladimir Putin spoke of these things in his state-of-the-nation address to the Federal Assembly. In Isayev’s opinion, this is already ''great progress''.
Therefore, Maskhadov’s readiness for talks and compromise is no longer of any use to the new Chechen authorities or to the Kremlin. But what they do need is Maskhadov himself, dead or alive, so that he stops distracting public opinion and the process of normalization in Chechnya.
Several months after the Defence Ministry pledged to withdraw excessive troops from Chechnya the General Staff has ordered the return of an artillery unit. ''This is due to the complex situation in the south of the republic,'' a source in the staff of the combined federal forces grouping in Khankala admitted.
''In early June, in line with the directive of the chief of the General Staff, an artillery battalion of the airborne troops, armed with D-30 howitzers, was withdrawn from Chechnya. However, not long ago the chief of the General Staff cancelled his directive,'' a source in the Defence Ministry told Interfax. ''The artillery battalion of the 7th Airborne Division stationed in Novorossiisk is now urgently preparing to be transferred to Chechnya,'' he said.
According to the same source, the commander of the North-Caucasian military district Vladimir Bulgakov, who succeeded the charismatic General Gennady Troshev, personally asked the chief of the General Staff Anatoly Kvashnin not to withdraw any artillery because of the tensions in Chechnya’s south.
The south is a mountainous area, where separatists still have their strongholds. The most volatile district is Vedeno, the home of one of the most notorious and elusive rebel warlords, Shamil Basayev. Special companies comprised of pro-Moscow Chechens regularly hunt down scattered rebel units throughout the Chechen highlands.
Those companies are manned mostly by fighters loyal to the Yamadayev brothers, one of whom, Djabrail Yamadayev, was killed in spring during a special operation. A bomb had been planted in a house where he was staying for the night.
It is clear that Chechen units do not have any heavy armaments. They ambush rebels, making use of their sources for information. At the same time, Defence Ministry forces – paratroopers and special-purpose units of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) – are also hunting rebel leaders in Vedeno and other southern districts.
The federals carry out intelligence raids trying to avoid open clashes with the rebels and informing artillery and aviation about the whereabouts of rebel hideouts.
The total strength of airborne forces presently stationed in Chechnya is about 2,500. The paratrooper bases lie in the mountainous districts of the Chechen south.
Several weeks ago separatist president Aslan Maskhadov told Reuters news agency that his troops were about to launch a summer offensive. Shamil Basayev also held a gathering somewhere in the Chechen highlands in May – the photo-report was later published on the rebel website Kavkaz-Tsentr (closed by Lithuanian security services last week). On one of the photos the Chechen warlord Ruslan Gelayev is seated next to Basayev. Last year Gelayev’s unit broke through Ingushetia to Chechnya from Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge, a lawless area, which Russia believes is used by Chechen rebels as a refuge.
Kavkaz-Tsentr said that the experienced commander Ruslan Gelayev was entrusted on May 11 with the crucial task of reviving the guerilla war. And on May 12 a bomb-laden truck blew up near the government compound in the village of Znamenskoye, killing over 50 people. That attack was followed by others, in particular, a suicide attack carried out by a young Chechen woman near the Mozdok aerodrome, from where federal aircraft continue to carry out sorties over southern Chechnya.
At the same time, attacks on military convoys have become more frequent lately. In the past weeks the rebels attacked federal convoys several times, though military command reports on such incidents with reluctance. On one occasion, however, the military admitted that in two successive attacks in less than 48 hours a total of 12 troops were killed.
The rebels publish far more terrible figures on their websites. The federal command’s report that the situation in the Chechen south, to put it mildly, remains ‘complex’ and the military therefore need additional artillery units, became the first evidence that the rebels are still strong enough not only to send their women to carry out suicide-attacks on collaborators, like the failed attempt on Akhmad Kadyrov in Iliskhan-Yurt, and on the pilots in North Ossetia, but also to enter into open clashes with the federal troops.
The UN Security Council has added the name of former Chechen president Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev to a list of international terrorists. The decision increases the chances of him being extradited from Qatar, where the separatist ringleader now lives with his family. Russian authorities have charged Yandarbiyev with complicity in last year’s attack on a Moscow theatre.
Yandarbiyev, who held the post of acting president of Chechnya for several years after the death of the first leader of the self-styled Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and before Aslan Maskhadov, was drawn to the attention of the UN Security Council’s committee in charge of investigating the terrorist activities of al-Qaida and the Taliban. By placing Yandarbiyev on the list of al-Qaida members the committee has satisfied a request by the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The news was communicated on Thursday evening by the committee’s chief investigator Michael Chandler. In an interview to Reuters he explained that his colleagues have come to believe in a link between Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network and Chechen separatists.
They seek notoriety through the maximum number of victims, Chandler said reminding journalists of the Nord-Ost hostage crisis.
To detect a link between Mr. Yandarbiyev and the Taliban, there was no need to make a comparison between the 9-11 attack on New York and Washington and the tragic events at the Moscow theatre. The former president of Chechnya has never concealed his ties with the Islamist regime in Afghanistan.
He has visited Afghanistan many times and met Taliban leader Mullah Omar – it cannot be ruled out that the Chechen also met Bin Laden – for talks on establishing diplomatic relations. It is noteworthy, that President Aslan Maskhadov had never authorized Yandarbiyev to hold such talks, and later even ordered his arrest for exceeding his authority.
Owing to Yandarbiyev’s efforts, the Chechen republic of Ichkeria and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan recognized each other’s statehood. The final document to that effect was signed after Russian troops took control of Grozny.
''In January 2000 we signed a treaty on mutual recognition, opened an embassy in Kabul and a consular office in Kandagar,'' Yandarbiyev recounted in an interview. During the second war he was not in Chechnya. Three years ago Yandarbiyev together with his family rented a villa in Doha, the capital of Qatar, where he has since resided openly, without hiding from anyone.
The Qatari authorities have granted Yandarbiyev refugee status without the right to engage in political activities. Since then Yandarbiyev has lived quietly in Doha, and Russian authorities nearly forgot about his existence. On October 9, 2001 he was placed on the international wanted list, however, on charges of complicity in the 1999 incursion into Dagestan.
Things changed in October last year, when Movsar Barayev’s gang seized a musical theatre in Moscow. FSB security agents discerned the voice of Yandarbiyev among those with whom Barayev conversed on the phone from the besieged theatre. He was then charged with complicity in hostage taking.
''This decision obliges UN member states to freeze Yandarbiyev's financial transactions, as well as prevent him from travelling abroad, except for going to the country of which he is a citizen or to a country requiring his extradition for the purpose of criminal proceedings in court,'' official Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko told Interfax on Thursday.
In the months following the Nord-Ost hostage crisis, Russian prosecutors have twice addressed the Qatari government with a request to extradite Yandarbiyev. However, those requests have fallen on deaf ears. With Yandarbiyev’s name added to the list of international terrorists and additional charges brought against him (in earlier extradition requests Russia accused Yandarbiyev of armed mutiny, establishing illegal armed groups and an attempt on the life of law enforcement officers) Moscow hopes that the Qatari authorities will eventually hand over the Chechen.
''If in the near future we receive no official response to our request for the arrest and extradition of Yandarbiyev, we will send yet another request,'' the head of the international law directorate of the Prosecutor General’s Office, Robert Adelkhanyan said in early May.
However, a third request has still not been sent. If Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev returns to Russia, he may become the third defendant in the Nord-Ost case. The first, Zaurbek Talkhigov, was sentenced last week to 8.5 years in prison for complicity in the terrorist attack. During the siege he informed those Chechens inside of the whereabouts of special-purpose troops and armoured vehicles grouping around the building. The second, Aslanbek Khaskhanov, detained in Ingushetia recently, is believed to have masterminded a car bombing near a McDonald’s restaurant in southwestern Moscow several days before the Nord-Ost attack.
Three Chechen men stab three Russian citizens in the metro.
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July 21 2003, 12:37 PM
Massive Fights Hit Moscow.
Pravda.Ru
07/19/2003 17:51
Three Chechen men stab three Russian citizens in the metro.
A fight has recently taken place on the Moscow metro station Kiyevskaya. Three Chechen men stabbed three Russians. According to the information from the Moscow Principal Police Department, the incident happened at 1:25 a.m. on Thursday.
Two 25-year-old young Chechen men and one 28-year-old Chechen man from the Ivanovo region quarreled with three Russian young men (two of them came from Lipetsk and one from Kursk) on the Kiyevskaya metro station. Chechens attacked Russians and stabbed them. The wounded men were hospitalized, police officers arrested the three Chechen criminals, the investigation was started.
Another fight with Caucasian natives took place earlier in the afternoon near the metro station of Cherkizovskaya in the eastern district of Moscow. Two men were killed in the fight. The fight was reported to a police department at 11:20 a.m. When police officers arrived at the site of the incident, they found out that a quarrel had occurred between the men of the Caucasian origin. The quarrel developed into a fight, in which firearms, steel chains and rods were used. About 50 men took part in the fight.
Police officers managed to stop the fight and arrest ten men. Two fighters were taken to the 36th city hospital, where they subsequently deceased. Three cars disappeared from the site of the incident near the Cherkizovskaya metro station. One of them was stopped later on, the driver and the passengers were taken to a police station.
"Ten people have been arrested on the fact of the massive fight in the east of Moscow, including two drivers that were taking people away. For the time being, one may not say that all of the detained men have taken part in the fight. The investigation will find this out," a spokesman for the Moscow Police Department said.
Rescuers comb ruins after blast kills dozens in Mozdok.
Òåêñò: Combined Report
Rescuers with dogs combed the rubble of a Russian military hospital for survivors after a suspected Chechen drove a truck bomb into it, killing at least 35 people, officials said on Saturday. Only part of one wall of the four-storey hospital was left standing and surrounding buildings were gutted. Television footage showed workers passing rubble along human chains, and the exact death toll was uncertain as many were believed buried.
Witnesses said an explosives-packed truck driven by a single man smashed through the hospital gates in the Caucasus town of Mozdok late on Friday, before exploding and bringing most of the building on top of itself. It was the bloodiest Chechen attack since May and the deadliest outside rebel Chechnya itself since October, when rebels took a Moscow theatre hostage and 129 people died when security forces stormed the building.
"At nine o'clock today, we had taken 33 corpses out of the ruins, and another two were on their way to being taken out," Nikolai Lityuk, deputy head of the emergency ministry's southern centre, told Russian television. Mozdok in North Ossetia, which borders Chechnya, is the site of one of Russia's most important military bases in the Caucasus, and President Vladimir Putin demanded an explanation of how rebels managed to enter it.
Deputy General Prosecutor Sergei Fridinsky said the hospital treated many soldiers injured while fighting separatist rebels in Chechnya. "This was a well-prepared and well-planned terrorist act," he told NTV television. "We have to admit... criminals are continuing to exploit weak points in the defences of military bases."
Salambek Maigov, representative in Moscow of separatist Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov, told Reuters Maskhadov had nothing to do with the blast. But he said he could not speak for other groups from the fragmented Chechen guerrilla forces. "It is hard to say who is behind this act... but it is not a commander from the official armed forces of Ichkeria (separatist Chechnya). We have never carried out, and do not carry out such acts," he said.
Maskhadov was elected in 1997 during a period of de facto independence for Chechnya, but chased from power when Russia launched a new crackdown against separatists in 1999.
Russian media said a cargo plane carrying medics and supplies had been dispatched to Mozdok within hours, and authorities were appealing for blood donors to come forward.
Vladimir Putin was informed of the attack forthwith, his press-service said on Friday. The president conveyed his condolences to the relatives of the blast victims and instructed Defence Minister to go to the site of the tragedy. The head of the state took investigation into the attack under his personal control.
Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov was forced to interrupt his vacation and flew to Mozdok on Saturday morning. The minister inspected the fence through which the suicide bomber drove the truck packed with explosives. He also watched the clean-up effort.
Doctors were treating dozens of wounded at remaining hospitals in the area. "We've got 76 (injured) people from the hospital, mainly from the military and the hospital staff," head doctor Vladimir Selivanov told Russian television.
Acting Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov denounced the on the Mozdok military hospital. "I do not know of other such cases of cruelty against the sick, the wounded and medical personnel in the history of world and local wars. Even fascists, despite their brutality and inhuman ideology, carried wounded people from battlefields and provided assistance," Kadyrov told Interfax on Saturday.
Terrorist attacks on such scale cannot be staged without significant financial, moral and psychological assistance from abroad. "Diplomatic language in relation to probable sponsors of terrorism is unacceptable. They must feel that prison or elimination await them in any corner on the globe," he said. Kadyrov extended condolences to the relatives of the victims of the attack.
In the wake of the Mozdok suicide police forces in Moscow were put on increased alert by joint decision of the Russian Interior Ministry and the city’s main police directorate. A spokesman for Moscow police Kirill Mazurin told Interfax on Saturday the decision was taken in connection with the operational situation in the country.
According to Mazurin, special controls are being instituted at children's and medical institutions, sites of mass public gatherings and places of worship of various denominations. Transport checks are being stepped up, and the order has been given to check all goods vehicles at traffic police checkpoints at points of entry into the city.
Commanders of territorial police divisions have been ordered to instruct private security firms operating in their area to step up vigilance at their sites and to allocate staff to increase security in the capital. Off-days and leave have been cancelled for senior police officers. The heightened security has been brought in from 0000 hours on Saturday to 7 August inclusive.
Two woman suicide bombers blew themselves up last month at a open-air rock festival in Moscow, killing 15 spectators – the first time the Chechen war had come to the capital since the October theatre siege. Another suicide bomber was detained as she tried to detonate an explosive device near a cafe in Tverskaya Street, the city’s main thoroughfare.
Chechnya, in the grip of a 10-year separatist insurgency, is gearing up for an October 5 election to choose a regional president - a key event in President Vladimir Putin's plan to restore peace to the area. Chechen rebels reject the plan and have vowed to fight on to oust tens of thousands of Russian troops.
As the rescue teams finished sifting through the debris of the Mozdok military hospital, destroyed by a truck bomb blast on Friday, the Defence Ministry said the act of terror had become possible because the local officers’ failure to observe the basic security rules. The commander of the Mozdok garrison has been suspended from post pending investigation. Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov announced the decision on Saturday, after a brief inspection of the scene of the explosion.
On Sunday Emergencies Ministry’s teams abandoned rescue efforts at the Mozdok military hospital, destroyed by a suicide-bomber on Friday evening. An explosives-laden KAMAZ truck rammed through the gates of the hospital and exploded, killing 50 and injuring 79. More than 70 people remained in local hospitals on Sunday, with the most serious cases airlifted to Moscow and St.Petersburg.
“There are no human remains in the area covered by rescue teams,” an Emergencies Ministry official Sergei Salov told reporters on Sunday, as over a thousand rescuers from Moscow, Ingushetia and North Ossetia withdrew from the scene of the tragedy.
Most of those killed in the attack were federal military men - officers, soldiers and sergeants. The hospital No.1458 of Mozdok military garrison is one of the main hospitals in the Northern Caucasus and it was always packed with the woundedfrom Chechnya and surrounding regions.
According to some reports, 119 people, including 98 patients and 21 medical personnel were in the hospital and in summer tents installed on its territory at the moment of the blast.
Eyewitnesses said that the truck bomb, driven by a single terrorist, drove though the hospital gates around 19-00 on Friday and exploded, bringing down most of the building. Only one wall remained of the four-storey hospital. Explosives experts estimated the power of the blast at 1,000 kilograms TNT equivalent. The blast was so powerful it could be heard throughout the city and the mushroom cloud was seen for kilometers around. Surrounding buildings were seriously damaged by the blast wave.
The terrorist act followed the same scenario as the attack on the government compound in Grozny in December last year when over 70 people were killed after two vehicles driven by suicide bombers passed security cordons at high speed and exploded in the immediate proximity to the building.
Sergei Fridinsky, Prosecutor General’s deputy for the South Federal District, arrived in Mozdok on Saturday. Speaking from the scene of the attack the prosecutor blamed the tragedy not only on the Chechen separatist, but also on the military who had failed to carry out the basic security measures.
"This was a well-prepared and well-planned terrorist act," he has told the NTV television. "We have to admit... criminals are continuing to exploit weak points in the defences of military bases," he said alluding, evidently, to the previous suicide attack on the military personnel based in Mozdok. In early June a Chechen woman blew herself up near a bus that carried military pilots to an aerodrome near Mozdok from where military aircraft take off for Chechnya.
Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov, instructed by Vladimir Putin to inspect the destroyed hospital, arrived in North Ossetia on Saturday morning. The minister inspected the fence through which the suicide bomber drove the truck packed with explosives. He also watched the clean-up effort. Speaking at a news conference in Mozdok, Ivanov accused the command of the local garrison of their failure to observe safety regulations. In particular, he said, in defiance of the Defence Ministry’s orders the approaches to the hospital gate were not equipped with “means to forcefully stop motor vehicles” – in other words, with several concrete blocks that make it impossible to drive through a checkpoint at high speed.
"In connection with this I have decided to suspend the commander of the 429th regiment, who is the senior officer in Mozdok's military garrison, and the head of the military hospital from their duties for failing to comply with the orders," the minister said.
Sergei Ivanov said that joint "working investigation" was being carried out together with the prosecutor's office."This work is being headed by the district's commander, and we are determining the specific fault of specific servicemen who either had failed to carry out orders or had reported them as having been carried out whilst in fact this was not so," the defence minister said.
Ivanov said that investigators had established the type of the explosive device used in the terror attack in Mozdok. According to his information, the terrorist had used ammonium nitrate to blow up the hospital. He said also that the person to whom the KAMAZ truck loaded with explosives had belonged was tracked down, but refused to elaborate citing the interests of investigation.
Meanwhile, in Moscow Vladimir Putin held an emergency meeting with the head of the Federal Security Service Nikolai Patrushev and the country’s top prosecutor Vladimir Ustinov to discuss the consequences and the investigation into the Mozdok blast. The president said he was taking investigation under personal control.
Putin denounced the attack as “yet another confirmation of the inhuman, heartless nature of the bandits trying to destabilise the situation in the North Caucasus…. Their bloody evil deeds will not stop the process of a political settlement and the resumption of normal life."
On Sunday, deputy prosecutor general Sergei Fridinsky reported that two suspects were detained in wake of Friday hospital bombing. "There are now two suspects in bombing case. Efforts to track down the rest of those standing behind the terrorist attack continue," Fridinsky said.
Grieving relatives have attended a mass at the bomb site.
Russian troops and civilians in southern Russia are observing a day of mourning for the 50 people killed in Friday's suicide bombing at a military hospital.
The search for survivors at Mozdok in North Ossetia was abandoned on Sunday. Officials have dedicated a memorial stone in the ruins of the hospital, which was flattened when a lorry laden with explosives was driven to the entrance and detonated.
Flags in the regional capital, Vladikavkaz, were flying at half mast, and staff arriving at work began their day by observing silence for the victims. More funerals of the victims were being held on Monday. More than 60 people are still in hospital, some critically ill.
As the investigation continues into who ordered the bombing, President Vladimir Putin has demanded immediate action by the military to prevent any further attacks. Local commanders in the North Caucasus say strict checks are now in place at all military facilities. The main military hospital in Vladikavkaz has been sealed off, and access refused to all civilians. Car parks are to be moved away from buildings used by Russian troops.
Mr Putin has added his voice to critics who say the bombing should never have happened. "The laxity that we have seen in a series of cases, and which is conducive to crimes and terrorist acts, has gone beyond all bounds," he said. "This is, of course, a special crime, a crime of special brutality, of special cynicism.
"To commit such a crime against people who are receiving treatment, against a medical establishment, against medical personnel, against wounded people, contradicts all principles of law, morality and humanity." Mr Putin has vowed that his policy on Chechnya remains unchanged, in the run-up to elections this October which are not recognised by separatist rebels. The BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Moscow says others are warning that more attacks are likely ahead of the vote. Two suspects have been detained in connection with the hospital attack. Police believe they may be the men who sold the truck to the suicide bomber. Investigators hope the suspects may lead them to whoever organised the attack.
Deadly attacks.
The Mozdok attack was the latest in a series of suicide bombings in and around Chechnya and in Moscow that have killed more than 150 people since May. Friday's bomb was the bloodiest since May, when a truck bomb attack in Chechnya killed 60 people. Last month, 15 people were killed at a rock concert in Moscow when two female bombers blew themselves up. Russian forces pulled out of Chechnya in 1996 after a two-year war that left separatists in charge, but returned three years later after a string of bombings blamed on Chechen rebels.
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A lorry packed with explosives reportedly rammed through the gates of Mozdok hospital, North Ossetia.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Secretary of State Colin Powell on Friday designated Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev a threat to the security of the United States and to U.S. citizens.
Powell, in a notice in the Federal Register, said Basayev, 38, ``has committed, or poses a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism'' against U.S. interests.
The State Department said Basayev has links to the al-Qaida terror network. Together with Britain and Russia, the United States asked the United Nations to impose travel sanctions on him and to block shipment of arms and financial contributions to the rebels by all U.N. members.
``We believe that Basayev, as leader of his group and individually, took part in planning and perpetrating terrorist attacks,'' State Department deputy spokesman Philip T. Reeker said.
He claimed responsibility for seizing the Dubrovka Theater in Moscow last October, an act of terrorism that resulted in the death of 129 hostages, including a U.S. citizen, Reeker said.
And last December, Chechen suicide bombers destroyed the Chechen administration complex in Grozny, killing 78 people and wounding 150, Reeker said in a statement.
It cited other terror attacks and said last November the rebel leader warned governments that were members of international organizations with offices in Russia they would be targets.
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control acted to freeze any assets Basayev might have in the United States and any attempt to transfer the funds.
The designation accelerates a growing understanding between the Bush administration and the Russian government that rebel leaders in the breakaway republic of Chechnya use terror as a tactic.
The Bush administration began to edge toward the Russian view after the United States felt the lash of terror in the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Arlington, Va.
Chechen rebels, using a shoulder-fired missile, shot down a Russian military helicopter Thursday, killing three members of the crew.
At least seven other Russian servicemen died in attacks and rebel land mine explosions over the past day, an official in the Moscow-backed Chechnya administration said.
Basayev has taken responsibility for a series of suicide attacks in May that killed nearly 100 people as well as the hostage-taking at the Moscow theater.
U.S. officials have been trying to trace funding to Osama bin Laden and his terror network.
In Moscow, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, the Kremlin's chief spokesman on Chechnya, said Powell's action ``is a step in absolutely the right direction. It is another confirmation that within the anti-terrorist coalition there is a deepening understanding that what is happening in Chechnya is inseparable from the battle against terrorist threats in the world.''
Treasury on Friday also moved to freeze any financial assets found in the United States belonging to former Chechen President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. The U.N. terrorism committee recently added Yandarbiyev to a list of people with alleged links to al-Qaida.
The value of any assets that Yandarbiyev or Basayev may have in the United States was not known. By having their names added to the United States' list of specially designated global terrorists, both men not only have their assets blocked, but Americans also are prohibited from doing business with them.
Women prefer a kamikaze death to demonstrate the strength of the resistance movement.
Chechen woman Raisa Ganiyeva, a sister of the two female terrorists who were killed when the theatre building was stormed during the hostage crisis in October 2002, appealed to the law enforcement authorities on Monday. She says that her brother Rustam, who is a subordinate to terrorist Shamil Basayev, forces her to join vakhabits and later become a kamikaze. According to Raisa Ganiyeva, her brother participated in organization of large-scale acts of terrorism. The Chechen woman says that Rustam "forces her to repeat the fate of her sisters Fatima and Milana" who became suicide bombers and were killed during the storm of the theatre in October 2002.
FSB representatives said in an interview with correspondents from Rossia television that a terrorist named Rustam Ganiyev was actually a member of Basayev's gang and he was allegedly connected with formation of a group consisting of female kamikazes. The Russian press calls the terrorist group formed by Ganiyev "Black widows".
FSB officers learned that three months before the hostage taking at the Moscow theatre Rustam Ganiyev pressed two of his sisters adopt the vakhabism; a month before the tragedy the terrorist took the women away from home by force. According to results of the investigation, for participation of the sisters in the act of terrorism Rustam Ganiyev was paid $1,500 for each from Basayev, Russia's news agency Interfax reports.
Raisa Ganiyeva says there were ten brothers and sister in the family, but only four of them are now alive. "The parents strongly objected to joining the vakhabism by the children." Then she adds that despite of the persuasion and even the father's threats the children fell under the strong influence of vakhabism; the brothers became members of illegal armed groups. During the second Chechen campaign three brothers of Raisa Ganiyeva were killed.
The news about a surrendered Chechen woman who didn't become a kamikaze was commented upon by Colonel Ilya Shabalkin, a representative of the regional operational headquarters for control over the North Caucasus anti-terrorist operation. "Being teenagers, the Ganiyevs' sons were involved into vakhabit communities, Jamaats. The results of it are quite obvious now. Two sisters were pressed into the gang headed by Movsar Barayev, and the women were delivered to the Moscow theatre where the hostage crisis occurred." According to the colonel, the military and law enforcement authorities will now protect the Chechen woman from her brother and other members of the Basayev gang stronger; it is not ruled out that she may be removed to other region of Russia.
Pursuing propaganda means, terrorists charge the "black widows" with commitment of terrorist acts. The "black widows" are wives and sisters of Chechens who were missing or killed during fighting with the federal forces. These women prefer a kamikaze death to demonstrate the strength of the resistance movement. They put on bomb belts, get seated into trucks stuffed with explosives and hit objects designated for the mission. Law enforcement authorities think that it was the "black widows" group that blew up a military bus in Mozdok; they committed an attack at Ahmad Kadyrov in Ilaskhan-Yurt and the act of terrorism in Moscow's Tushino and in Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street. Recently, the military have mentioned the exact number of female shahids from Basayev's group waiting for a chance to commit a deed. The Chechen Interior Ministry reports that Basayev has 35 "human bombs".
Re: Photos support Basayev's part in Grozny blast.
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August 20 2003, 2:48 PM
Terrorists receive $3m for Chechen elections.
Gazeta.Ru
Òåêñò: Boris Sapozhnikov
According to the chief spokesman for the North-Caucasian regional headquarters for anti-rebel operations Ilya Shabalkin, the foreign sponsors of Chechnya’s separatists have allocated as much as $3 million to disrupt the October 5 presidential elections in the republic. The Russian military admitted that it will be very difficult to thwart the rebels’ plans, since the rebels intend to attack unprotected civilian installations.
Talking to the press at the Russian military base in Khankala on Tuesday, Colonel Ilya Shabalkin claimed that Chechen separatists had received as much as $3 million prior to the presidential elections from their foreign sponsors, but stopped short of specifying the sources from which the separatists were receiving funds.
Nonetheless, the spokesman for the regional operational headquarters for anti-rebel operations is convinced that the extension of ''a targeted tranche'' (apparently, by international terror networks) to implement a disruptive plan did take place.
According to Shabalkin’s information, two people are authorized to dispose of that money – the separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov himself and an Arab mercenary Abu-Valid. ''The main means by which the chieftains of illegal armed formations will try to disrupt the vote, will be acts of terror against civilian installations and residents, who are practically unprotected,'' Shabalkin said.
Shabalkin did not rule out that terrorists may perpetrate their attacks by mining buildings and cars and sending suicide bombers to public places, which the military deem the likeliest tactic, given the recent terrorist acts perpetrated in Chechnya and other regions of Russia, as well as other parts of the world.
According to tip-offs received from former rebels, a training camp for female bombers is operating in the highlands of one of the former Soviet republics, Shabalkin said, diplomatically refraining from directly naming what is most likely Georgia. ''They allege that there are over 10 women who are ready to carry an explosive device on their bodies to the object where they are ordered to go,'' the spokesman told journalists.
Indeed, the federal forces are taking and will take all necessary measures to protect public order and civil installations in Chechnya in the run-up to the presidential elections, Shabalkin said. At the same time he urged Chechen residents to be vigilant. But the key point of his statement is different: the spokesman has in fact openly warned the public that in the near future the situation in the republic may worsen considerably as a result of numerous terror attacks.
And however hard they try, the federal forces may prove unable to thwart the rebels in their plans, for the separatists will mostly likely target unprotected civilian installations, such as schools, hospitals, local government buildings, marketplaces… If the federal forces fail to prevent those terrorist acts, Russian secret services will be able to say with a clear conscience that they warned of the possibility in advance.
At the same time, the military assured Chechen residents that the command of the combined military grouping in Chechnya has already started special training in subdivisions of the 42nd motorized rifle division, based in the republic on a permanent basis, which will ensure public safety during elections.
In the meantime, a special work group operating under the auspices of the republic’s election commission has begun checking the list of voters’ signatures submitted by contenders for the presidential post. Altogether, fourteen candidates, including acting president Akhmad Kadyrov, will run. Russia has invited 12 international groups to observe the election.
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August 22 2003, 11:14 AM
Thursday, Aug. 21, 2003. Page 3
Suspected Organizer Of July Attack Held.
Moscow Times
By Simon Saradzhyan
Police and secret service agents have arrested a suspected organizer of last month's double suicide bombings at the Tushino rock concert, which killed 17, including the two female attackers, officials said Wednesday.
The suspect, Deni Elikhadzhiyev, 19, is a brother of Zalikhan Elikhadzhiyeva, the first suicide bomber at Tushino, and was arrested in the Ingush capital, Nazran, last week by a group of Federal Security Service agents and Interior Ministry commandos flown in from Moscow, local media reported Wednesday.
During questioning, Elikhadzhiyev revealed that he had a hideout in the settlement of Nasyr-Kort, near Nazran, Gazeta reported. There, investigators found a cache of weapons and a notebook with plans for the July 5 attack, the newspaper said.
Confronted with the notebook, Elikhadzhiyev admitted to having helped organize the attack and said he drove the two suicide bombers to Tushino in a Lada sedan, Kommersant reported.
Investigators suspect Elikhadzhiyev may have coordinated the two bombers' activities at Tushino via cellphone, the newspaper said. He also is suspected of having fought with the Chechen rebels.
In addition to the Tushino plans, the notebook contains plans for other attacks and the addresses of locations in the Moscow region where explosives have been hidden, Kommersant said, citing Ingush law enforcement officials.
FSB agents and police raided one such site in southern Moscow on Tuesday, seizing a suicide belt with 500 grams of TNT and two grenade launchers, a Moscow police official said Wednesday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the raid on a liquor warehouse on 18 Ulista Delovaya was part of an ongoing investigation into the Tushino attack but insisted that police had acted on their own information, not from information provided by Elikhadzhiyev.
Six suicide belts were seized in a raid of in a vacant house in Tolstopaltsevo, about 25 kilometers southwest of Moscow, on July 25. Investigators said at the time that they had acted on a tip from a Chechen woman who unsuccessfully tried to detonate an explosives-filled bag in a restaurant on Tverskaya-Yamskata Ulitsa a few days earlier. The bag exploded on the street, killing a sapper who was trying to defuse it.
FSB officials declined to comment on Elikhadzhiyev's arrest Wednesday. Ingush Interior Ministry officials could not be immediately reached for comment.
Police said last month that they suspected a middle-aged woman helped organize the bombings at Tushino and the botched attack on the restaurant. That suspect remains at large, the Moscow police official said Wednesday.
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September 2 2003, 12:52 PM
Tuesday, 2 September, 2003, 09:04 GMT 10:04 UK
Russian pupils get anti-terror lessons.
By Sarah Rainsford
BBC, Moscow
When Russian children return to school on 1 September after a three-month summer break it is usually a festive affair - but all the talk in Moscow this year was about safety. A series of suicide bomb attacks in Russia have pushed security concerns to the top of the agenda, and into the classroom. So much so that schools in Reutov on the outskirts of Moscow have introduced an anti-terrorism diary alongside their new textbooks. The day in Reutov began in customary style.
A tiny girl with a huge white bow in her hair toured the playground with a bell, ringing in the new school year as loudspeakers blasted the national anthem to all corners of the yard. This day has always been celebrated as Knowledge Day and the accompanying traditions have changed little since Soviet times. But serious change is afoot in the classroom.
Kidnapping advice.
The first class of term was traditionally known as Peace Lesson. This year the topic in most schools was switched to Safety. Teachers in Reutov School Number 2 began by handing-out a shiny new diary. Each glossy page is crammed full of useful advice, such as: how to behave if you are kidnapped spotting suspicious behaviour what to do if there is a sudden shoot-out on your doorstep. It is all there to be absorbed alongside maths, history and science.
Teams of emergency workers plan to visit for practical sessions, later in the term. Reutov Deputy Mayor Anna Babalova believes a series of bomb attacks in neighbouring Moscow have made this a vital lesson. "It's part of life today," she says. "Of course it's frightening for the children, but it would be much more frightening for them to be in a situation and unable to cope. We want to prepare them for anything." Preparing for the worst was a central part of Cold War schooling. Soviet school-children were drilled in everything from donning gas masks to assembling a Kalashnikov. Now a fresh generation is learning to confront a new enemy.
No panic.
Artyom: It's not nice - but it's necessary advice.
The children in Reutov appeared to take the diary advice in their stride. "It's not very nice," admitted 10-year-old Artyom. "But I think this advice is necessary, because you never know what might happen." His classmate Nastya was more direct. "You can easily get shot at, or taken hostage here. Also, it's better not to go to big events, because that's where most of the explosions happen and lots of people get hurt." Teachers and children say it's highly unlikely anything so horrific will happen in sleepy Reutov.
But the same can no longer be said for Moscow. Reutov residents were caught up in the Dubrovka Theatre Siege last October; they were also in Tushino when suicide bombers targeted a rock festival there. So like it or not, the message is beginning to sink in with the younger generation. Anti-terror classes may not be pleasant, but the children say this is one lesson they don¿t mind learning.
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September 3 2003, 3:03 PM
Two blasts hit Russian commuter train.
Gazeta.Ru
6 people have been killed and at least 38 wounded after a blast ripped through a commuter train in the Stavropol Region early on Wednesday morning. The alleged terrorist, himself badly injured in the explosion, has been detained and admitted to a hospital in Kislovodsk, local authorities said.
The commuter train was shuttling local residents from the North Caucasian spa town of Kislovodsk to the neighbouring town of Mineralnye Vody. The North Caucasian directorate of the Prosecutor General’s Office has launched a criminal investigation into murder and terrorism, under Articles 105 and 205 of the Russian criminal code respectively.
Explosive devices, apparently planted on the tracks, went off as the commuter train was passing the Orlyonok children’s pioneer camp in the Belyi Ugol district. The explosion occurred at 0745, an official at the Prosecutor General’s Office told Gazeta.Ru.
Upon examining the scene of the tragedy, investigators concluded that the two bombs, planted on the tracks five metres apart, went off almost simultaneously, hitting the third carriage of the train and causing its rear wheels to derail.
Somehow, the train consisting of five carriages remained on the tracks and came to a halt some 150-200 metres from the epicentre of the blast. The blasts left two deep craters in the ground. According to preliminary reports by explosive experts, the power of the bombs was estimated at about 1 kg of explosives.
Later reports, however, said that experts estimated the power of the explosion to be nearer 5 kg of TNT equivalent. Investigators have established that the deadly devices were filled with metal ball-bearings to cause greater damage.
According to the latest official report, the blast claimed 6 lives. 38 were hurt in the blast. Those who died were young people, aged between 20 and 23. The identities of three of them, students from Kislovodsk, have already been established.
Those who were injured in the explosion have been admitted to hospitals in Kislovodsk, Yessentuki and Pyatigorsk. The sixth victim, a woman, died in hospital.
On Wednesday morning Vladimir Putin phoned the Stavropol governor Alexander Chernogorov, who briefed the president on the situation in the region concerning the latest terrorist attack. Putin told Chernogorov that he had instructed the heads of the Emergencies and Railway Ministries, Sergei Shoigu and Gennady Fadeyev, as well as the acting director of the Federal Security Service Sergei Smirnov, to take control of the investigation.
Shortly after the train blast, local law enforcers detained a man on suspicion of being involved in the attack. Although he was badly injured, the man tried to escape from the scene of the incident, and in doing so made law enforcers suspicious. He was detained and taken to a hospital in Kislovodsk.
Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov later confirmed to the press that there were two devices containing 5 kg of explosives, which were laid on the tracks.
JEDDAH, 6 September 2003 — Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, yesterday called for a peaceful solution to the Chechnya problem but described the crisis as an internal matter for Russia.
“We look forward to a settlement of the protracted Chechen issue through peaceful and constitutional means within the framework of the Russian Federation,” the crown prince told the Russian Interfax news agency. Crown Prince Abdullah, who concluded his landmark three-day visit to Moscow on Thursday, highlighted the significance of Saudi-Russian oil cooperation to preserving international oil market stability.
“My visit to Russia was primarily aimed at further enhancing bilateral cooperation in various spheres and discussing international and regional issues of mutual concern,” the crown prince said.
“Saudi Arabia views Russia as a partner and not as a competitor in the area of oil,” he said. The two countries signed a major agreement for cooperation in the oil and gas sectors during the royal visit.
The crown prince also lambasted the campaign by parts of the US media against Saudi Arabia following the Sept. 11 events, and said the smear campaign was based on “unjustified and groundless” allegations.
He said the Kingdom was going ahead with its war on terror, adopting comprehensive measures to stamp out terrorism. He urged greater international cooperation in combating terrorism and drying up sources of terrorist funding.
Crown Prince Abdullah declared himself optimistic that the commercial partnership between Saudi Arabia and Russia would be bolstered by technology transfer, increasing investment and joint projects.
He had praise for Russian support for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and said it had positively contributed to oil market stability. “As regards Russia’s admission to OPEC, it is up to Russia to make a decision in this respect if that is in its interest,” he added.
“There is coordination between OPEC and Russia,” he said and commended Moscow’s efforts in support of OPEC initiatives to achieve fair prices.
The crown prince said he hoped that Saudi-Russian joint ventures would cooperate in the fields of petroleum and gas as well as scientific research.
A number of Russian companies, along with other international firms, have taken part in a forum organized by the Saudi Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources on investment prospects in the Kingdom’s gas and energy sectors.
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September 11 2003, 12:57 PM
15:13 2003-09-11
Most Russians fear that 9/11 could be repeated in Russia.
Most Russians (61%) believe there is a threat of terrorist attacks similar to that of September 11 in New York being carried out in Russia. This was the result of a survey carried out by ROMIR Monitoring to discover Russians' attitudes to the threat of terrorism. 1500 people took part in the survey, which was carried out at the end of August. 28% said that such a large-scale terrorist attack in Russia is 'more probable than improbable.'
Only 7% of respondents said that such a tragedy is unlikely while 2% insisted that there is no threat whatsoever of such a large-scale terrorist attack. 2% of respondents did not answer.
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September 11 2003, 1:01 PM
15:46 2003-09-11
Explosion in Chechnya kills 1, wounds 7.
In Chechnya, one person was killed and seven wounded when their tractor drove over a radio-controlled landmine, the Chechen Interior Ministry reported on Thursday.
The blast victims were local peasants, who were returning from the fields in a tractor-trailer. The incident took place in a country-track outside Assinovskaya Stanitsa, Chechnya's Sunzha district.
"Seven people were taken to a hospital in Ingushetia with severe injuries, and one woman, Roza Adayeva, died," said the agency's source.
Fragments of an explosive device and a Kenwood radio set were discovered on the site of the incident.
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September 15 2003, 10:44 AM
Fugitive Chechen President Impeached.
Pravda.Ru
09/12/2003 17:43
A political sensation from the Chechen parliament.
On the photo: Aslan Maskhadov
The parliament of the Chechen republic has impeached Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov and dismissed him from the position. This was announced by a group of Chechen deputies on Friday in Interfax central office in Moscow.
"The decree of the Chechen parliament was passed on September 5th, it was based on the Constitution of Chechnya," acting speaker of the parliament Isa Temirov said. The speaker added, before initiating the question about Aslan Maskhadov's impeachment, "parliamentarians talked to Chechen diasporas and the people of the republic's regions." "We came to conclusion that there was only solution to stabilize the situation in Chechnya v to dismiss Maskhadov from his position," Isa Temirov was quoted by Interfax as saying.
Sergey Yastrzhembsky, official presidential spokesman, said that the decision of the Chechen parliament to impeach Maskhadov was a political sensation, RIA Novosti reported. "In fact, this decision is the real political sensation," Yastrzhembsky told reporters. "First of all, it was a very courageous step to make for the people who made it, taking into consideration the consequences that may follow and the present uneasy situation in Chechnya. Second of all, it is obvious that the people, who made such a difficult decision, were Maskhadov's companions and associates for a long time. They were the center of the movement that was struggling for separatism to separate Chechnya from Russia. Because of the parliament's decision, Maskhadov stopped being the virtual president of Chechnya and became simply a field commander. The decision has turned over another page in the history of separatism," Sergey Yastrzhembsky said in a statement.
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September 15 2003, 11:04 AM
Monday, 15 September, 2003, 09:04 GMT 10:04 UK
Blast wrecks Russian security building.
BBC
A powerful explosion has severely damaged the headquarters of the Russian security service in a republic neighbouring Chechnya, according to Russian media reports.
Initial reports say there were numerous casualties - at least 100 people normally work in the building of the Federal Security Service (FSB).
The blast was said to have been caused by a truck filled with explosives which drove up to the building in the Ingush town of Magas, a few miles from Nazran, at around noon local time (0800 GMT).
However, another report suggested that the explosives might have been planted on the roof of the building, which was only completed in July.
So far, no one has claimed responsibility for this attack, but Russian officials are likely to suspect Chechen rebels.
The explosion comes as Chechnya prepares for presidential elections on 5 October, which Moscow hopes will lead to a political settlement in the republic.
Separatists from Chechnya, which has suffered years of armed conflict, have vowed to increase attacks in the run-up to the vote.
On 1 August a truck rammed through the gates of a military hospital in Mozdok, in nearby North Ossetia, and exploded killing 50 people.
Rebels have also targeted the FSB, which until recently had been leading the campaign against them.
A suicide bomb attack in May on a government compound in the northern Chechen village of Znamenskoye killed among others 10 FSB officers whose local branch was located there.
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September 16 2003, 12:06 PM
Security forces officers and onlookers standing outside the FSB's Ingush headquarters in Magas on Monday after a truck bomb exploded nearby, killing at least two people. Reuters
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September 16 2003, 12:14 PM
14:30
Bomb blast destroys locomotive in Chechnya.
A terrorist act, which fortunately caused no victims, was committed in Chechnya on Monday. An explosive device installed on the rails under a diesel-locomotive shunter went off not far from the railway station of Gudermes, Chechnya's second largest city, the Interior Department of the Southern Federal District reported on Tuesday.
The explosion slightly damaged the locomotive and crushed sleepers, making a crater 1.5 metres in diameter. Law enforcement officers found pieces of wire and fragments of the explosive device nearby.
The Chechen Interior Ministry reports that on the same day an officer of a local police department was abducted in the Shali district, in the southeast of the republic. Just before dawn a dozen people, equipped with automatic rifles, masked and camouflaged, broke into his house, beat him up and drove the tied officer away in a car without licence plates. Investigation into both cases is underway. //RIA-Novosti
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September 16 2003, 1:20 PM
MASKHADOV ORDERS HIS GUNMEN TO LEAVE RUSSIA.
Leader of Chechen separatists Aslan Maskhadov has ordered his gunmen to quit Russia.
The regional operative staff for managing the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus reported Monday that this information had been received from Lechi Aidiyev, detained on suspicion of involvement in illegal armed formations. It is supported by several other sources.
Maskhadov has ordered his gunmen to get new passports and leave Russia to obtain refugee status in other countries, namely Poland, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Belgium, Denmark, Norway. They are assigned the task of "stirring anti-Russian sentiment in Chechen communities," a staff officer said.
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September 17 2003, 4:09 PM
15:49 2003-09-17
Terrorist act prevented in Chechen school.
A terrorist act has been prevented in the district centre of Shali, Chechnya, spokesman for the Regional Operative Staff Ilya Shabalkin told RIA Novosti.
"Yesterday, officers of the Federal Security Service department and the Chechen Interior Ministry discovered an explosive device in the attic of school number 5 in Lenin Street in Shali," he said.
"The bomb contained 2 kg of TNT and was ready to explode," Shabalkin noted.
"According to policemen, terrorists intended to explode the bomb during classes to kill many schoolchildren," he added.
"A terrorist who came to confess his guilt to the Chechen law enforcement bodies provided the information on the bomb laid in the school," Shabalkin said.
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September 29 2003, 1:35 PM
Monday, Sep. 29, 2003. Page 4
Popov Ill, Perhaps Poisoned.
The Associated Press
ROSTOV-ON-DON, Southern Russia -- Chechen Prime Minister Anatoly Popov has been hospitalized with a serious case of food poisoning, Chechen officials said Sunday, in what may have been an attack on his life.
Popov was admitted to the Khankala hospital, just outside Grozny, on Saturday evening after complaining of pain as his motorcade was returning to Grozny from Gudermes, said Sergei Kozhemyaka, a duty officer with the Emergency Situations Ministry's branch in southern Russia. Popov had been in Gudermes to participate in a ceremony opening a new gas line.
Kozhemyaka said officials were investigating the possibility that poison may have been deliberately slipped into something Popov ate or drank in an attempt on his life. But Kozhemyaka said it was just one of the theories and that the investigation was continuing.
Popov remained in serious condition in the Khankala hospital on Sunday evening, Kozhemyaka said. Doctors were considering transferring Popov to a Moscow hospital, he said.
Itar-Tass, citing a military source in the region, said Popov's condition was too serious to move him and doctors had decided to operate on him in Khankala.
Kozhemyaka said he could not confirm that report.
Popov, 43, is temporarily serving as Chechnya's acting president while his boss, Akhmad Kadyrov, is on the campaign trail.
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September 30 2003, 11:50 AM
3 women hunt Kadyrov.
Òåêñò: Artem Verniboub Èëëþñòðàöèÿ - «Ãàçåòà.Ru»
Moscow-appointed Chechen leader Akhmad Kadyrov is convinced that as many as three female suicide-bombers are haunting his steps. Kadyrov learned of the new attempt on his life, being planned during his visit to the United States last week. Being unable to thwart the ‘shahids’ in their evil efforts, Russian special forces have warned Kadyrov to remain vigilant.
Moscow-appointed Chechen leader Akhmad Kadyrov is convinced that as many as three female suicide-bombers are haunting his steps. Kadyrov learned of the new attempt on his life, being planned during his visit to the United States last week. Being unable to thwart the ‘shahids’ in their evil efforts, Russian special forces have warned Kadyrov to remain vigilant.
Most likely, Akhmad Kadyrov learned of the new attack being planned against him either while on a visit to the United States, or on board the homebound presidential plane. Vladimir Putin brought Kadyrov to the US along with other members of his delegation attending the UN General Assembly in New York. Kadyrov handled his American role perfectly well.
He generously gave interviews informing the world media of the restoration of peaceful life in Chechnya. In particular, he maintained that Grozny today is scarcely more dangerous than Washington was during the sniper attacks in the US capital last year. He also showed sympathy for New-Yorkers saying that they still must be shivering when hearing the roar of a plane.
Speaking in front of TV cameras Putin and Kadyrov spoke of compensation payments to ordinary Chechen residents for housing and property lost in bombings. Off the camera Kadyrov acknowledged that he could not wait to get back home to Grozny, which, as he said, he considers to be as safe a place as Washington.
That he said on Saturday evening, but on Monday it transpired that Kadyrov was still in Moscow, and it was no longer safe for him to return to the Chechen capital, where his life is in deadly danger. He went so far as to admit that himself.
“It concerns some three female suicide bombers,” Kadyrov told Intefax. “The information that an attempt is being prepared came from the special services. A recommendation has been made to me to be more vigilant.” Kadyrov spoke in a matter-of-fact tone, as if trying to get the rebels to understand that they had failed to intimidate him. Even more so that Kadyrov has grown quite used to being their target.
Kadyrov said there had already been more than 10 attempts on his life. "I have not kept an exact count, but there have been more than 10 attempts on my life,” he said. According to Gazeta.Ru sources in the Chechen government, Kadyrov has been attacked more than 20 times.
Commenting on the illness of Anatoly Popov, the premier in the Chechen government and currently the acting president of Chechnya (while Kadyrov is campaigning for the October 5 poll), Kadyrov dismissed the assumption that Popov could have been deliberately poisoned. To recap, Anatoly Popov was taken seriously ill on Saturday evening after eating dinner at a gas pipeline opening ceremony in Gudermes. The doctors said a residue of an unknown poisonous substance was found in his blood. On Monday morning Popov was transported for treatment to Moscow.
Kadyrov said he did not know the cause of the Chechen prime minister's poisoning. "Maybe he ate something that was off or upset his system,” the Chechen leader suggested indifferently. “I'm not the doctor who examined him. I told him - if you're going to be receiving treatment for a long period, write an instruction appointing an acting head of the Chechen government. He replied that he would return to work on Tuesday," he said.
It is noteworthy, however, that following a supposed attack on his life, Popov had to fight for his life in an intensive care ward, whereas none of the numerous ‘attempts’ on Kadyrov has ever left a scratch on his body. Besides, many of those alleged attacks later proved not to be such.
For instance, in late 2000, federal forces opened fire at his motorcade having mistaken it for a rebel convoy. Reports of a murder attempt on Kadyrov that emerged in the media in March this year were refuted by Kadyrov himself. In May this year the republican prosecutor’s office refuted reports of another alleged attack on the Chechen leader, saying that what Kadyrov had thought was fire aimed at him, was in truth the federal troops attack on rebels hiding in the vicinity.
A real attempt on Kadyrov’s life took place on May 14, during a religious festival in the village of Iliskhan-Yurt. A Chechen woman with explosives strapped to her body tried to approach Kadyrov and blow herself up, but his bodyguards blocked her way. After that attack Kadyrov ordered Chechen police to disperse meetings staged by women who gather near the gates of the House of Government in Grozny. Such meetings are quite regular in the Chechen capital, as mothers and wives of Chechens who disappear during security sweeps demand the republican authorities to bring their loved ones back.
“Those women must be detained, and it must be established who of them are indeed looking for their relatives, and who are but instigators of various anti-social acts,” Kadyrov ruled.
Out of four women detained in Iliskhan-Yurt, only one was a real bomber, the 31-year-old resident of Grozny Larisa Musalayeva. Four others had sought to plead the case of their arrested relatives with Kadyrov.
By attacking Kadyrov, it transpired, Larisa Musalayeva hoped to avenge her brother Imran Musalayev, killed by Kadyrov’s bodyguards after they had abducted him from a refugee camp in Ingushetia. Kadyrov was not even lightly wounded in Iliskhan-Yurt. Altogether, 16 people died in the blast.
Despite Moscow’s allegation that life in Chechnya is returning back to normal, reports from the war-torn Caucasian province scarcely differ to those of two years ago. Over the past few days in Chechnya a rebel unit attacked a dormitory where refugees live in the Staropromyslovsky District of Grozny, and disarmed a Chechen policemen who was guarding the building; a student of a teachers’ training college was abducted in the Leninsky District; two troops were killed as they hit a mine in the Vedeno highlands; the rebels attacked a police detail at a polling station in the village of Aiti-Mokhk, killing one and wounding three others. This all happened during the same week that the head of the republican election commission, Abdul-Kerim Arsakhanov, told the press that the republic is fully prepared for the presidential election.
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October 1 2003, 11:14 AM
17:46 2003-09-30
Murderers of Dagestani policemen identified.
The murderers of the policemen in Khasavyurt, Dagestan, have been identified, Russian Deputy Prosecutor General Vladimir Kolesnikov told reporters.
Unfortunately, the criminals were not arrested right after the murder, he said.
The murdered criminal police investigators and officer had been inquiring into criminal activity of Chechnya-based sabotage terrorist groups perpetrated in Dagestan, said Mr Kolesnikov. One of the groups had been sent to Dagestan by Rappani Khalilov, a warlord of Chechen extraction. "Ten men from the group have been detained, their cases being tried in court. However, many of the group are still on the wanted list," said the deputy prosecutor general.
Five policemen were killed in Khasavyurt on Tuesday morning when their car came under automatic weapons fire.
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October 9 2003, 11:30 AM
Blast near Moscow school.
RosBusinessConsulting. Thursday, Oct. 9, 2003, 9:14 AM Moscow Time
An explosion has been reported near a school in the center of Moscow, a source in the Moscow Main Interior Department reported to RBC. The blast went off at about midnight. Demolition and other special experts arrived at the site immediately and discovered an object resembling an explosive device. No one has been injured in the blast.
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October 13 2003, 12:22 PM
14:45 2003-10-13
Chechen police searching for militant recruiting youths.
A militant who recruited youths in militant gangs is on the wanted list in Chechnya, RIA Novosti was told in the regional operative HQ for the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus.
According to law-enforcers, D. Amayev carried out recruitment in the Chernorechye settlement (near Grozny). Under Maskhadov, he headed the Shariah security department in the Urus-Martan district. "He paid the recruits in counterfeit $100 notes," noted the HQ's spokesman.
The recruiting militant was uncovered due to the fact that young people's parents had reported to law-enforcers of attempts to involve their children in illegal armed formations.
Amayev had managed to escape and is on the wanted list now.
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October 14 2003, 11:12 AM
ANOTHER BRUTAL CRIME COMMITTED BY CHECHEN MILITANTS.
GROZNY, October 14th, 2003 (RIA Novosti) -- Militants from Khamzit Tazabayev's gang wore Russian military uniform when they killed two Chechens in Grozny, reported a source in the Regional Operational Headquarters responsible for co-ordinating the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus.
In the middle of the night, a group of about 10 militants broke into the house the Makayev family owned in Grozny's Zavodskoi district. Zaindi Makayev, the head of the family, and his son Umar resisted fiercely, killing one of the terrorists in the process. The odds were not in their favour however, and they were both killed by the militants. The attackers left some weapons and ammunition on the spot to throw suspicion on the family.
"The Makayevs supported the political changes taking place in the republic," the source explained.
Khamzit Tazabayev is known as a helpmate of the Chechen separatist leader Shamil Basayev. He has lately been engineering terrorist acts on the order of ex-Chechen President Maskhadov.
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October 15 2003, 4:29 PM
Chechen Mufti Tragically Murdered.
Pravda.Ru
10/15/2003 12:41
The killing of mufti Shaaman Madagov from the Vedeno District of Chechnya shocked the entire republic.
The mufti was a respectable man who was never afraid of speaking the truth. On the night when a gang of armed criminals rushed into the mountainous settlement of Elistangi, Shaaman Madagov was one of the few villagers who dared to openly protest against the acts of criminals. The gangsters were enraged with the insolence of the mufti and the latter was killed the same night by order of the Arab mercenaries' leader Abu al-Walid.
Recently, an amnestied rebel fighter revealed to Russian authorities the details concerning the tragedy in Elistangy. The man claimed the following.
"On August 29, 2003, the commander told me that at night we would enter the settlement of Elistangy. I could not expect this would end so tragically. I thought the main purpose of entering the settlement was to replenish the food supply and to take medicines as many of the group suffered from tuberculosis. As the hygiene norms were not observed, many people suffered from dermatophyte and three people were suspected of having jaundice.
I had a foreboding when we were told Arabs would go with us. Late in the evening, about 10 p.m., we started moving toward the settlement. The Arabs were riding horses behind us and talking.
When we entered the settlement the situation changed abruptly. We were ordered not to let the villagers out of their houses. I cannot tell what was going on next. I was standing close to my commander Shaaman Atabayev; cries of women and children's weeping were heard everywhere. It was like a nightmare for me.
The Arabs were still sitting on their horses and watched the turmoil with haughtiness. Abu al-Walid was in the center of the horse rank and issued orders by hand waving."
About 50 armed men entered the settlement at night. They encircled Elistangy, broke into houses and took valuable things and food away from people. Islam Musayev testified: "In about an hour after entering the settlement, I saw two men from the group supporting someone under their arms. When they approached I recognized mufti Shaaman. To all appearances, the man was severely beaten as his face was covered with bruises and blood.
Abu Walid shot a glance at the group and then ordered my commander to shoot the mufti and his family. Shaaman Atabayev turned white; he could not believe that he was ordered to raise his hand against a saintly man. To tell the truth, none of Chechens standing by his side expected the situation would take such a turn."
On that night, Shaaman Madagov could not stay calm when he saw the gang was destroying the settlement and killing unarmed people. He called upon the terrorists to leave the villagers alone and go away. The terrorists did not hesitate to raise arms against one of the most respectable man in the republic and of Northern Caucasus. He died as a real Moslem with his head raised proudly.
Islam Musayev testified that when Shaaman Atabayev had recovered from the shock caused by the order, he beckoned three of his men to come up to him; they talked for over half an hour. While explaining something to the men he made gestures and gripped his head.
When the commander stopped talking and directed the steps toward the Arabs, it was already clear that neither he nor his people intended to kill the mufti. He came up to Abu al-Walid and told him something. The situation became heated; the Arab started shouting at Atabayev. He ordered something in the Arab language; then a shot sounded and the mufti fell.
When it was over, one of the Arabs warned Atabayev that he would not get away with the killing and he would have many problems because of it. None of the villagers, with the exception of the mufti risked to show resistance to the criminals.
Shaaman Madagov was indignant at the armed terrorists raging in the settlement. When the mufti demanded that the terrorists must leave the settlement, Abu al-Walid ordered his field commander Shaaman Atabayev to do away with the mufti. For a bit longer than a minute, Atabayev could not recover from the outrageous order; he could not either object or support the commander. He looked at his people considering what decision he must take. The commander understood that disagreeing with Abu al-Walid might cause his own death, but at the same time he realized that killing of an Islamic mufti, one of the most respectable men, was a greatest sin and disgrace.
When the terrorists returned to base, Shamil Basayev was already informed of the events that occurred in Elistangy. Shamil and Shaaman Atabayev retired and had a long conversation about the conflict with the Arabs. Shamil Basayev was outraged by the fact that Atabayev doubted the correctness of al-Walid's order and hesitated to execute it.
Shamil Basayev ordered the execution of Shaaman Atabayev. To please the Arab mercenaries, the actual masters of all Chechen terrorists, Shamil Basayev executed his field commander, the man with whom he shared his daily bread.
The common truth says that no matter how long a man is being deceived, he will finally see the light. Now, Chechnya is experiencing a period when Chechens are recovering from the frenzy caused by the Wakhabism ideas. But before the whole of the republic recovers from the frenzy, many of innocent people may fall victim.
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October 16 2003, 2:45 PM
Oct 12 2003 10:38AM
Attempt made on Chechen official's life.
GROZNY. Oct 12 (Interfax) - An attempt was made on a local official's life in Chechnya on Sunday.
Head of the Kulary village administration Arbi Ibragimov suffered injuries, when his car hit a mine planted 20 kilometers from the Kavkaz federal motorway, head of the district authorities Shaid Zhamaldayev told Interfax on Sunday.
Ibragimov was given medical attention, his life is not in danger. The car was serious damaged.
An operation to find the attackers has been launched, Zhamaldayev said.
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November 3 2003, 11:51 AM
Who Trains Suicide Bombers?
Pravda.Ru
10/23/2003 16:09
By Igor Morozov, member of the Russian Federation Council.
Igor Morozov is a former intelligence officer who worked in many hot spots across the world. After retiring from the 1st Main Department of the USSR State Security Committee, he took up parliamentary activity. Today he is the first deputy chairman of the Commission for Information Policy of the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament.
A recent international news story covered a suicide bombing aimed at the residence of Mohammed Sayeed, the head of the Jammu and Kashmir coalition government. This time, however, law-enforcers managed to neutralise the terrorists. Another attack in the Iraqi capital left a civilian tragedy in its wake: an extremist suicide bomber blew himself up in a car packed with explosives near the Hotel Baghdad. Eight people were killed and about 40 wounded. The Abu Hafs Al-Masri Islamic fighting group, one of the masterminds of the 1993 terrorist act in the International Centre of New York, took responsibility for this outrage. Such radical Islamic organisations as Hezbollah, the International Islamic Front for Jihad, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka, Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, as well as some other extremist groups, are directly involved in brutal suicide strikes all over the world.
In 2000, Chechen suicide bombers appeared on this black list for the first time. On July 2nd that year, four blasts perpetrated by suicide bombers in Argun, Gudermes and Urus-Martan left 33 people dead and over 80 wounded. The Internet site of the al-Qaeda cell operating in Chechnya hurried to declare the suicide bombers "shahids" or martyrs.
Islam does not condone suicide. According to Alexander Ignatenko, a member of the Council for Interaction with Religious Associations attached to the Russian president, Islam does not support suicide and murder. There is no mention of heroic self-sacrifice in the Koran or Sunna. Shahids were originally warriors who died on the battlefield for Islam, while the Arab word "istishhad" (literally meaning "the ambition to become a shahid") was invented by some modern 'Ulems' (senior clergymen), above all Wahhabites.
It was the Wahhabite Ulems who introduced Chechens to the idea of suicide bombing. Notorious Chechen gang leader Shamil Basayev, who calls himself Abdallah Shamil Abu Idris, is a fanatic follower of these Ulems. Together with Arab mercenaries he formed a battalion of suicide bombers who are trained in special camps to commit terrorist acts in Russia. According to the secret services, suicide bombers from the "death battalion" include dozens of women. As a rule, potential suicide bombers are forced to join the aforementioned camps. Violence and drugs ruin the trainees and make them blindly obey the gang leaders' orders.
Moreover, the wish to avenge the deaths of relatives, especially husbands killed while fighting as militants, is also widely exploited. During training, extremists manipulate people's emotions fuelling their desire to take revenge for their lost family members. This psychological moulding transforms them into "walking bombs" ready to kill everyone, even children.
The 22-year-old failed suicide bomber Zarema Muzhikhoyeva, who was recently arrested in a Moscow cafe, had been recruited in the same way. This young woman from the Assinovskaya settlement of Chechnya lost her militant husband during the continuing federal anti-terrorist operation. He detonated a hand grenade when soldiers tried to detain him. Muzhikhoyeva disappeared for six months to receive training in the mountains and was then taken on a train to Moscow by her accomplices. She was then kept in a derelict house in the Moscow region and fed meals laced with drugs.
According to investigators, potential women suicide bombers travel in groups of at least two and are escorted by a guide. When they arrive at their designated town in Russia, they are handed over to a "curator" who shows them the target and provides them with explosives.
On the evidence of the methods selected by the terrorists and their equipment, Russia's special services are convinced there must be co-ordination centres for preparing terrorist attacks that need to be exposed through joint efforts with other countries. International experience shows that suicide bombers are hard to prevent, but, if appropriate counter-measures are taken in good time, this can be done. The infiltration of terrorist organisations is the most effective way to uncover their plans and the perpetrators. Despite the strict secrecy of extremist cells, their operations inevitably involve many people who study the target and the site around it, or prepare places where the suicide bombers can hide before carrying out the attack. Others provide them with food, clothes, documents, training and ensure access to the target. Surveillance can cover all these people. Valuable elements of interaction between the secret services include exchanges of the latest anti-terrorism equipment, as well as efforts to carry out joint work in this sphere. According to Colonel General Boris Melnikov, who heads the CIS Anti-terrorist Centre, other network centres carry out highly important work to study in detail the forms and methods used to train suicide bombers and to establish their psychological profiles, as well as discovering the bases and camps where they are trained.
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November 3 2003, 4:41 PM
The adventures of young Moslem radical.
Andrew Pilipchuk,
"Peoples of Caucasus"
11/03/2003 13:48
The life of Ruslan is typical for most Chechen young people who live in this war-torn country. Many young people pursue lust for adventures and expressing themselves by participating in different radical sects and organizations.
In Chechnya radical ideas often mislead young people who join so called Jihad warriors. However, later many of them disappoint in radical ideas after experiencing the horror of war, where they have to commit crimes and see the deaths of their friends.
So did Ruslan. During his studying at History Department of Ingush State University he met senior student Isa who invited Ruslan to his home. There for the first time Ruslan heard about the need to unite all true Moslems (Vakhabbits) in religious brotherhoods to fight the opponents of their religion. Ruslan remembered the cold, fanatical look of the speaker s eyes. This middle-aged man gave many examples from his life at war attacks, fights, long marches which impressed the young listeners. The man s name was Umar and he was the leader in a Brotherhood in Dagestan.
For about six months Ruslan and his friends visited Isa s place. They were told much about the principles of the false religion Vakhabism. Ruslan started missing classes because he had to meet Umar very often. The brotherhood leader wanted to persuade Ruslan and his friends to quit the university by telling that the true Moslem needs only spiritual education. Spending much time with his new spiritual leader , Ruslan could hardly pass his exams at university.
At the beginning of summer Ruslan and his fellow student Vakha did not go to have holidays in their native village. They joined the group of the young people Umar selected for military training in one of the militants camps located on the southern border between Ingushetia and Chechnya.
The boys were hesitant to go to the training camp. But they changed their mind after Umar s promise to give each of them a 100 dollar reward after military studies and a short practical training.
Ruslan did not receive the money even after being more than three months in the forest with militants.
The first 30 days he spend in the camp practicing shooting and studying how to treat mines and explosives. They were read literature on Vakhabbism by the teachers-Arabs who could hardly speak Russian. They enforced very strict discipline according to the Shariat laws.
After conducting a hard 5 day march and hardly avoided being caught by Russian troops, the group arrived at a base in Vedeno district.
At the beginning of August Ruslan with several young people were enlisted in the group under command of Chechen militant Shamil Gelikhanov. Before his arrival many the gang lost many militants. On his second day in the gang, it came under bombardment by Russian troops. Vakha was badly wounded. His life could be saved if the commander had let transport Vakha to the district hospital. But Shamil considered this to be too dangerous. Vakha died of bleeding six hours later.
The death of his friend shocked Ruslan and he started thinking about leaving the gang. He finally quit after seeing the murder of a teacher. That night the group entered Oktyabrskoe village and Shamil demanded its residents to bring food, clothes and guards to the gang s destination. The local school teacher Agariz Saidaliev refused to assist the militants, and the commander beat the teacher and shot him into his head. Ruslan was terrified by seeing this murder.
He and two more young people could leave the gang after Shamil got drunk and fell asleep. The other four militants could not stop them.
Twp weeks later Ruslan came to his native village. After a long hard conversation with his father the former Vakhabbit came to the district police station, gave his weapons and told the investigator about his adventures.
The investigation lasted long, but finally Ruslan was let go home provided that he commited no serious crimes and came to the police voluntarily. The father immediately sent him to elatives who live in another village to provide protection from Gerikhanov s gang revenge.
Several months later Ruslan was still reserved and felt tension. He approached the reporter who visited the village and asked to write about his life story. Ruslan hopes other young people will not make mistakes after learning about his experience.
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November 11 2003, 11:34 AM
12:15 2003-11-11
Major terrorist act prevented in Shatoi district, Chechnya.
A major terrorist act has been prevented in the Shatoi district, Chechnya, an official of the Chechen Interior Ministry reported on Tuesday.
The day before the police found a cache in the village of Gorgachi, he said. "The cache contained 5 kg of TNT, four 82-mm shells, an F-1 grenade, two RPG-26 grenade-launchers and about 2,000 45-mm cartridges," the source said. The police believe that militants intended to use this arsenal to organize an act of terrorism in the district, he added.
Apart from this, on the same day the police found and destroyed yet another large cache near the village of Agishty in the Shali district. It contained 65 rounds for a grenade-launcher, 12 hand grenades, four mortar mines, three missiles, over 1,600 cartridges of different caliber and 1.5 kg of TNT.
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November 14 2003, 1:28 PM
Two prosecutors freed from Chechen captivity.
Gazeta.Ru
Two prosecutors, abducted a year ago, have been freed from captivity in Chechnya, Russian news agencies reported on Friday morning.
Senior assistant prosecutor of Chechnya Nadezhda Pogosova and deputy prosecutor of the Shatoi District of the republic Alexei Klimov, abducted on 27 December 2002 in Grozny, have been freed from Chechen captivity during a special operation carried out by the republican power-wielding agencies, a source in the Interior Ministry of Chechnya told Interfax.
The operation was carried out in one of the mountainous districts in the republic, the source reported without elaborating. The freed hostages are outside the republic, an Interior Ministry official said. Their state of health is satisfactory, and there is no risk to their health.
On Friday the deputy prosecutor of the Chechen Republic, Igor Samokhin, confirmed that the freed prosecutors had been freed during a special operation carried out a day earlier and brought to the town of Mineralnyye Vody.
Before he was elected President of Chechnya in October this year, the head of the republican administration Akhmad Kadyrov, speaking at one of the news conferences, claimed that according to his information, rebel leader Doka Umarov was holding the abducted prosecutors captive.
Kadyrov alleged that the rebels had demanded a ransom for the hostages. On his part, the then-acting president of Chechnya pledged “to apply all efforts for liberating the prosecutors without paying a ransom”.
Senior assistant prosecutor of Chechnya, Nadezhda Pogosova, and deputy prosecutor of Shatoi, Alexei Klimov, were abducted in December last year. On 27 December Pogosova and Klimov left Grozny in the prosecutor’ office’s Opel and headed to Mozdok airport in North Ossetia. However, the two never arrived at the point of their destination.
On January 1 the search for the missing pair began. On 27 December a powerful blast rocked the government compound in the Chechen capital, killing dozens of local officials. At first it was believed that the missing prosecutors were killed in the attack, but their bodies were not found among the bodies of victims of the terrorist act.
In summer this year the Moscow media published two video addresses by the hostages in which they asked for liberation. In particular, Nadezhda Pogosova addressed the well-known entrepreneur and co-founder of the Liberal Russia party Boris Berezovsky with the request to help her and her colleague out of Chechen captivity. The video file had been sent to Grani.ru news web site by email. Some observers suggested that the address to Berezovsky could be “a provocation” on the part of the rebels.
Meanwhile, in Ingushetia four policemen died and 11 were injured as a private house blew up in the village of Troitskaya, in Ingushetia, RIA Novosti reported on Friday, citing the Emergencies Ministry. Two people are in critical condition.
According to the ministry, the explosion occurred at 10h30 at 31, Ulitsa Lenina [Street]. An explosive device went off as a special-purpose police unit was checking a private residential house, an Emergencies Ministry official said.
Another major terror attack has been prevented on Friday in Chechnya. A car laden with 300 kilos of explosives was found in the outskirts of Novyi Sharoi, Interfax reported citing the chief spokesman for the anti-terror operations in the Northern Caucasus Ilya Shabalkin. According to preliminary reports, the rebels had planned to perpetrate the attack in a crowded place.
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November 18 2003, 10:03 AM
16 November 2003 10:39
Russians slam Chechen rebel leader`s plan for highland statelet.
ITAR-TASS news agency
Moscow, 16 November: The leader of the Chechen extremists, Aslan Maskhadov, whose bandit groups are not in a position to offer serious resistance to the federal forces, has declared his intention to create a so-called "Independent Highland Ichkeria", ITAR-TASS was told today by telephone by the spokesman for the regional operational headquarters of the counterterrorist operation in the North Caucasus, Col Ilya Shabalkin. "This idea of Maskhadov's is being promoted at the moment by his representatives abroad, who include the former warlord Khozh-Akhmed Nukhayev. On each convenient occasion he appears at different human rights meetings with a new idea to propagate," Shabalkin said. It is with this in mind, said the head of the press service of the Combined Force in the North Caucasus, Vasiliy Panchenkov, that the rebels are organizing bases and arsenals in the foothills and mountains of Chechnya. In the last two days alone, Panchenkov said, Combined Force sub-units have located and destroyed in this area around 10 rebel caches and bases. "The largest of these were discovered near the settlements of Komsomolskoye, Mayrtup, Shatoy, Vedeno and Benoy," Panchenkov explained. As Col Shabalkin noted, the rebels are pursuing the creation of an "Independent Highland Ichkeria" through their customary methods - by robbing and plundering the local population from whom they take foodstuffs and warm clothing in order to get them through the winter in the highland districts of Chechnya. "Yesterday in the village of Tazbichi in Itum-Kalinskiy District supporters of Maskhadov carried out robberies on local people, taking food and warm clothing," Shabalkin said.
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November 20 2003, 10:10 AM
Igla anti-aircraft missile system found in Chechnya.
Interfax. Thursday, Nov. 20, 2003, 12:31 PM Moscow Time
KHANKALA. Nov 20 (Interfax) - An Igla shoulder-held anti-aircraft missile launcher was found on the outskirts of Mesker-Yurt in Chechnya's Shali district on Thursday, representative of the regional headquarters for the anti-terrorist campaign in the North Caucasus Col. Ilya Shabalkin told Interfax by telephone.
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Missile 9M39 of "IGLA" 9K38 portable anti-aircraft missile system (PAMS).
Missile 9M39 of the portable anti-aircraft missile system "Igla" (9K38) is designed for defeat of visually observed jet, turbo-prop and piston-engined aircrafts and helicopters on head-on and tail-on courses under conditions of influence of natural (background) and false heat jammings.
The missile is fired by a gunner from the shoulder in a standing or kneeling position from a fire position on the terrain providing good observation of air space. PAMS "Igla" possesses automatic introduction of elevation and lead angles, deep destruction of warhead, uses detonating fuel in propulsion system and displacement circuit in a homing head ensuring the missile hit into the most vulnerable components of the target and allows to defeat effectively modern aircrafts and helicopters of enemy.
PAMS "Igla" operation is approved for use under conditions of temperate cold, arid and humid tropical climate.
Technical Characteristics.
Calibre, mm 72.2
Length of a container with a missile, mm 1708
Start mass of a missile, kg 10.6
Height of target engagement, m maximum 3500
minimum 10
Maximum speed of target engagement, m/s 400
Activation time, s, not more than 13
Maximum range of the target engagement, m 5200
Crew, persons 1
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November 20 2003, 10:31 AM
13:12 2003-11-20
In Chechnya militants commit act of sabotage against civilians.
A remote-controlled land mine was detonated on Wednesday in the Vedeno district in south-eastern Chechnya, which left two girls, aged 14 and 15, wounded, according to the regional headquarters for the counter terrorist operation in the North Caucasus. The mine was set in one of the streets of Makhkety village by militants from an illegal armed formation operating in that area.
A headquarters spokesman told RIA Novosti that a 16-year-old youth, a local resident, was detained on suspicions of involvement in the crime. When questioned, he said that he had set up the explosive device together with two other militants.
According to the spokesman, the bandits had planned to present the terrorist act as artillery shelling of the village by federal forces and thus provoke a protest from the population.
A Study of the Viewpoints of the Chechnya Anomaly and the Russian Hand.
Compiled By: Ryan Mauro
tdcanalyst@optimum.net
The warfare in Chechnya has many different faces on it and very different sides to it. For some, it is a war of liberation against an aggressive Russia. For others, it is Russia’s own War on Terrorism. Yet, for the rest, it is both. Chechnya and the neighboring Pankisi Gorge area of Georgia are probably safe-points for terrorists. Chechnya is a scene for international terror, and Russia’s offensive into the area has created a battlefield to which radical Muslims can be drawn into.
The main essence of the Chechen conflict, regarding terrorism, is that the lengthened and extremely cruel state of war and occupation, combined with the destruction of infrastructure and isolation of the whole North Caucasus (not only Chechnya) has pushed entire nations to the edge of survival, where, to some extent, every male citizen is a combatant. It can be best compared with Afghanistan in mid-1990s, when the West had lost all its interest to the area. This kind of a situation creates excellent opportunity for more sinister activities, which can exploit the desperation of the local population: weapons trade, looting, arbitrary killing, kidnapping and terrorism can flourish, committed by Russian troops and security services, as well as Chechen criminals, corrupt local officials, and Arab jihadists alike. The main problem is the lack of legitimate system of law and order, because there is no local acceptance for the Russian occupation (and it hasn’t provided any security, quite the contrary) or the puppet regime of Ahmed Kadyrov, but on the other hand, the legitimate regime of Aslan Maskhadov has been ousted and isolated, and there never was international recognition for Chechen statehood. However, rather than Chechnya (where the conditions are too hard for even terrorists), the Russian-controlled parts of the North Caucasus, especially parts of Dagestan, Ossetia and Abkhazia, have become safe havens for terrorists and weapons smugglers. The pro-Moscow colonial administrations in these areas are now manned with former KGB officers, and they are heavily involved in international weapons trade.
In my mind, there is no doubt that the FSB intelligence service of Russia (the former KGB—in fact, the FSB is the same as the KGB; there was never any change of personnel, only the change of the name) which is deeply integrated into the Russian Mafia (which is also often dominated by former Soviet intelligence operatives) has ties to international terrorists, including those that preside in Chechnya and Georgia. I recently spoke with Mr. Anssi Kullberg who has visited Pankisi Gorge, Georgia, and knows first-hand that it would be hard to hide much more than a dozen terrorists there—let alone training camps—without having them exposed by Georgian, Russian, and US intelligence operatives who have been flocking to Pankisi Gorge for over two years. However, it has served the interests of all involved parties to make alarm on the “terrorist threat” in Pankisi, because it contributes to the Russian propaganda in one hand, but on the other hand, it helps Georgia and the US to justify the US presence in that volatile frontier with Russian military operations. Finally, also the Chechen guerrillas welcomed US operations against terrorists in Pankisi, believing that this would bring US interest to their struggle, and that US presence would prevent Russia from its most controversial operations.
Anyway, the scope of the reach of Islamic radicalism in the two areas is present, and to claim that the former Communist structures of the former Soviet Union control all of them is foolish. However, infiltration of key Muslim power spots and movements in the region is a key tactic used in the past by the Soviet Union. As a result, we should expect this to have occurred again. There is no doubt that such a move can be seen as necessary in regard to Russia’s interests (they regularly consider territorial dominion primary to the security of Russians), but will it protect the United States?
The First Chechen War
The famous, high-ranking KGB defector, Anatoly Golitsyn is a valuable asset in understanding the events in Chechnya. He is well-known for a near 94% accuracy rate in his predictions of coming events relating to the former Soviet Union—predictions made in his first book, New Lies for Old. In 1995, he published his second book, The Perestroika Deception in which the First Chechen War was discussed.
In his book, he discusses why he believes that the Speaker of Parliament in Russia, Ruslan Khasbulatov, along with Vice President Aleksandr Rutskoi, were used as provocateurs to display a conflict with Boris Yeltsin, Russia’s president. The conflict encouraged political violence in October of 1993, and despite their role in the “conflict”, the two were arrested, released and granted amnesty. The end result of the violence was a stricter rule by Yeltsin, and the creation of a new Constitution giving him more power. For those who read about Russia’s prison laws, this is unusual especially in this kind of case. Golitsyn writes that that is why when Khasbulatov began using rhetoric in December of 1994 about his Chechen origins Golitsyn became suspicious that Khasbulatov was being used as a double-agent to control both sides in the Chechen conflict.
And here, the view of things separates into two realms:
Theory #1: The conflict was the result of a pre-planned strategy so both sides of the conflict could be controlled. It was also created to give the West an image of an apparent power struggle. Golitsyn writes in his book regarding Chechnya (this would later become prophetic, almost predicting the Moscow apartment bombings in 1999): “During the period of Lenin’s ‘Trust’ scam in the 1920s, the Soviets timed the blowing up of police stations to coincide with pre-arranged visits by anti-Bolshevik émigré opposition leaders, in order to convince them that opposition to the Communists continued on the ground. The staging of spectacular destructive spectacles is therefore nothing new.” Although this quote applied to a faked split inside the Russian government, and to the First Chechen War, this quote would clearly show that the Leninist tactics adopted by the ex-Communists still in power would come to good use in the future. In fact, the art of provocation was a favorite tactic of the Russian secret services before the Communists already: the czar’s Okhrana used them extensively to penetrate real and imagined rebel movements, to blow up houses in order to provoke reactions and justify even more harsh methods, and to discredit all opposition to the czar.
Theory #2: The KGB originally planned a repeat of their successful coups in Georgia and Azerbaijan, where top-ranking KGB generals were pushed to power, and the pro-Western and democratically elected presidents, Zviad Gamsakhurdia and Abulfaz Elchibey, as well as their governments and parliaments, were ousted. This was to take place in Chechnya, too, where the KGB needed to remove Djokhar Dudayev, and replace him with a pro-Moscow puppet. Khasbulatov would have been the natural choice for a puppet, because also the former KGB generals Eduard Shevardnadze and Heydar Aliyev were too powerful to be kept in the Moscow power games, so the Kremlin gave them their own states. However, the capability of Dudayev and the Chechen people to resist all of Moscow’s attempts came as a surprise for the KGB elite, and while Russia was wasting money, gunpowder and men in the First Chechen War, also Shevardnadze and Aliyev actually broke out of Moscow’s control, and started to support real Georgian and Azerbaijani independence from Moscow.
Combining the theories, the question is no longer, whether Moscow purposefully provoked the First Chechen War, and whether it used provocations and manipulation of the “enemy”, but to which extent it controlled the players, and which players. It should also be asked, to which extent the “agents”, such as Shevardnadze and Aliyev, actually became players themselves, using the Kremlin to advance their own agenda in the power game. Also, why Dudayev couldn’t be ousted like Gamsakhurdia and Elchibey, but the much smaller Chechnya actually offered much more resistance against Russia than Georgia and Azerbaijan?
This brings us to another topic of debate. Anatoly Golitsyn also explains how his experience in the KGB allows him to see Russian manipulation of a gullible Western media. He makes several good points to show that much of the conflict was manipulated in front of the media to produce a different picture of what was going on. It definitely appears that the Russian army was meant to be “defeated” in front of Western cameras, according to his observations. Golitsyn asks several questions. He notes the great reputation of the Russian special forces, known for capturing or killing high-profile persons, yet they were unable to capture high-level Chechens. Inexperienced officers were used to invade Chechnya, and when they fought, they were conveniently placed in front of Western media outlets. The Chechens were also well-armed. The strict control of the Soviet Union and its Russian successor would not allow for such major illicit arms shipments to take place without their consent. Golitsyn attempts to solve this mystery by noting that on May 2, 1995, BBC TV taped Russian forces delivering ammunition to Chechen forces. Regarding the potential manipulation of the media’s perception, there are again, two theories:
Theory #1: Russian forces, although surprised by Chechen resistance, probably were fully capable of conquering Chechnya in days. Much of the things the already restricted Western media were “allowed” to see was staged or used to manipulate our perception. It was used to deceive the West into believing claims about the poor state of the Russian armed forces (for strategic purposes and to get money and technology). Meanwhile, Russian forces continued to pound Chechnya for strategic reasons.
Theory #2: The troubles the Russian military faced in Chechnya were completely genuine. The war wasted some of the best-trained Russian commando units, and besides, the war was used like a great thrash of old Soviet equipment. Russia was not what it used to be, but the bad skills, low morale, and generally massive waste of resources were genuine phenomena of the First Chechen War. Yeltsin’s war cabinet simply and gravely underestimated the capabilities of the Chechen resistance. Also, early Yeltsin’s Russia was not as prepared to censure and manipulate the media than the old Soviet Union or Putin’s Russia. The reason the Chechens were so well-armed was because Dudayev bought off most of the Soviet equipment that was left in Chechnya in 1991, when Chechnya declared independence and the Russians were pulled out. They were not “well armed” in the sense of the quality of the weapons, but surely there was no shortage of old Soviet equipment. Between 1989 and 1991, the KGB was at its weakest, while the powers of the Army and GRU had peaked. The Army was acting more independently from the political control than ever. The KGB did not take over until completing the first step in 1993, second in 1997, and the final step in 1999. This explains how the strict control was undermined, and such illicit arms shipments to the resistance could occur without the consent of the Kremlin.
The end of the First Chechen War also warrants questioning. Russian forces did not surround Grozny, the Chechen capital, and did not cut off the only available transportation route for the militants and their arms. Why did it take so long to capture the Presidential Palace? And why were the Chechen militants, at the end of the last battle, allowed to take prisoners with them and flee elsewhere to continue the guerilla war? During these suspicious events, why were no Western journalists allowed to see Russia’s final major combat operations in the war at the Palace? From here, again, there are two views:
Theory #1: These are just more examples of Russia’s manipulation of the Western media and the war as a whole. This is more evidence that Russia wanted the war to last long, and to provide the Western media with the belief that Russia was incapable of handling even small Chechnya. Russia could have done well in the war and may have done better than we think.
Theory #2: Russia lost the First Chechen War, despite an effort to win the war effectively and quickly. There was no real reason for Russia to manipulate the events to portray their military as weak. More support from the West could be blackmailed through showing might and force than through faking weakness. The answers to the questions posed can be found in the poor state of the military, or even more, in the poor morale and the lack of a real reason to invade Chechnya, other than Russia’s territorial unity – where the loss of Chechnya hardly weighted much, when so recently huge and crucial areas like Ukraine and Central Asia had been lost. Russian people still believed in Perestroika and didn’t support the massacring of Chechens for no benefit to ordinary Russians. Russia lost the war, quite miserably, in 1996. That was a time when many Western journalists were allowed to flock to Chechnya. Also the free presidential election of Chechnya, after the Russians withdrew, was observed by many Westerners. In many senses, 1996 to 1997 was the most free period that Chechnya had experienced after 1992-1994, when Dudayev was in power.
Golitsyn finishes his analysis of the possible manipulation of Western media perception by going through a list of other curious things that occurred in front of the media. The destruction of empty buildings, interviews occurring between Western journalists and wanted Chechen guerilla leaders, casualty manipulation, and media access to selected Chechen demonstrations were used in the campaign against Western media and analysis. However, Russia could have just as easily (according to this theory) presented a rosy picture of troops with high morale and big victories. Yet journalists had restricted access to troops, and only saw what the Russians wanted them to see. It seems clear to some that Russia wanted an apparent failure to be promoted in the eyes of the West. JR Nyquist, a Soviet/Russian analyst (www.JRNyquist.com), makes a very good point in this subject: The Russian general leading the fight, Anatoly Kvashnin was not fired or demoted for his mistakes that cost them the war, but was instead promoted to chief of the General Staff. Again, here there is disagreement as to what this means.
Theory #1: Kvashnin was promoted because he had successfully carried out what Russia asked him to do. They wanted failure in Chechnya (or a perceived failure), and he served them well. For his loyalty and success in carrying out the deception, he was rewarded.
Theory #2: It is a basic practice in Russian history, starting from the Czarist period, that the best generals (militarily most successful) have been “awarded” with being sacked, deposited to distant posts in Siberia, and so on—even murdered. This happened also to the successful General Lebed. Those who get promoted and awarded are the ones who are most servile to the leader, and to the hierarchical (“vertical”, as Putin says) order of the Kremlin court intrigues.
Of course, manipulation of the media doesn’t mean that Russia decided to create the war. Other evidence indicates that. According to research presented in Godfather of the Kremlin, the powerful oligarch Boris Berezovsky (who also used to control a pro-Kremlin media outlet) gave Shamil Basayev at least $1-2 million just before the incursion into Dagestan in 1999, with no explanation. Basayev was a radical Islamist leader, who was the head of the opposition against the Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov. Berezovsky is also known to have been a financial advisor to Boris Yeltsin. It is now believed this money—Russian money—was used to finance the incursion that provided a reason for the invasion of Chechnya. The Dagestan incursion, thus, was a provocation. Again, two views:
Theory #1: The money was used so Russia could control both sides of the Chechen conflict—the Islamist radicals and the Chechen government. This allowed Russia to create a Chechnya conflict completely to their liking. The Chechen government was controlled by secret allies of Russia, who were infiltrated to the circle around the Chechen President Maskhadov. One such figure was, for example, the mufti of Chechnya, Ahmed Kadyrov, who later became head of the pro-Moscow puppet government in occupied Chechnya. (I suspect that even the earlier president of Chechnya, Dudayev, was secretly an agent of Russia, but we will go to that question later.)
Theory #2: The money was given to provoke a conflict and to destabilize President Maskhadov’s Chechnya by using the Islamists, who were opposed to Maskhadov. Also Dagestani provocateurs were used to draw Basayev’s Chechen Islamists to what appeared as a “Chechen” invasion to Dagestan. Successful manipulation of the picture was used to cause the inability of the Western analysts to see the difference between the legitimate Chechen leadership (Dudayev, Maskhadov) and their Islamist opponents (Basayev). The Islamists have well-served as provocateurs to justify Russian aggression against the nationalists, although the nationalists have always been against the Islamists. The same method was used even in Dudayev’s time, when the Islamist Bislan Gantemirov was used to make rebellion against Dudayev. Later Gantemirov acted as a leader of the Russian puppet government in Chechnya.
Boris Berezovsky is now a defector, and is well-known in the media for his claims that the 1999 apartment bombings in Moscow were staged by Russian intelligence. Russia has responded with claiming that Berezovsky himself is a Chechen terrorist—a clear attempt to discredit the man in an attempt to get England to extradite him to Russia. Also, it serves Putin’s interests to blame Berezovsky as a scapegoat, when he is no longer needed.
According to some analysts, the origins of the First Chechen War can be seen in the Abkhazia War in Georgia from 1993-1994, where Russia’s military assisted those involved in the revolt against independent Georgia. Muslim volunteers who took part in the revolt found themselves fighting alongside the GRU (Russian military intelligence) operatives. The Abkhaz conflict began a new effort at constructing the radical Islamist movement. To some, the fact that Chechen commanders collaborated with sources in the Russian Army then and later in the wars, shows that Russia was playing a double-game. Others however, say this is natural—that the Chechens were still involved in the Soviet-time web of connections among the security circles. The GRU was talented in using both Muslim and Armenian mercenaries in the Karabagh and Abkhaz wars, which both resulted, at the end, the fact that Russia now controls Karabagh and Abkhazia, and can use them to undermine the independence of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Theory #1: Links between “former” Soviet figures and current Chechen figures indicates that Russia was able to control both sides of the conflict. Russia’s GRU fought alongside Chechen and Islamist militants in the Abkhaz War, and as a result, Russia trained and recruited many agents including Shamil Basayev. It is believed that Russia did this hoping that a destabilized Georgia would ask for Russian intervention. Indeed this did occur, resulting in the solidification of Russian power over the area. The figures Russia trained and recruited would later be used as provocateurs and double-agents, so they could control all sides of the Chechen conflict. Basayev was used to destabilize Chechnya so that Maskhadov would be forced to ask for Russian intervention and yield to stay within the Russian Federation.
Theory #2: The Chechen radicals who went to Abkhazia to fight the “Muslim” cause against Georgia, just happened to find themselves fighting alongside the GRU against Georgia. Among these Chechens were the Basayev brothers and Gelayev. Maskhadov later apologized to Georgia, saying that these “misled and manipulated” Chechens had been adventuring on the wrong side. To understand this, it is necessary to understand that these people all had a Soviet background—many of them were fighting in Afghanistan, but on the Soviet side! They have connections. Everything in the former USSR works with personal connections, because otherwise life would be impossible. For example, Chechen commanders still had connections with their former mates in the Russian Army. This is a good channel to get some weapons and ammunition. On the other hand, they might ask for a little fighting in Karabagh or Abkhazia, and after all, mercenaries are always paid well. All in all, pointing at connections between Russian and Chechen players doesn’t prove anything, because still in 1991 they were the same state, and of course they were connected.
There is one thing that is agreed upon by both sides regarding the Abkhazia War is that it was designed to help in the coup d’etat against Gamsakhurdia, and to force Shevardnadze, the usurper, to remain servile to Moscow. Today, Abkhazia is still occupied by Russian forces and the GRU holds a base there for worldwide operations—just like it also has at Karabagh (Azerbaijan), South Ossetia (Georgia), Transnistria (Moldova), and the Akhalkalaki base in Georgia’s Djavakhetia, near the Armenian border.
Regarding Basayev, there is some disagreement over the level of a Russian agent he is. Some believe he is unconsciously acting as a Russian agent by just being used, while others believe he is a willing agent. It is known that his brother Shirvani Basayev had a background relations with the GRU, and that there are others around Basayev including Arab contacts that are Russian agents. According to some reports that we will look at, Shamil Basayev was recruited by Russian intelligence for operations in Abkhazia, after fighting alongside Yeltsin’s Communist forces in the power struggle of August 1991. Before Abkhazia, Basayev had fought in Nagorny Karabagh in 1992, where a small number of Chechen militants were aiding the Azerbaijani side. Neither Azerbaijan (led by Heydar Aliyev, former KGB general and head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in Azerbaijani SSR) nor Georgia (led by Eduard Shevardnadze, ex-head of the Soviet Communist Party in Georgian SSR, former KGB general and former Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs) have resisted the movement of Basayev, Gelayev or other militants between the borders. It is interesting that Basayev, who would later command the Chechen militants, met the first leader of the militants, Djokhar Dudayev, in the Soviet Air Force in the 1980s.
Regarding Dudayev, there are again two sides:
Theory #1: Despite the fact that Dudayev refused to act against the Estonian rebels, thus dismissing the Politburo orders, he may have been a provocateur even back then. The Soviet Union purposely didn’t fully resist the democratic movements, as they were already infiltrated and “hijacked” (this view is held by JR Nyquist and the KGB defector Anatoly Golitsyn). In the decades prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union, a great deal of effort was put forward by the Soviets to infiltrate potential dissident movements of all kinds, and often the key figures to be used for this purpose would be ones that had proven themselves to the Soviets. This system of agents was preserved by Russia even after the Soviet Union fell, which is why people believing in this theory don’t easily trust the words “former Soviet” or “former Communist”.
Theory #2: Dudayev was a genuine anti-Communist from the beginning and hated Soviet politics. His anti-Communism and romantic nationalist views were well known for many Estonian intellectuals in 1980s while Dudayev was commander of the biggest Soviet air base in Tartu, Estonia. For all of the Perestroika period, Dudayev spent writing nationalist poems and going around with Estonian intellectuals, assisting them in anti-Soviet activities. At the end, Dudayev refuted the Kremlin Politburo’s orders to crush the Estonian separatist movement, and instead, opened the air base to the demonstrators, quit the Red Army and moved back to Chechnya.
It’s true that the KGB effectively used to infiltrate all potential dissident movements, and tried to control them. This is visible in the “parallel” movements of the time the Soviet Union was collapsing. The movements promoted by the KGB tried to undermine the genuine movements, sometimes succeeding while sometimes failing. There were also many “former Communists” who really turned their coats when they got the chance. In the Baltic countries, the KGB organized the so-called “Inter Movements”, while in the Caucasus, the KGB controlled the Islamist IRP, which acted in opposition against the national independence movements, trying to advocate Islamist views and anti-Western attitude, but to “save the unity” (of course, within the Russian Federation). Also, while Moscow purposely equated separatism with terrorism in its propaganda marketed to the West, it simultaneously promoted many separatist movements in order to destabilize those countries, which actually broke out from Moscow’s empire: for example, the Abkhazians and Ossetians in Georgia, the Karabagh Armenians in Azerbaijan, the Slavs of Transnistria in Moldova, the Lezgins of the Dagestan-Azerbaijan border, and the Nadterek area in Chechnya. This shows the reach and methods of the penetration of Russian secret services to the conflicts of the region. (Armed rebellions as well as Islamist extremists were usually under the control of GRU, not the KGB, for which reason even less is generally known about them.)
In the Soviet times, everyone in politics or intelligence got screened by the KGB. But the Army was apolitical, and purposefully so. There were “political officers” of the KGB behind the Army officers, watching them, but the Army officers were excluded from the ideological system. The Soviet Army was very powerful and professional, and that was only possible because army officers were among the very few people in positions in the Soviet Union who were allowed to cultivate nationalist patriotism, as long as it remained utterly “all-Soviet” and avoided any “ethnic” character. This is what Dudayev managed to do, too.
When he was young, his non-Communist thinking brought him troubles in the university, so that he skipped to the military career, where one could advance without the need of doctrinal Marxism-Leninism. He passed through as an Ossetian, which allowed him to be educated as a pilot, and to rise into distinction as an officer. This wouldn’t have been possible for an ethnic Chechen or any Muslim because of the KGB screening. However, the Ossetians—a Caucasian Christian nation, who have been the most loyal vassals of the Russians—look and sound the same as Muslim Caucasians for a Russian. Moreover, Dudayev’s patriotic achievements as an air force officer in the Afghan War put him into the position where even the discovery that he was a Chechen could no longer take back his reputation. Finally, Dudayev was assigned as Commander of the Strategic Bomber Division in Tartu, and by then, Perestroika had already began, and besides, Estonia was “the West” of the Soviet Union, meaning that there it was much easier to get access to pro-Western circles. There he started active involvement in the nationalist, democracy and human rights circles.
In the Soviet context, you can always find proof for anybody, absolutely anybody, for being an agent. Everybody has skeletons in his closet. However, there is no particular reason to believe Dudayev was a Russian agent—quite the contrary, his later activities and Russia’s special keenness to eliminate him point at the opposite. Russia clearly wanted somebody else than Dudayev to take over in Chechnya. They tried to push their agents like Khasbulatov, Avturkhanov and Zavgayev to oust Dudayev, but Dudayev defeated them all. Yeltsin was left with no other means but direct invasion to Chechnya. This was exactly because they could not control the Chechen leadership. Russia agreed on ceasefire only after Dudayev had been assassinated by Russian rocket attack, and replaced by the Vice President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev (who later very suitably converted into radical Islamist, absolutely unlike Dudayev).
And right onto another debate:
Theory #1: Dudayev was a Russian double-agent. His past loyalty to the Soviet Union indicates that he was indeed a double-agent, chosen to infiltrate the Chechen movement. His involvement allowed Russia to control both the nationalist and Islamist parties of Chechnya. It is incorrect to claim that Soviet Army officers were strictly non-ideological. The loyalty of military officers in key departments (like nuclear bomber wings especially in Dudayev’s case) had to be absolute. As for Russia’s assassination of Dudayev, even his death has been called into question, as shown in the book, The War in Chechnya by Stasys Knezys and Romanas Sedlickas.
Theory #2: Dudayev’s discontent with the Soviet Union was genuine. He surely had extensive contacts within the Soviet Army, and there was often mutual understanding and respect between him and the high Russian army generals like Lebed. But like many army officers, he disliked the KGB and the politics involved. Dudayev was killed in April, 1996 by a Russian missile attack. He was located through a US satellite, either a Chalet or Magnum. This was one of the biggest mistakes by the United States in the region because Dudayev was pro-American to the end, and a dedicated enemy of radical Islamism. It is unknown if his location was identified and given to the Russians as a favor, through a mole, or through electronic espionage.
The assassination of Dudayev allowed the Islamists to penetrate the Chechen ranks (Basayev himself wasn’t a radical until late 1996). If he had survived until 1997, there would probably not have been significant terrorist infiltration into Chechnya. He wanted to form a secular or syncretist state. Often the KGB would assist the Islamist forces fighting against him, and he was condemned for suppressing the KGB-armed rebels. An example of such an event was the crushing of the Labazanov rebellion led by a convicted murderer, or the Gantemirov rebellion led by the head of the Islamist party. Labazanov and Gantemirov were Russian agents, not Dudayev. Basayev’s Islamist propaganda is responsible for talk of Dudayev being a Russian agent—a theme the KGB also likes to use to compromise its enemies. This same tactic was used against Maskhadov to boost Basayev around 1999. Also then, the Russian Foreign Minister Yevgeny Primakov wanted to spread rumors that Maskhadov is ready to compromise Chechen independence and remain within the Russian Federation, and such rumors were spread among Chechens, too. Hotheads like Basayev immediately seized them—like extremists tend to seize all kinds of conspiracy theories—and started to accuse Maskhadov for compliance at Russia.
Why else would the Chechen Wars be provoked by Russia? It should be mentioned that according to Christopher Story’s Soviet Analyst, the area surrounding and including Chechnya was designated as a giant “military exercise site” in 1992, as a place for the Russian armies to prepare weapons, test weapons, get training, and to conduct war games of all kinds. The unique terrain makes the area perfect for war games suited to all sorts of scenarios. Therefore, it should also be mentioned that in 1999-2000, like in 1994-1995, this area was used to test new weapons, just like Story said.
There are other suspicious facts about the First Chechen War. As told in The War in Chechnya, it is known that Dudayev had copies of Russia’s battle plans when they invaded in 1994. Could he have coordinated his actions with the military plans of Russia as part of a common strategy?
Theory #1: The plans ended up on Dudayev’s desk as a result of a special relationship with the Russians. They wanted him to know their plans before they were executed, so their secret joint strategy could be pursued according to plans. Dudayev’s resistance to the Russians is part of a strategic plan. The fact that he knew about the military actions beforehand show cooperation.
Theory #2: Dudayev had very effective intelligence and many sources in the Russian military that could provide him with plans. He could buy out sources, use double agents, and there were many Russians who were against Yeltsin’s “little victorious war”. In fact, most of Yeltsin’s advisors at the time advised against the armed invasion, and among the Russian parties, only Communists and Zhirinovsky’s fascists supported Yeltsin’s obsession to start a war. Besides, many foreign analysts knew that a Russian invasion was near in both cases, even more so in 1999. Does this make them Russian agents? Rather not: it was just very easy to guess what was to come, knowing Russia. For example, in 1999, public sources were reporting by early summer that Russia was logistically preparing for a new war (remember that the Dagestan provocation took place in July-August only, and the Moscow bomb blasts were in September), and it was quite obvious in 1998 already. Even the way how the war would begin was easy to predict for any keen observer with no naive illusions about Russia, since all their operations, for ages, have been launched with the use of provocations and subversive activities.
There is also argument about Dudayev’s death.
Theory #1: Writing about the death, JR Nyquist says it the best: “Nothing about this death can be determined with any certainty. For example, Dudayev’s body is missing. His wife made cryptic statements about the whole thing, returned to Russia and ‘disappeared’. Stranger still, a dead Chechen commander named Salman Radujev came back to life without explanation on July 18, 1996 to announce that Dudayev was alive. Knezys and Sedlickas admit that Dudayev might have become president of Chechnya ‘as a result of a special operation conducted by the Russian KGB.’ There is no proof, but certainly there is evidence suggesting that Moscow influenced developments in Chechnya from the beginning, just as Russia influenced developments in Afghanistan in the 1970s and 1980s. ‘The game plan called for a person subservient to Russia to take power in Chechnya,’ wrote Knezys and Sedlickas. Dudayev became the Kremlin’s agent of influence ‘on the ground’ who hijacked Chechnya in the service of the Russian General Staff.”[1]
According to this theory, Dudayev is likely still alive and is being hidden by Russia, who has vital interest in protecting their double-agent.
Theory #2: Dudayev is not a double-agent. There wouldn’t have been a more loyal person to “hijack” Chechnya than the pro-Moscow head of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR, Umar Avturkhanov, or the other Party line leader, Doku Zavgayev. Dudayev was the one who hijacked Chechnya away from the KGB. In fact, Chechnya under Dudayev was the only place of the former Soviet Union, besides of the three Baltic countries, which was NOT under the control of former KGB or Communist Party leaders. His death was like everything in post-Soviet conflicts: so much covered by camouflage and conspiracy theories (often purposely spread) that it’s hard to say anything certain. Two eye-witnessed, however, survived, including Dudayev’s wife.
Alla Dudayeva, the wife, later fled to Istanbul and her “cryptic” statements and hiding were nothing but attempts to get her kids to safety. Today, she is still a painter and sometimes arranges exhibitions and visits European countries. As for Salman Raduyev (the dead Chechen commander mentioned in Theory #1), he was a crazy man. Nobody ever took any of his statements seriously. He claimed he was Dudayev’s nephew and wanted to claim his legacy, but he was just a radical who admired and imitated Basayev. It was commonly said by Chechens—to be polite—that Raduyev had got a shrapnel in his head. He imitated Basayev in his most famous operation, the hostage taking in Kizlyar, which ended up in the Russian shelling of the village of Pervomaiskoye. It was also claimed about Raduyev that he was a Russian provocateur.
Despite all the debate, it is clear that Russia played a role in provoking the both Chechen Wars. The type of role will of course be argued over, but it appears that the plan for the wars fitted into a strategic plan. Some will say it was successful, and put a double-agents in power and successfully manipulated the Western media. Others will say the strategic goals were thwarted by the staunch Chechen resistance in the first war.
Human rights activists have also testified that Yeltsin used the events in Chechnya to secure re-election. A former supporter of Yeltsin, Sergei Kovalyov, for example, accused Yeltsin of using the war to win the election. He charged Yeltsin with winning the re-election through deception, by promising to end the war in Chechnya, only to restart it the day after he was elected. This was even more obvious in Putin’s campaign, aided with the Second Chechen War.
The First Chechen War allowed aggressive former KGB, GRU and Communist Party officials to come into power in Russia, and allowed a stricter rule over the country. Again, this was even clearer in the launching of the Second Chechen War. The rest of the former Soviet Union was frightened into submission into Russia’s plans to hold the areas as a sphere of influence, and the independence of Chechnya was to be crushed. Several rebellions against Dudayev were armed and backed by Russian security agencies—even to the extent that in pre-1994 attempts on Dudayev’s life, coup attempts, and the Labazanov, Avturkhanov and Gantemirov rebellions were partly manned with Russian OMON troops in civilian clothes. Many of them were captured by Dudayev.
By provoking the war, Russia hoped to gain control of the critical oil pipeline to Novorossiisk, a key to controlling the region. Due to resistance, Russia has had to build a new pipeline to go around Chechnya. The war caused people to rally around a strong leader, Boris Yeltsin received Western support (by promoting the image that the only alternative to Yeltsin were people much less favorable to the West—provocateurs like Zhirinovsky, a former KGB officer, were used also in this regard), continued arms violations and military buildups were excused by the war, and the Western powers were convinced of the sorry state of all aspects of Russia’s military. This perception helped convince the West to bring in essential financial and technological assistance to prop up Yeltsin and the corrupt oligarchs who were linked to the equally corrupt government. This is what was behind Russia’s plans for Chechnya, only the methods are being debated by those who watch with a distrustful eye on Russia.
But by the late 1990s, Russia would again see the need for a war in Chechnya. Preparations appear to have begun almost immediately after or perhaps during the First Chechen War. JR Nyquist, explaining the radical Islamist anomaly in Chechnya writes: “The best observers on the ground in Chechnya believe that the Islamists in Chechnya were planted in the country by the Russian General Staff for reasons unknown and perhaps unfathomable. In fact, before 1996 there was no significant Islamist presence in Chechnya, and no Islamic power base. The religion of Chechnya is not the religion of Iran, Afghanistan or Arabia. Yet there suddenly appear these Arab gunmen who—with the help of the Russian Interior Ministry—conducted an incursion into Dagestan during the summer of 1999. And that is what triggered the Russian invasion.”[2] It was in Dagestan, controlled by Moscow, that the radical Islamists first got the foothold. It was from Dagestan that the destabilization of Chechnya would occur, and Russia’s next game plan for Chechnya would start.
The Second Chechen War
Paul Klebnikov’s book, Godfather of the Kremlin ultimately reaches the conclusion that the Second Chechen War was a “fraud”, because Russia purposely financed the Wahhabist militants that began terrorist activity in Dagestan. The leaders of this militant movement that received Russia’s funding include Commander Shamil Basayev and Commander Khattab as well as their Dagestani counterparts like Nadirshah Khachilayev. The radical Islamists were funded in order to “divide and rule”. The reason was that Russia’s real threat was never radical Islamists, but ethno-nationalist separatists, who threatened to establish truly independent states and make Russia’s territory a bit smaller. That was what Russia wanted to fight. The employment of radical Islamism to undermine reviving national liberation movements began in the late 1980s, and was effectively used first in the Karabagh conflict against the independence of both Armenia and Azerbaijan. Besides, it has been a real propaganda victory for the Russians, since it seems that for some very odd reason it is very difficult for even serious Western analysts to understand the basic difference between a secular nationally inspired independence movement (when it happens in a Muslim country) and the radical Islamists, who are, unlike the ethno-nationalist liberation movements, anti-nationalist, internationalist and anti-Western.
The main Russian interest is what could be outlined with what the Russian historian Sergey Medvedyev called “culture 1” and “culture 2”: 1) expansionism, 2) centralism. First, Russia wants to preserve the territorial greatness: bolshoye prostranstvo. They always think geopolitically, and so they think that the control of the vast Eurasian territory is key to supremacy. Secondly, Russia wants to preserve the vertical control of the Center (it’s always written a capital letter in Russian documents), that is, the Moscow Kremlin. To advance these two goals, the Russian security machinery, which was created by Czar Nicholas I, further developed by the Bolsheviks, and has remained mostly intact through the changes of political system, uses two primary strategies: 1) divide and rule, 2) “planetary rotation” (rotating the officials around the Center). The first strategy comes all the way from the Romans, the founders of the first truly territorial expansionist empire. The second resembles the ideology behind France’s Louis XIV (the “Sun King”). It is the ideology of absolutism and of autocracy. The idea is very clear, and has remained “the Russian idea” since Nicholas I, or even longer, probably from Ivan the Terrible (Ivan Groznyi). The whole idea is to make subjects quarrel among themselves and compete for power and the favor of the Center. This means both territorial subjects (“subjects” is the name Russia uses for provinces) and human actors like governors, generals and oligarchs. These two goals and these two strategies repeat themselves on all aspects of Russian behavior.
In Chechnya, the interests of others also collide. The Chechens have their own will. The Arab radicals have their own will. What are their goals and what strategies do they employ for their goals? For the Chechens, the primary goal—after physical survival—is freedom and existence as a nation. After the experiences of imperial and Communist Russia, they have become quite convinced that the only supreme goal that can meet these interests is an independent national state. And why not? Chechnya is about the same size as Estonia, both by territory and by population. While Estonia has the advantage of being close to stable European states like Finland and Sweden, Chechnya has the advantage (which Estonia lacks) that it has terrain that is easy to defend even against a superior enemy. Ingushetia doesn’t have such a terrain, and so they wanted to split up and remain with the Russian Federation—for the time being. Dudayev granted this right. So there was clearly no expansionist plans for him. The Chechens had the same clear goals: an independent Chechnya. It was not unrealistic. After all, so many small and dysfunctional states have become independent suddenly—and Chechnya, unlike many of them, has a strong, distinct national identity, age-old history and easily defendable terrain. Even their neighbor, Georgia obtained independence.
But regarding what the independent state’s features and the methods to gain such a state, the Chechens became divided. Most of the Chechens agreed that the country should be secular, just like all the other countries in Eastern Europe that were gaining independence. The Islamist opposition only appeared in 1995, so in 1991-1994 all the opposition movements against Dudayev’s secular nationalism were constituted by “Russified” Communists of the Nadterek region, armed by Russia. Besides, there was always ongoing internal power struggles which had nothing to do with ideology or goals, but with family and village relations, which we usually call “tribal disputes” to spice the image with some colonial exoticism. For example, the clans of Gudermes were opposed to the clans of Alleroi and so on. That’s politics.
The methods to bring about independence caused the most division. They sincerely believed in the beginning years that the West would come to their aid, but we didn’t. This led to the fact that many of those Chechens, who were more opportunist, started to seek “the winner’s side”, just like it happened in Afghanistan and continues to happen in all the conflicts of the world. Mere opportunism explains the majority of defections and coat-turnings, although there were also provocateurs and agents from the beginning. Dudayev, however, was always uncompromising in the issue of independence. Maskhadov, on the other hand, was much more willing to try the “moderate” approach, although he, too, never compromised the ultimate goal of independence. There were others, like Khasbulatov, who thought that Chechnya wouldn’t get independence, so he wanted to become the Russian-backed governor. Kadyrov became a Russian agent for the same reason, although he might have been a KGB agent from the very beginning.
Basayev and Raduyev (the radicals) believed that there was no other way but ultimate armed conflict, and so they became more and more radical as time went by, increasingly disappointed by the West’s “betrayal”, and became attracted to the Islamist movement. When Basayev and his allies adopted the radical Islamic ideology after the mid-1990s, they simultaneously had to reject both Chechen nationalism (and the idea of founding a distinct national state as the ultimate goal) and the traditional Chechen Sufi Islam. This they gradually did, and so they ended up adventuring the Chechen sovereignty by crossing borders here and there, which of course suited well the Russian purposes. There is still debate, as we discussed, if Basayev was either a Russian agent directly, or if the goals of his and Russia’s just happened to match. They both took action to oust the nationalist independence movement from Chechnya, and to provoke war. Russians did it for “dividing and ruling” territory, while the radical Muslims did it for spreading jihad and the “purification” of Caucasian Islam.
All these colliding interests resulting in an on-going conflict, and thus contributed to Russia’s decision to create the Second Chechen War. The event that provoked the war was the 1999 Dagestan incursion. In the same autumn, bombing of the Moscow apartment complexes added popular support to the war and served to justify the aggression in Russia and abroad. Therefore, it is not surprising that suspicious facts surround the attack. It is interesting that it came at a time when a successor to Yeltsin would have to be elected—a leader the people would rally around, and would be able to keep a strict rule while maintaining popularity. Chechnya was a perfect opportunity for a new round of deception to propel a new leader to power—Vladimir Putin, the head of the FSB, the successor to the KGB. Putin appeared strong, and fitted Russian interests and strategy well in all aspects. He had proven himself by spying on West Germany as a KGB intelligence officer. Only such a strong leader could keep the opposition forces at bay, and keep the people together with the government which was becoming widely viewed as irreversibly corrupt.
There is believed by many that the FSB (or GRU) was behind the apartment bombings. Many defectors and dissidents including Boris Berezovsky claim to have “proof” the FSB was behind the explosions. The most intriguing piece of evidence comes from a strange event that occurred on September 22, 1999 when someone tried to destroy another apartment complex in Ryazan. When civilians told the police about terrorist activity going on at the complex, the attack was abandoned and the local telephone company recorded a frightened voice talking to “superiors” about what to do next. He complained an escape was impossible because police guards were protecting the trains. The company traced the call back to the FSB headquarters in Moscow.[3]
Immediately after the incident, Russian intelligence ordered an end to the police investigation, and said that the bomb planted was made of sugar, as part of a test to see if civilians could detect and foil terrorist plots.[4] The police reports debunked this claim, proving it was a live bomb ready to go off. These reports of course, have been covered up by Russia. The reports state that the explosive was hexogen, and civilian descriptions confirm this report was accurate. The major media outlets of the West have accepted the explanation, despite that tell-tale signs of a cover-up were all over the place: local newspapers were seized, media outlets reporting the discrepancies in the explanation were persecuted and threatened, and residents claim to have been bribed or scared into not testifying about the incident. Similar traits of a classic cover-up could be seen at all the explosion sites. Russian security officials, for example, used explosives to bury the remains of the bombed complex at Ulitsa Guryanova, which resulted in the burying of critical evidence for the police investigation.[5] Even the Security Council Chief under Yeltsin, General Aleksandr Lebed said that he believed Russian sources were behind the 1999 explosions (according to the French Le Figaro). Earlier, he had predicted that a military crisis was going to be provoked in the North Caucasus. In early 2002, he died in an unexplained helicopter crash.
Sergei Yushenkov, the liberal Duma deputy, also said he received evidence pointing to Russian sources being behind the attacks. The same day, he was shot. His friend, another Duma deputy Yuri Shchekochikhin, soon after gave an interview to a TV team saying he would probably be next to be assassinated. While traveling to Ryazan to investigate the attempted bombing, he suddenly died from an “allergic attack” (probably a poisoning) and that was the last we heard about him. Several journalists reporting on the attack have been killed or threatened. To this day, no evidence whatsoever has been presented by serious researchers to indiscriminate Chechens in any of the apartment bombings, and there is still no reason to suspect it was indeed Chechens.
General Aleksandr Zdanovich, spokesman for Russia’s secret police, even admitted that the 14 suspected “terrorists” in the apartment bombings were not Chechens; they were just trained in Chechen guerilla camps.[6] If the theory floated by people like Berezovsky is true, then the likely suspects in the bombings were Russian intelligence agents. As stated earlier, Russia is trying to paint Berezovsky as a Chechen terrorist, in an attempt to discredit his claims. Despite the threats facing him, Berezovsky is still trying to get the word out. In March 2002, he hosted a conference that also included two French documentary makers, a former FSB agent, a British explosives expert, victims of the bombings and analysts of Russian politics and government. The intention of the conference was to prove that the Russian government conducted the apartment bombings for several reasons including to assist Putin’s campaign as president.[7]
Towards the end of October 2000, the FSB colonel Aleksandr Litvinenko defected to the United Kingdom, and claimed he had proof that the FSB had a role in the Moscow apartment bombings. He would later write the book, Blowing Up Russia.[8] It is also known that in September 1999, the State Duma deputy Konstantin Borovoy was given advance warning of terrorist bombings by a Russian military-intelligence officer. Borovoy later said that he suspected the Russian government had a role in the events so as to bring war to Chechnya.[9]
The claim that Russia actually supplied the forces they were fighting is not far-fetched. We know Berezovsky funded Shamil Basayev, that former Prime Minister Sergey Stepashin was accused of delivering arms to the rebels (two truckloads worth), and some Chechens even admitted they were supplied by Russia. Maskhadov’s chief of military staff, Mamudi Saidayev is a former Soviet military-intelligence officer and has bragged that the Chechens are supplied by Russian troops.[10] He is also known to have openly associated himself with Russian military leaders.[11] These facts seem to indicate Russia may have actually set the stage for the war, preparing the battleground. In 2000, prime minister Stepashin admitted that the Second Chechen War was planned the March before the apartment bombings (six months prior to the event).[12]
Prior to the 1999 bombings, a secret meeting occurred that year between Yeltsin’s Chief of Staff, Aleksandr Voloshin and Shamil Basayev, leader of the Chechen militants, in France.[13] According to Russian press reports, Basayev was directed on how to act in accordance with a plan to provoke a new war. The report explains that both Shamil Basayev and his brother Shirvani had long been Russian special agents to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian General Staff. The two were to play a key role in “Operation Anti-Terror” (also known as “Operation Storm in Moscow”), a secret plan to spark an “outrage” to provoke a war, so a new leader could be chosen that would not threaten the rule of the former Communist elite. Another press report also indicated the Basayev brothers had ties to Russian intelligence. Pyotr Praynishinikov wrote an article for Versiya in February 2000 in which he explained that the Chechen terrorists had originally been trained by Spetsnaz. He also reported that the Basayev brothers were recruited between 1991 and 1991.
Regarding Basayev brothers being agents, there are two theories:
Theory #1: Shirvani, during the Soviet years, was an associate of the Interior Ministry (OMON). In the Abkhaz War, the coordination was directed by the GRU. Their cover organization was called the “Federation of Caucasian Nationalities”. Shamil and Shirvani were manipulated and did not understand who they were exactly serving.
Theory #2: The Basayev brothers joined the Federation of Caucasian Nationalities knowing it was an intelligence front used to work with Chechen militants. They were assigned to work under the front.
As you probably noticed, the differences in the theories are small, and the main point remains. Russia used these figures to pull off their strategy for Chechnya. There is still more evidence to reinforce this main point. Chechen extremists themselves have also testified that the Second Chechen War was a fraud. Mufti Ahmed Hadji Kadyrov has said that Russia was secretly working alongside Chechen “terrorists” to provoke a war. He said that armed gangs had suddenly shown up, and began terrorism against ordinary Chechens, and that the events (terrorist activity) were not related to a Chechen liberation struggle, but to the goals of the Russian military controlling both sides of the conflict. “This is not a jihad, it is rather a deception…I do not rule out the possibility that Moscow had a hand in this issue [Chechen terrorist activity].”[14] And Kadyrov was in a position to know—he later became the new Chechen president, chosen by Putin.
Kadyrov goes on to say that he directly spoke with Putin regarding Russia’s role in the events in Chechnya. Among the facts he hit Putin with were: how Berezovsky gave $1 million to Basayev; former FSB head Sergei Stepashin supplied the Dagestan extremists with two truckloads of arms prior to a battle with the Russian army; the war was planned in advance; and that if Russia wanted, no militants would have been present in Chechnya to begin such a movement. Putin’s response was, “We actually made mistakes”.
I have one final report to submit to you about this subject. In January 2000, the British Independent received a videotape of a high-ranking Russian officer (Alexey Galkin), captured by the Chechens, “confessing” that the FSB, in coordination with the GRU (which controls Spetsnaz) secretly plotted and carried out the apartment bombings n Moscow in 1999 to justify an invasion of Chechnya.[15] The highest-ranking GRU defector from Russia, Colonel Stanislav Lunev, has also written in his Newsmax.com column that Russia used provocateurs to create the war in Chechnya. From this investigation, several things can be concluded. Radical Islamism has been used by Russia in three ways:
1) Subversive operations against pro-Western Muslim regimes and combating Western interests, mainly in the Middle East and South Asia.
2) Ideologically: to replace decayed Communism as an ideological framework to polarize and radicalize Muslims against the US and its allies globally.
3) Undermine the national independence movements and “dividing and ruling” Muslim nations in the sphere of Russian territorial domination.
(November 8, 2003) Update: New attention is being brought to Georgia. It is the assessment of the author that the election was full of fraud, and Russia was attempting to destabilize the situation. Through this interference, the man who probably would have been elected legitimately, Mikhail Saakashvili, wasn’t. Russia benefits from any destabilization of Georgia, but especially if it provokes Shevardnadze to become even more illegitimate and unpopular, but yet compelled to rely on Russian backing. Obviously they would like to guarantee that after Shevardnadze, a Russian favorite like Vazha Lordkipanidze would become leader, instead of a pro-Western democrat like Saakashvili.
On a final note: Readers are encouraged to go to this link (http://www.rferl.org/specials/russianelection) and read “The Moscow Hostage Crisis: One Year Later” (RFE/RL Russian Political Weekly Vol. 3, No. 43, 29 October 2003). This investigation does not look much into these events extensively as this link does. This report is great to understand the parallels between the incident and the 1999 Moscow bombings. The strategy, despite its many different interpretations, as described here is still being used in the former Soviet Union. If you are interested in seeing the continued use of this strategy, go to that link.
-------------------------
[1] JR Nyquist, Financial Sense, July 9, 2002.
[2] JR Nyquist, Financial Sense, September 17, 2001.
[3] “Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State” by David Satter. Chapter 2.
[4] Agence France Presse, March 14, 2000.
[5] WorldNetDaily.com, JR Nyquist, September 23, 1999 citing a Moscow Times editorial.
[6] Independent (London), January 26, 2000.
[7] The Guardian, March 6, 2002.
[8] BBC, Novemebr 6, 2000.
[9] Newsmax.com, Stanislav Lunev, November 2, 1999.
[10] WorldNetDaily.com, JR Nyquist, February 3, 2000.
[11] US News, February 7, 2000.
[12] The Independent (UK), January 29, 2000.
[13] Novaya Gazeta, October 27, 2000.
[14] Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, January 7, 2000.
[15] Agence France Presse, January 6, 2000.
Re: Photos support Basayev's part in Grozny blast.
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November 24 2003, 2:58 PM
CHECHNYA: BERLUSCONI, RUSSIAN SOVEREIGNTY MUST BE RESPECTED.
agi.it ^ | 221816 NOV 03 | AGI
(AGI) - Rome, Italy, Nov. 22 - Silvio Berlusconi once again speaks about Chechnya, responding to a letter by Sofri, and wrote in the newspaper Foglio, "Dear Dr. Sofri, I understand the reasons of your personal involvement, and I closely read your letter on the events in Chechnya. But in political terms, I will hold on to my opinion. In the meeting with the Russian president, I tried to clarify, against all hypocrisy and manipulation of facts, a point of view which is quite diplomatic on the complex situation in Chechnya, after the referendum on the new statute in that province. There was a political vote, and Europe did not find it necessary to intervene with its observers. But I could not and cannot leave behind the bind constructed from the battle against terrorism and the respect for Russian sovereignty, a basic element in relations between government. I perfectly know that the suffering of the Chechen people, as you write, is not a 'legend', and I used that word exclusively to emphasise some media distortions and a certain ideological thinking that risks worsening the situation, as well as the search for a stable and peaceful solution for a region that has already paid such a high price in terms of destruction and human lives." (AGI)
Re: Photos support Basayev's part in Grozny blast.
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December 1 2003, 12:40 PM
HEAD OF CHECHEN PRESIDENTIAL SECURITY SERVICE ON ELIMINATION OF TERRORIST LEADERS.
GROZNY, December 01, 2003. /RIA Novosti/ -- Head of the Chechen Presidential Security Service Ramzan Kadyrov is certain about the soonest elimination of terrorist formations' leaders. This was disclosed by Kadyrov to a RIA Novosti correspondent on Monday in Grozny.
"I believe their time is up. We will also eliminate a nest of mercenaries as well. It is a known fact that Turks, Arabs and other nations are fighting in our republic. They are also human wrecks," he said.
According to him, today terrorist leaders have no support among the local citizens.
"Today Maskhadov has no authority. He no more has ideological partners like in the first war. He has no more money, which he used to attract youth. Basayev is also a human wreck. He suffers from tuberculosis and will die anyway. We will just help him to die sooner," Kadyrov said.
Kadyrov also emphasised that the financial investments from abroad will also be of no use to terrorists, in particular to Abu al-Valid. "He is the main financial devil among the terrorists. I have recently arrested a terrorist, who told me that he saw over 2 mln Euros in al-Valids hands. But no matter how much Euros he has, his time is up as well," Kadyrov stressed.
At present, the Chechen Presidential security service consists of three structural groups, he said.
"The first is the group for protection of high officials and government facilities, the second is the police and the third is the private security enterprise. The total amount of our servicemen is approximately 1,000 people," Kadyrov noted.
At the same time he pointed out that it is not a secret anymore that some people in the security service used to be participants of the illegal armed formations.
"They fight for Russia now. They fight not for the reward but for the idea. They want to finish terrorism and the war as soon as possible," Kadyrov stressed.
Re: Photos support Basayev's part in Grozny blast.
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December 1 2003, 1:23 PM
A Terrorist's pricelist.
Pravda.Ru
11/29/2003 16:08
A lot of times, families of those soldiers who died while fighting for their beliefs, receive their compensation from funds connected to various terrorist organizations. The actual amounts vary from several thousand to unbelieveably high numbers. A specialized pricelist has been established for various terrorist services. This allows any potential suicide bomber to calculate his final paycheck for blowing up a tank, a cafe or someone"s house.
Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was the only political leader to officially announce the fact that he will provide members of various terrorist organizations with a considerable financial compensation for suicide bombing acts against USA and Israel.
It is considered that one person is enough for a suicide bombing to be a success. However, several people are needed in order to create that two-legged human bomb in the first place. Usually, there is an entire bomb making team that specializes in mass bomb production.
First of all, a special "recruiter" is needed in order to find those who will be happy to send themselves straight to heaven in the name of Allah. During the 90s, there were only two religious organizations Hamas and Islamic Jihad that converted suicide bombers. They held their "recruiting sessions" in a mosque.
Nowadays, it is not uncommon for a person to sell his relative to execute Allah"s most sacred wish. Such cases mostly occur in Chechnya. One of the terrorists for instance, has sold both of his sisters to commit a suicide bombing on Dubrovka street in Chechnya. He got $1,500 for each one of them.
Today, anyone can become a suicide bomber, since recruiters expand their influence to schools, kindergartens, hospitals, and even restaurants.
Once a recruiter"s job is done, an "intelligencer" begins his work. It is specifically up to him to explain the main purpose of a particular terrorist act as well as gather all the important information about it.
Nothing is random in this process. A detailed plan is usually developed way in advance. According to such plan, everyone is aware of his precise duty. Engineers develop a bomb and its components, activists keep an eye on the overall order and compliance with requirements and, of course, one of the main places is proudly occupied by the organization"s financier.
Apparently, the most expensive component in such scheme is not the suicide bomber himself, but bomb"s components.
Oftentimes, suicide bombings are more effective than regular attacks. In this case, no additional plans/instructions need to be developed in order to save a terrorist. Therefore, the entire preparation procedure turns out to be not as costly and not as time-consuming.
Terrorists prefer to use "Shakhid belts". Their price hardly ever exceeds $100. Basically, this sum is enough to destroy lives of several dozen people.
Chechnya is known to be a bit pricy, but there is also a chance to get fake dollars. Sniper"s service appears to be one of the most expensive. He is paid $50 for every killed soldier. He is paid $200 for every officer. It costs $600 to blow up a tank.
Re: Photos support Basayev's part in Grozny blast.
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December 1 2003, 3:28 PM
Kidnapping business flourishes in Chechnya.
Nabi Abdullaev
Wednesday, April 3, 2002 at 09:30 JST
MOSCOW — For Magomedrasul Magomedov, a scientist from Makhachkala, the ordeal began in August 1999: He was dragged from his Niva by masked gunmen who then took him from his native Dagestan to Urus-Martan, the kidnap capital of Chechnya.
"It was a real zoo. Cages and pits in almost every house but instead of animals, people were languishing in them," Magomedov recalls.
His own experience as a captive of the Chechen slave trade drove Magomedov to find out how many more people had been victims. After his release, he combed through newspaper archives to calculate how many kidnappings had taken place in the North Caucasus in the 1990s, and how many people had been released in that period.
"It turns out there were around 2,000 hostages held in Chechnya along with us," says Magomedov. "An average of 70 people were kidnapped in the region every month."
A prominent Dagestani ecologist, Magomedov was kidnapped along with his colleague Alexander Kaimarazov, and two visiting Polish biologists, Zofia Fischer-Malanowska and Ewa Marchwinska-Wyrwal.
The Dagestani scientists were freed from their pit in Urus-Martan a month later, but their Polish colleagues had to spend more than six months in captivity. While Magomedov denies that a ransom was paid for him directly, he says his family paid thousands of dollars in "gifts" to secure his release. His Polish colleagues, he says, went for a higher price.
In Urus-Martan, the four hostages inhabited the same cell where Sergei Shvarts, a 25-year-old dentist from the Dagestan capital Makhachkala, had suffered alone for weeks. His only companion was the copy of "The Master and Margarita" his captors had given him — a concession that kept him from going mad.
While Magomedov and his colleagues were captured in a small village about 100 kilometers from the Chechen border, Shvarts was kidnapped in broad daylight in Makhachkala and released four months after he was taken in June 1999.
Shvarts was not the first in his family to suffer at the hands of Chechen slave traders. His father, a well-known plastic surgeon in Dagestan, was kidnapped in late 1998, and he is still in captivity. Shvarts believes his father is being kept by Chechen warlord Khattab.
The stories of Magomedov and Shvarts, and those of so many other survivors of kidnap attacks, have become frighteningly common in the North Caucasus. Many local residents know only too well what it is like to have a loved one fall victim to cross-border body snatchers.
Kidnapping is nothing new in Chechnya and Dagestan. Indeed, it is an integral part of the region's ancient culture, and some traditional folk songs remain about kidnapping and selling victims. The slave market in the Dagestan village Endirey-Aul, the largest in the region, flourished during tsarist times and continued up until the 1917 revolution.
But since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the corresponding slackening of the police force, the kidnapping business has returned in full force. The Interior Ministry started registering kidnap attacks connected with Chechen criminal rings back in 1992.
Since then, the number of incidents has skyrocketed from two cases in 1992 and 1993, to 312 attacks in 1995 and 437 attacks in 1996 — during the first military campaign in the region. For the remainder of the decade, the official number of reported kidnappings has hovered around 350 cases per year.
Mind numbing as they are, the official kidnapping figures are misleading; in many cases the victim's relatives don't apply to authorities for help, fearing reprisal from those holding their loved ones hostage.
The new millennium saw a considerable drop in kidnappings. In 2000, when Russian troops claimed control over the previously de facto independent Chechnya, the number of cases decreased by 66. That was when, according to Colonel Akhberdilav Akilov, chief of the Interior Ministry's regional directorate to fight kidnapping, "Russian law enforcement agencies got the opportunity to act in Chechnya."
But in 2001 kidnapping incidents in Chechnya and Dagestan shot up again to 343 official cases, proving that Russian control over the restive republic is somewhat illusory.
According to Akilov, last year's increase is due to the collapse of the region's black market trade in oil. Since these proceeds have dried up, Chechen warlords have turned to kidnapping to finance their campaign against the Kremlin.
But some analysts believe that the cease-fire in Chechnya is the reason for revival of the hostage trade.
"Two years ago the infrastructure of the criminal business was partly destroyed by the war," said Timur Muzayev, an expert from the Panorama think tank and an adviser to the Chechen government in 1994 and 1995. "Today's semblance of peace permits the kidnappers to return to their business."
Indeed, they have not only resumed business, but developed the art of kidnapping into a highly sophisticated industry.
"Earlier the bandits' usual practice was simple — grab the victim and run over the border to Chechnya," says Akilov. "Today, the kidnappers conduct preliminary reconnaissance of the future crime scene, they take care to secure transportation and hide their hostages — they even spread false information to mislead the investigating authorities."
The returning victims also report that the gangs enjoy cooperative links with the police and a strict division of labor within the criminal rings. The kidnappings of Magomedov and Shvarts illustrate the high professionalism of the perpetrators.
"Our Niva was blocked on the road by three Ladas full of people wearing the uniforms of OMON officers," Magomedov remembers the day he was abducted. "When Sasha [Kaimarazov] asked what they wanted from us, they broke his leg with a rifle butt and then made us take seats in their cars."
Since Basayev's 1999 invasion, relations between Dagestan and Chechnya have worsened — a condition that is only aggravated by the rising number of Dagestanis who fall victim to Chechen kidnappers. But since the locals are wary of Chechens, kidnappers working within Dagestan have forged links with local criminals to abduct their victims, says Shvarts.
"Dagestani criminals abduct people and sell them to Chechnya," says Shvarts.
Shvarts' experience suggests that his captors also had the local police on their payroll. The dentist, who was kidnapped just steps away from his home, was kept in the Kadar zone, a Wahhabi enclave some 100 kilometers west of Makhachkala, before being transferred to Chechnya.
Once inside Chechnya, the kidnappers divide their duties and responsibilities, says Magomedov.
"Everybody there had cells in the basement of their house that were used like hotel suites," he says. "The owner of the house gets paid by the hostage-keepers, and the local youths hired to guard us were paid a per diem."
While most of the survivors speak of the complicated nature of the crime — stressing the developed information exchange between Dagestani and Chechen criminals — there are cases when mistakes are made.
A professor from one of Dagestan's universities, who asked to remain anonymous, believes that his kidnapping in September 1999 was a mistake.
Taken hostage together with the deputy rector of his university, the professor was forced into a Toyota Landcruiser that made it through dozens of police checkpoints — all the way to Gudermes in Chechnya.
"We were brought into a large villa surrounded by a 5-meter high brick wall. Dozens of hostages were kept in small cells in the yard," the professor recalls.
Once the professor was taken inside, a middle-aged Chechen asked him his name and inserted a disc labeled 'Makhachkala' into his computer. After a brief search, the master shrugged:
"You are not in my database. You were taken by mistake," he said. "What can you offer for yourself?"
The frightened professor immediately wrote a letter to his wife asking her to give all their savings, the keys to his Volga and the car itself to the bearer of the letter. He was released several days later, when his master's envoy returned to Gudermes with his possessions.
Before being delivered to the border checkpoint, the professor asked his master about the fate of his fellow captive, the deputy rector — who was only released a month later.
"He headed the university admissions office this summer and shortly after that bought a brand new Jeep for himself and a Mercedes for his son," the captor said. "My calculations show he can easily cough up $50,000."
According to Shvarts, nobody is released for less than a $50,000 ransom.
The dentist was in captivity for two months before his kidnappers decided to raise the ransom issue.
"They gave me a mobile phone and told me what to tell to my mother," says Shvarts, adding that his captors kept a gun to his head throughout the conversation. "Then they talked to her themselves."
He refused to say exactly how much his family and medical colleagues paid to retrieve him, but dentists are considered to be well off in Dagestan — one reason why he was targeted in the first place.
"Even when you have the money, you have to beg your masters to take it," he says.
Ransom rates weren't always so high. Back in the days when Chechen kidnappers adopted the grab and run policy, the ransoms requested reflected the region's standard of living. Depending on the victim's social status, they could run anywhere from $1,000 to $3,000.
That was the typical price for a Russian soldier or Dagestani policeman serving near the border of Chechnya. But as the kidnappers grew savvier, collecting a database of information on wealthy citizens, their ransom demands skyrocketed.
Dozens of representatives of Dagestan's business community as well as statesmen, public figures and their relatives have been kidnapped and ransomed in the recent years. The ransoms ranged from $300,000 for the son of the deputy rector of Dagestan's Medical University to $25 million for the son of the former Dagestani prime minister.
Not surprisingly, the rates rise again if the victims are foreigners, or if the media gets hold of the story.
In the case of Herbert Gregg, an American preacher living in Makhachkala where he was kidnapped in November 1998, the initial ransom demand was $3 million. To expedite the deal, his masters passed videotape to one of his Moscow friends that showed Gregg's keepers cutting off his finger. This film was then shown on Russian television several times.
After numerous meetings between Dagestani police officials and Chechen warlords acting as mediators for the hostage takers, the ransom was dropped to $2 million. That, according to the chief of Dagestan's Interior Directorate to Fight Organized Crime, was the amount that was paid to release the American.
The price tag for French relief worker Vincent Cochetel — who was released in 1998 — was even higher. While common official practice is to deny that any ransom was paid, Magomed Tolboyev, former head of the Dagestani Security Council and a participant in the negotiations to free Cochetel, told journalists that the kidnappers received $4 million.
Police officials rarely confirm that ransoms have been paid, preferring to use the euphemism: "The hostage was released in a result of the special operation."
"But this is nonsense," says Magomedov, who is writing a book about Chechnya's kidnapping industry. "It always takes money or the exchange of Chechen prisoners for hostages."
Sometimes the slave traders demand that their friends or relatives be released from Russian prison in exchange for the release of their hostages. This exchange chain often involves dozens of people — victims, masters and mediators.
A Chechen-for-Russian exchange program was officially set up in February 1996 when then-President Boris Yeltsin ordered the creation of a presidential commission on prisoners of war, internees and missing persons.
"Initially, we changed the seized rebels for seized Russian soldiers," says Vyacheslav Izmailov, a reporter from Novaya Gazeta and a member of the commission's task force. "When the war stopped, the kidnappings of civilians in and around Chechnya skyrocketed and we had to look for new options to get them back."
The commission reached an agreement with the Prosecutor General's Office allowing for Chechens in prison accused of less severe crimes to go free in exchange for the release of a hostage in Chechnya.
"I always tried to get several hostages for one Chechen," says Izmailov. "Once I got seven people for one."
There is one other way — other than paying money — to arrange for the release of your kidnapped relative, says Magomedov.
"The most important thing is to know who is holding the hostage — this is the information kidnappers hide most," says Magomedov. "Once you know it, you can find a way to pressure the captor. He probably has his own relatives in Russia, and you can threaten them."
According to one high-ranking Dagestani police official, such was the case when a Dagestani gangster living in St. Petersburg discovered that his father had been kidnapped from his native village near the Chechen border. The captors demanded $300,000 for the old man's release, but the gangster had other plans. He flew home and drove over the border to the nearest Chechen village.
"I am ready to bury my father without his body and mourn his loss," the gangster told the local Chechen elders. "But then I am going to spend $300,000 to hire 100 cutthroats who will turn your village into ashes."
The next day, the gangster's father was returned home with apologies.
It was Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov's inability to put a stop to the kidnappings that contributed to his downfall, analysts say.
"Kidnappers in Chechnya were not common criminals — every gang was protected by a local prominent leader," says Panorama's Muzayev. "Whenever Maskhadov attempted to intervene, he had to retreat for fear of provoking the internal conflict. His tolerance [of the kidnappers] led to his loosing power in Chechnya."
"Maskhadov decided that the struggle with the kidnappers would push the republic into civil war and serve the interests of Moscow," says Shamil Beno, a minister in the government of the first Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev.
"Only the decriminalization of politics in the region can have a positive impact on the kidnapping situation," he says. "Today the participants of the political process in the region use criminal methods — and kidnapping is among the most popular — to reach their political ends."
According to Beno, around 3,000 hostages are currently being held in Chechnya, while the Interior Ministry says only 700 people remain in captivity.
Exposure of the kidnapping is extremely complicated work, says Akilov of Dagestan's anti-kidnapping force.
According to a source in the Dagestan Supreme Court, only 31 kidnappers were convicted in 2001, most of them for light offenses such as kidnapping brides.
Such poor effectiveness on the part of law enforcement agencies only fuels the proliferation of the kidnappings, the former hostages believe.
"If a kidnapper wants to take somebody, they will do it anyway," says Shvarts, sighing sadly. "One must be aware of it here." (The Moscow Times)
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December 1 2003, 3:29 PM
Turkish Warrior Tells of Experience.
By SELCAN HACAOGLU
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - Lomali left his job in a Turkish factory and headed for Chechnya, where he volunteered as an Islamic fighter and fought alongside al-Qaida militants in pitched battles against Russian infantry.
Lomali - or Ali the Lion, the name his Chechen comrades gave him - is one of hundreds of Turks who fought in Chechnya, Afghanistan or Bosnia, some as members of al-Qaida. Turkish police are focusing on these Islamic warriors as key suspects in a string of Istanbul suicide bombings that have left 57 dead.
Police fear Turks who fought abroad were trained or influenced by radical groups like al-Qaida and may have been behind the Istanbul bombings, which shocked police in their sophistication.
Lomali, a 28-year-old Turk, says he fought in Chechnya in 1996 alongside Chechen separatists seeking to break Chechnya away from Moscow, learning to use a heavy machine gun and plant land mines. He was captured by Russians when he attempted to sneak into Chechnya to fight again in 2001 and was sent back to Turkey, he said.
Like many Turks who went overseas to fight, Lomali said he was motivated by both Islam and nationalism. Like some 5 million Turks, Lomali traces his ancestors to the Caucasus, which includes Chechnya.
"I went there to help the struggle of our Muslim brothers against occupiers," said Lomali, a soft-spoken, athletic man.
Although Lomali is deeply religious and wears a beard, common among Islamic radicals, he had little to do with al-Qaida fighters he met in the area, who he said criticized him, saying he was not religious enough.
In 2001, Lomali met al-Qaida militants on the Chechen-Georgia border, where many radicals were gathering to enter Chechnya.
"There were small cells of al-Qaida giving training" after Quran classes, he said.
At one point, Lomali and fellow Turkish fighters had dinner at a wedding in the Georgian village of Duisi. Their Chechen hosts introduced them to several al-Qaida militants who wore long shirts over baggy pants, a style common in Afghanistan. The turbaned al-Qaida militants were the guests of honor at the wedding.
"We had dinner together, but when we lit cigarettes, they began chiding us as if they were going to declare us infidels. They told us that smoking was a sin," he said.
The militants also criticized Lomali and others for dancing at the wedding, saying it was un-Islamic.
Lomali said, however, that the al-Qaida fighters were well trained and were admired for their fighting skills.
"I remember one day we engaged in a fierce fight against Russians in Sercen Yurt," east of Grozny, he said. "They fought like real professionals. We survived, but many, many were killed."
Lomali spoke on condition his real name and certain details of his background not be used. He was contacted by The Associated Press through members of Istanbul's Chechen community.
When asked about the Istanbul bombings, Lomali said it was a "pity that several civilians were killed."
Like many Islamic fundamentalists, he said he believes that Israel and the United States were behind the blasts and were trying to manipulate the tragedy to draw Turkey closer to the West and distance Turks from Islamic groups.
On Tuesday, an Istanbul court charged nine people with involvement in the suicide attacks.
Ankara police detained 10 suspected members of a little-known militant group, Warriors of Islam, the daily Hurriyet reported Tuesday. The suspects are believed to have links with one of the suicide bombers. Police said the 10 underwent military training in Afghanistan and Iran and were planning attacks, the newspaper said. Police refused to confirm the report.
Lomali, however, said he has seen no evidence of a police crackdown against militants.
"If there were such a crackdown, I would hear about it," Lomali said.
He hinted some of his fellow warriors were sympathetic to radical groups in Turkey like the Islamic Great Eastern Raiders Front, which jointly with al-Qaida claimed responsibility for the Istanbul blasts. Two other groups also claimed responsibility in al-Qaida's name. Lomali grew up in western Turkey and left his job at a milk packaging factory in 1996 to volunteer to fight in Chechnya.
He refused to give details on how he reached Chechnya or trained for combat. He said, however, that the second time he traveled to Chechnya in 2001, he went with eight other Turks to Georgia's Pankisi valley, where the group underwent military training with Islamic Chechen warriors.
The training mainly involved physical exercises. The group did not use weapons to avoid a crackdown by Georgian forces under pressure from Russia.
"We were only having theoretical training on guns, otherwise, we were complete soldiers. We were getting up early running, doing sit-ups and push-ups every morning," he said.
After several weeks of training, Lomali was called to battle by fighters of Chechen warlord Ruslan Gelayev, but was caught by Russian soldiers near the Chechen border. The Russians deported him and gave his name to Georgian authorities, to bar him entering the country.
That makes it almost impossible for him to enter Georgia and Chechnya again, which frustrates Lomali.
"If it was possible, I would not hesitate a second," he said.
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December 2 2003, 10:53 AM
Chechen Leaders Offer USD 5 Million Reward for Tips on Basayev Whereabouts.
rosbaltnews.com
MOSCOW, December 1. A reward of USD 5 million has been announced for reliable information on the whereabouts of Shamil Basayev, leader of Chechen fighters. As relayed to Rosbalt by the press service of the Russian Foreign Ministry, the reward was announced in Grozny on Saturday by the commanders of republic special forces, Ramzan Kadyrov and Selim Yamadayev. They said the reward would come from Chechen businessmen living outside the republic. Kadyrov and Yamadayev refused to give the names of the businessmen. They said the reward would be paid for the return of Basayev dead or alive.
It may be recalled that rewards for Basayev's capture had earlier been promised by Chechnya President Akhmad Kadyrov, by Gennady Troshev, former supreme commander of federal forces as well as by leaders of the Rodina election bloc. Troshev had proposed to pay USD 1 million, Akhmad Kadyrov did not specify a sum but promised that 'children and grandchildren would be taken care of,' and the leaders of the Rodina bloc proposed USD 100,000 from their campaign funds.
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December 3 2003, 2:41 PM
44 Chechen rebels surrender.
03.12.2003
By Vadim Manenkov
GROZNY, December 3 (Itar-Tass) -- Forty-four rebels, including three field commanders, have voluntarily surrendered to the regional branch of the Federal Security Service (FSB) in Chechnya.
The rebels have given up a truckload of arms, ammunition and explosive substances.
The three field commanders were under Chechnya's ex-president Aslan Maskhadov, and warlords Shamil Basayev and Abu al-Walid.
The regional FSB negotiated with the former rebels for a month through Moslem clerics about the surrender.
One of the field commanders, Sultan Dadayev said: "I have been fighting in whole Chechnya several years, but now I want us to have a peaceful life. And many want to return home, but fear that they will be arrested."
The rebels who have surrendered will be released on written recognizance not to leave their residence places.
"With consideration for the unordinary situation in the republic and for the fact that these people have voluntarily surrendered, they will be exempted from criminal responsibility," army spokesman Ilya Shabalkin told ITAR-TASS.
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December 5 2003, 10:13 AM
35 Killed in Train Explosion in Russia.
Novinite.com
Politics: 5 December 2003, Friday
Thirty-five people were killed and over one hundred and fourteen more wounded in an explosion in a commuter train in southern Russia on Friday.
The explosion occurred at about 8 a.m as the train was travelling between the cities of Kislovodsk and Mineralnye Vody, near the war-torn region of Chechnya.
Officials in Moscow said the blast was caused by a female suicide bomber wearing an explosive belt. The blast tore the second carriage in two.
A criminal investigation has been launched into the blast. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been informed and emergency services are at the scene.
An explosion on a train in the same area left at least four people dead in September.
Analysts point out that the timing of the blasts may be connected with Russia's campaign for parliamentary elections due on Sunday.
The December 7 election is expected to increase support for political allies of President Vladimir Putin who has taken a hard line against Chechen separatists.
Chechen rebels has resorted to suicide bombings generally carried out by women. Dozens of people have died in attacks both in Chechnya and elsewhere in Russia.
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December 5 2003, 10:31 AM
Death toll now stands at 36 in train attack.
Gazeta.ru
Initial reports seem to indicate that the explosion that ripped through the commuter train in Kislovodsk was carried out by a suicide bomber. At least 36 people are confirmed dead, and many more have been reported injured.
According to the Ministry for Emergency Situations, the explosion flipped the second train car over and derailed the third. Forty-five victims were hospitalized, eight are being treated in intensive therapy units and others received medical assistance at the scene.
The Interior Ministry, denouncing the attack as a "terrorist act", said a woman appeared to have detonated the explosion which sliced the train's second carriage in two. The Emergencies Ministry said 36 people were killed and more than 150 injured in the blast, which went off before 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) as the packed train was just outside Yessentuki station in Russia's southern fringe
The blast took place just outside the town of Kislovodsk in the Stavropol region to the north of Chechnya where separatists have been battling Russian forces for more than a decade.
It was the second such attack in three months on the same line linking two spa towns in Russia's southern fringe.
"According to our preliminary version, the explosive was detonated by an unknown woman," an Interior Ministry spokesman told Reuters.
The December 7 election is expected to increase support for political allies of President Vladimir Putin who has taken a hard line against Chechen separatists. The most extreme wing of the Chechen rebels has resorted to suicide bombings generally carried out by women. Dozens of people have died in attacks both in Chechnya and elsewhere in Russia.
In September, an explosion ripped through an early morning commuter train in the Stavropol region, killing six people, but police said at the time this was not the work of Chechen rebels.
Russian Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov vowed on Friday to track down those responsible for the deadly bombing of a commuter train, saying: "The ground will burn under their feet", Interfax news agency said.
Gryzlov, who heads the main party supporting President Vladimir Putin in a national election on Sunday, said: "We will find those who did this. The ground will burn under their feet. These animals will never be able to feel safe." At least 36 people were killed in the morning explosion in southern Russia near rebel Chechnya.
Russia's general prosecutor's office said that this might have been aimed at disrupting the parliamentary elections scheduled for Sunday.
"We are examining the possibility that the explosion is connected to the elections," Natalya Vishnyakova, spokeswoman for the General Prosecutor's office, told NTV television.
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December 5 2003, 1:17 PM
Rupel Sends Condolences to Ivanov Over Train Blast.
Ljubljana, 05 December (STA) - Prime Minister Dimitrij Rupel has sent a letter of condolences to his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov after the Friday morning bomb attack on a train in the south of Russia, which killed at least 36 and injured 103 passengers on the train, Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
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December 8 2003, 9:32 AM
FSB DIRECTOR REPORTS A GROUP OF TERRORISTS DETAINMENT.
MOSCOW, December 5 (RIA Novosti). FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev has reported to President Vladimir Putin today about the detainment of a group of terrorists during a special operation in Ingushetia (adjacent to Chechnya).
Two women detained in an apartment in the town of Karabulak, Ingushetia, "were trained as suicide terrorists," said the FSB director. A large amount of explosives was found in the apartment and a car containong explosives was parked outside. Patrushev said the investigators were working with the women.
RIA Novosti learned from a source in the Ingush Interior Ministry that the detainees planned to stage a series of bombings in the North Caucasus. The two women and a man from North Ossetia are suspected of being involved in terrorist acts in the region. "The investigators found two cars with explosive devices and weapons," said the source.
A Gaz-3110 Volga car was ready for a terrorist act. The police found an improvised bomb consisting of four 122-mm artillery shells connected to a storage battery in the car. The device was deactivated.
According to the Interior Ministry, the 74-year old owner of the house, Ayup Shaturov, leased it. The police found videocassettes containing preparations for and perpetration a terrorist act. They believe the car was prepared for a terrorist act in Karabulak, presumably at 3 a.m. Moscow time on December 5.
"The identity of four other peopled suspected of planning this terrorist attack has been established. The republican Interior Ministry is working to find and detain them and other people involved in planning and perpetration other grave crimes," said the source.
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December 9 2003, 10:41 AM
Moscow's Red Square Rocked by Car Bomb Explosion.
Novinite.com
Top news: 9 December 2003, Tuesday
A car exploded near Moscow's Red Square on Tuesday, killing at least five people and injuring 3 other, while ten people were given first aid at the scene, Moscow police said. It was not clear whether the blast was due to a terrorist act or a business dispute that had turned violent.
The ITAR-Tass news agency reported that the explosion had been caused by a female suicide bomber, and that an undetonated explosive had been found on the bomber's body.
The blast took place on the capital's main shopping street, Tverskaya, near the National Hotel.
Windows on the first and second floor of the hotel were shattered,police officials reported.
There was no immediate information about the cause of the explosion, the Interfax news agency said.
Forty-four people were killed when a suicide bomber attacked a train in southern Russia last week. Altogether, close to 300 people have been killed in Russia in bombings and other attacks blamed on Chechens over the past year.
A car exploded near Moscow's Red Square on Tuesday, killing at least five people and injuring 3 other, Moscow police reported. It was not clear whether the blast was due to a terrorist act or a business dispute that had turned violent.
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December 9 2003, 10:43 AM
No Bulgarians Injured in Moscow's Red Square Blast.
Novinite.com
Top news: 9 December 2003, Tuesday
No Bulgarians were injured in the blast that shattered the Red Square in Russia's capital Moscow near the National Hotel, Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry announced.
One Bulgarian, however, named Vassil Iliev, worked at the National Hotel, but he was not at the hotel at the moment of the blast, Vassil Valkov, Bulgarian envoy in Moscow told Info radio.
At least 5 people were killed in the explosion and 3 other were injured. It was reported that the attack was targeted at the Russian Duma as two women asked the portieres at the hotel for the Parliament.
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December 9 2003, 12:53 PM
Second Blast Reported in Moscow's Red Square.
Novinite.com
Politics: 9 December 2003, Tuesday
Another blast has been heard near Moscow's Red Square shortly after a car exploded, killing at least five people and injuring 3 other, ITAR-TASS reported.
The explosion was heard while a sapper was scouring the scene, using a special robot.
The agency's correspondent pointed out that this is not the first explosion which occurs during the sappers' operation.
The blasts took place on the capital's main shopping street, Tverskaya, near the National Hotel.
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December 11 2003, 12:07 PM
Thursday, Dec. 11, 2003. Page 3
Police Hunt for Bomb Suspect.
Moscow Times
By Alex Fak
Police confirmed Wednesday that the deadly explosion outside the National Hotel was the work of a female suicide bomber and said they were combing the city for a suspected female accomplice who fled the scene.
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Tuesday's bombing, which killed six, was "a manifestation of international terrorism, according to its handwriting, its character and its content."
Russia "does not see yesterday's terrorist act in Moscow as a manifestation of Chechen terrorism," Ivanov said during a visit to Berlin, Interfax reported. "The ethnic origins of those who carried out this terrorist act have no bearing on this case."
The Federal Security Service, or FSB, said it believed the al-Qaida terrorist network was involved.
A Moscow prosecutor linked the attack to a series of recent blasts, including the train bombing in the Stavropol region Friday that killed 44 and the double suicide bombings at the Tushino rock concert in July that killed 16.
"All these blasts were organized by a single group and coordinated from a single center," Prosecutor Grigory Shinakov said.
Investigators were poring over hotel security recordings of what took place on Mokhovaya Ulitsa moments before Tuesday's explosion. The tapes show two women walking toward each other and the explosion occurring as they draw even, said National Hotel general director Yury Podkopayev, who has watched some of the tapes.
Police on Tuesday ruled out the possibility that one of the two women, Tatyana Komarova, 23, was involved in the blast. The identity of the other woman, the bomber, remains unknown.
Podkopayev said the tapes he saw do not show the alleged accomplice that the police were looking for Tuesday. Police described the missing suspect as a woman, 40 to 50, with Caucasian features, 160 centimeters in height and wearing a dark coat and dark fur hat.
Vladimir Kumerkov, who witnessed the explosion, told the newspaper Gazeta in Wednesday's issue that he saw a woman thrown to the ground by the blast. "She laid there for a while, then got up and walked off," he said.
Five of the 14 people injured in the explosion remained in critical condition Wednesday, health officials said. Many of the injured were students.
The bombing took place on the ninth anniversary of the start of the first Chechen war. Vremya Novostei noted that the head of the FSB's Chechen branch recently dismissed reports that Chechen suicide bombers were heading into other regions as "an invention."
"Yesterday, the 'invention' blew up in the center of Moscow," the newspaper said.
"The consequences of yesterday's act of terror are easy to foresee no matter who carried it out," Kommersant said. "The blasts will lead to tougher actions by federal forces in Chechnya and the surrounding regions and to tougher measures against terrorism nationwide. And it is the fight against terrorism that remains President [Vladimir] Putin's trump card."
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack. Chechen rebel web site kavkaz.tv suggested it was the work of Russian security services.
Pavel Felgenhauer, an independent defense analyst, said the masterminds were probably not affiliated with mainstream Chechen fighters such as rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov and warlord Shamil Basayev.
"Attacks by the mainstream are more combat-oriented," he said.
"They would have blown up something more substantial than a few students."
But taking into account the worldwide media coverage it received, the blast was just as successful from a publicity standpoint, he said.
"Fighting in Chechnya has no political resonance, but even a small blast in Moscow has great deal of it," Felgenhauer said. "A series of such blasts could influence political life in Russia and may even hurt President Putin. We can expect more of this."
Investigators have published a composite drawing of an alleged accomplice of the female suicide bomber who perpetrated the terror attack near the National Hotel in central Moscow on Tuesday morning. The blast claimed 6 lives. Police are searching for a woman of Caucasian origin, who, they believe, could be an organizer of the attack, financed, according to the FSB investigators, from abroad.
Law enforcers engaged in the probe into the blast near the National Hotel have published a composite drawing of a woman, whom they believe to be an accomplice of the suicide bomber responsible for the attack. The suspect is about 45-50 years old, 160-165 cm of height, was wearing a long black fur coat and a fur-cap of the same colour.
On Wednesday Moscow chief prosecutor Grigory Shinakov told a news conference in Moscow of the first results of the probe. Shinakov said the device used in the latest attack was similar to those used by suicide bombers in previous attacks perpetrated by terrorists. The prosecutor blamed Chechen rebels for the latest suicide bombing, saying it was the work of the same group that masterminded bombings across Russia this year.
Tuesday's attack was the second suicide bombing in Russia in five days and the second deadly bomb attack in Moscow this year. The first Moscow bombing killed 15 people at an outdoor concert in July. More than 200 people have died in suicide bombings throughout the country this year, many claimed by Chechen rebel groups.
"All these explosions were organised by one group and coordinated from one centre," Moscow chief prosecutor Grigory Shinakov was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying.
The Federal Security Service said there were similarities with recent bombings in Turkey and Saudi Arabia, blamed on Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. "According to our assessment, these incidents have a common root, logic and financial base," FSB spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko said.
Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov also accused the attackers of having links to international militant groups. He said Russia needed to intensify its "war on terrorism". "The only answer can be to intensify the war on terror and widen international cooperation in the war on terror," Ivanov told a news conference during a visit to Berlin.
Interfax quoted him as saying the attack was "a manifestation of international terrorism in signature, character and substance."
The rebel Chechen government, which defeated Russian forces and ran Chechnya as a de facto independent state between 1996 and 1999, said on its Web site Russian security services were behind Tuesday's attack, which also wounded 13 people. "Terrorism in Russia is organised and managed by the Russian security and military intelligence services for propaganda and scapegoating purposes," it said on www.chechnya-mfa.info "We do not think that the latest bombing in Moscow is an exception to this rule."
Chechen rebels have also accused Russian secret services of being behind apartment bombings, blamed on Chechens, which killed more than 200 people in 1999, prompting then Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to send troops back to Chechnya.
Another Web site representing a more radical group of Chechen rebels, led by warlord Shamil Basayev, also distanced itself from Tuesday's attack. "Why did the 'terrorists' decide to attack the empty Duma building, when the old membership was already gone and the new one had not yet started to sit?" said the statement on www.kavkazcenter.com.
A powerful blast killed six people and left 14 injured in the very centre of Moscow, outside the National Hotel on Tverskaya Street. The blast occurred on Tuesday morning in the centre of Moscow, near Manezh Square. The explosive device went off at 10h50 near a Mercedes-320 car parked near the National Hotel at, 1 Tverskaya Street.
An investigation has been launched into murder and terrorism, the prosecutor’s office of Moscow told Gazeta.Ru. The explosion occurred two days after parliamentary elections in which Putin's allies scored a resounding victory. It also followed an apparent suicide attack on a commuter train near Russia's rebel Chechnya region last Friday, which killed at least 44 people.
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December 15 2003, 11:43 AM
Ten Chechen Terrorists Get in Japan.
The Japan Times
12/15/2003 10:28
Two months after the information appeared, the Japanese authorities still fail to find them.
Two months ago, ten Chechen terrorists got in Japan to commit an act of terrorism, Japan's influential magazine Syukan bunsyun reported after an employee of the edition talked to governmental officials and military experts. The latter told, the Japanese Government obtained the information from reliable sources.
According to one of the sources related to the Ministry of Justice, Chechen rebels, who are traditionally called terrorists, penetrated to the Japanese territory; the authorities are making desperate attempts to find them. The source states, main objective of the search operation is to find and neutralize the group of Chechen terrorists as soon as possible.
There is hardly a man in the world who has never heard of Chechnya, Russia's south-western republic fighting for its independence. Clashes between Chechen rebels and Russian servicemen have become violent over the past ten years and claimed lives of dozens of thousands of people. The rebels seek absolute independence of Chechnya where majority of the population are Moslems.
Last time that Chechen terrorists were in particular focus of the world was a hostage taking at Moscow's theatre in October 2002. Chechens took 700 people hostages. During the storm of the theatre, Russian security services used strong sleeping gas as a result of which 100 hostages tragically died.
This is the reason why the Japanese authorities have become particularly anxious about the penetration of Chechen terrorists to the country.
The sources report, the information was provided by security services of different countries that warned their Japanese colleagues of the impendent danger. Nowadays, the Japanese authorities have every reason to be even more anxious as there is no reliable information proving whether Chechen terrorists actually penetrated to the territory of the country or not. The source from the Ministry of Justice adds that Chechens are real professionals who might have entered the country with falsified passports.
Why have Chechen terrorists preferred Japan? Another source from the Japanese Ministry of Justice explains that at first the information obtained by the ministry said the terrorists might attack the Russian embassy in Tokyo and general consulates in Osaka and Sapporo. However, even more alarming reports arrived later. The source lays particular stress to the fact that the terrorist group consists of ten people.
The source adds: "Every military expert knows that ten people are a minimal number to form a military unit. We should also keep it in mind that almost all Chechen are wonderfully trained professionals."
Military commentator Taisei Ugaki specifies that every member of this military unit performs some definite function. Some is in command of the group; others are responsible for explosions, communication, weapons or ammunition. Main goal of the terrorists is not clear, only conjectures can be made about the goal, the source says.
Connection of the terrorist group with al-Qaida is another reason for the Japanese authorities to be anxious. According to the recent report of the US Department of State, al-Qaida has sent its instructors to help local terrorists organize attacks at Russians with paralytic gas.
The situation may become really sinister indeed if we recollect information received by a Saudi newspaper two weeks ago. In the report, al-Qaida claimed it was responsible for four explosions in Turkey that had claimed lives of over 50 people. It was asserted that Japan would be the next target for al-Qaida.
A hospital was taken over in the first chechen war...it didn't end well..
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December 15 2003, 11:46 AM
Monday, 15 December, 2003, 08:58 GMT
Chechen fighters 'seize hostages'
BBC
A group of Chechen fighters has seized hostages in the neighbouring Russian republic of Dagestan, reports say. There are reports that the hostages were taken after the fighters exchanged gunfire with border guards, killing between three and nine people. "Our people are trying to make contact with them to find out what they want," a regional official told Russian TV. Russia's current war in Chechnya began after fighters seized two villages in Dagestan in August 1999.
They held the villages for several weeks, saying they were supporting a declaration of an independent Islamic state in parts of Dagestan and Chechnya. That incursion - as well as a series of bombings of apartment buildings in Russia that killed about 300 people - prompted then-Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to send troops into Chechnya. Four years later, Moscow says it has pacified the rebellious republic, but fighting continues and Chechens may be behind Russia's now regular suicide bombings.
Security response.
A Russian Interior Ministry spokesman, Roman Shchekochikhin, told the Associated Press that security forces were being sent to the village of Shauri, the scene of the reported hostage-taking. But the village is in a remote area and is difficult to reach, he said. A local official told Russia's Interfax news agency that security forces had blocked roads into the village from Dagestan, Chechnya and neighbouring Georgia.
But some reports suggest the fighters may already have left the village, taking three hostages with them. Military analysts have suggested the fighters got lost in the snowy mountains while en route to - or from - Georgia. Dagestan's information minister, Magomedsalikh Gusayev, was killed in August when his car was bombed. No-one claimed responsibility for the bombing, but suspicion fell on Chechen militants, as Gusayev had played a key role in the defence of Dagestan in 1999.
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December 16 2003, 12:38 PM
Chechen rebels seize hostages in Dagestan raid.
Gazeta.Ru
A group of Chechen rebels stormed into a Dagestani village in the early hours of Monday, killing at least three border guards, Russian news agencies have reported. ITAR-Tass reported that as many as nine border guards were killed in the fighting. According to the latest reports, the Chechen gunmen have taken four hostages from a local hospital back towards the Chechen border.
A local interior ministry spokesman in the Caspian region of Dagestan said heavily-armed fighters, numbering up to 30, burst into the village of Shauri, in the Tsunti district in western Dagestan, about 100 km (60 miles) from the border with Georgia.
The head of the district administration, Basyr Magomedov, has told Interfax that - according to preliminary reports - the rebels infiltrated the area at about three in the morning. They exchanged fire with a border guard detachment between the villages of Shauri and Mokok. Magomedov said that there had been casualties among the Russian servicemen. News agencies later reported that three border guards had been killed in the clash.
He went on to add that a defence headquarters had been set up in the district and units of reservists, established back in August 1999, had been mobilized. All roads leading to Shauri as well as to other parts of Dagestan, Chechnya and Georgia have been blocked. Magomedov said that the rebel gang had been surrounded near the village hospital where they took a male nurse and three locals hostage.
The commander of the Makhachkala division of the Russian Federal Security Service's Border Guards, Vladimir Streltsov, headed to the Tsunti district. The deputy interior minister of Dagestan, Magomed Omarov, also left for the scene of the incident.
ITAR-Tass news agency quoted a senior Dagestan official as saying the rebels had first seized four hostages in the village hospital and then fled towards Chechnya taking the hostages with them.
According to the latest reports, the rebels have left the Tsunti district and were moving in the direction of the Chechen border at about 0900 Moscow time. Border guards and police are pursuing the rebels.
Reports varied as to the actual number of rebels were involved in Monday's attack, where they had come from and how many people had been killed. Local officials in Dagestan said the fighters had crossed from Georgia, but the Interior Ministry in Rostov-on-Don said they had crossed directly from Chechnya into Dagestan, a region that has suffered from the overspill of violence from Chechnya in the past 10 years.
Chechen incursions into western Dagestan in 1999 were part of the reason for President Vladimir Putin sending Russian troops back into Chechnya, triggering the current campaign there.
On 9 January 1996 Chechen rebels, headed by warlord Salman Raduyev, seized the building of a maternity hospital and a city hospital in the Dagestani town of Kizlyar and took over 2,000 hostages. On 10 January the rebels left Kizlyar taking some 160 hostages away with them and headed to Chechnya. Using the hostages as human shields, the rebels managed to seize the Dagestani village of Pervomaiskoye.
78 soldiers, policemen and civilians were killed in the clashes in Kizlyar and Pervomaikoye. In December 2001 Raduyev was sentenced to life in prison by the Supreme Court of Dagestan. He died on 13 December 2002 in a prison colony in the Perm Region.
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December 16 2003, 12:39 PM
Dagestan hostage drama ends as rebels flee.
Ãàçåòà.Ru
Ilya Zhegulev
Up to 60 rebel Chechen fighters have ended a hostage crisis that saw at least 11 civilians being held against their will and left nine Russian servicemen dead in Dagestan. According to the Itar-Tass news agency, the gunmen have fled the Tsunti district of the mountainous republic that borders war-torn Chechnya.
Over the last 24 hours, reports put the number of illegal armed formations in the republic at three, with their total strength being estimated at around 60 gunmen. Up to 11 locals were reported to have been taken hostage after one of the groups seized the village of Galatli in the early hours of Tuesday, which was then surrounded by federal forces.
Local residents told the Interfax news agency on Tuesday that at least three groups of Chechen fighters were operating in the Tsunti district in western Dagestan, which is about 100 km (60 miles) from the border with Georgia. It is still unclear where the fighters came from, but the location suggests one large group split up after getting lost on their way either from or to Georgia.
According to the accounts of local residents, the most numerous group of about 30 rebels seized the village of Galatli in the early hours of Tuesday, where they held a number of hostages. All the hostages have since been released and the gunmen have fled. It is believed that among those released were the four hostages taken from a village hospital in Shauri yesterday. According to the Dagestani Interior Ministry, the same group of rebels that crossed into Dagestan on Monday was discovered and trapped in Galatli.
''We possess such information. Exact data on the composition of the bandit group and the number of hostages are being verified,'' a spokesman for the ministry told RIA-Novosti earlier.
However, a source in the crisis headquarters set up in the republic reported that the rebels had already left Galatli. As they were leaving the village, which had been blocked by Russian troops, the rebels took several hostages and warned that no action should be taken against them or all the hostages would be killed.
Yet another group of some 15-20 militants is believed to be hiding in the vicinity of the village of Mokokh. The group was said to be holding one hostage to use as a guide. A third group of 20 rebels is apparently holed up near the villages of Shauri and Mokokh
According to local residents who saw the rebels at various locations in the Tsunti district, there appears to be 60 of them in all. They are heavily armed and well equipped with automatic weapons and grenades. The eye-witness accounts suggest some of them are travelling in two UAZ jeeps and a Volga car. One released hostage said there were Arab mercenaries among the gunmen.
The rebels stormed the village of Shauri in the early hours of Monday. A border guard unit dispatched to the village was ambushed by the rebels and was almost wiped out. Altogether, 9 border guards were killed in the clash. The body of one of them was later found beheaded.
Before leaving, the rebels took four hostages and planted landmines in the village. Sappers have gone to the village to verify the reports of mines, the press-service for the North Caucasian regional border guard directorate under the FSB reported.
After yesterday’s clash with the border guards, the gunmen appeared to set off in the direction of the Chechen border. The search for the militants continued through the night in Dagestan. However, so far the pursuit has not brought any results. The combined group of forces in Chechnya has been moved into the area to block any possible retreat into Dagestan. Russian news agencies report that the rough terrain and poor weather conditions in the mountains are hampering the search.
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December 16 2003, 2:55 PM
17:46 2003-12-16
Chechen rebels occupy another village in Dagestan.
A group of up to 30 Chechen rebels raided the village of Galatli in Dagestan last night. As Rosbalt was informed by the press office of the Russian Interior Ministry, the rebels have taken three women and two children hostage. They already have four other hostages taken yesterday in the village Shauri. The rebels have now been surrounded by Russian armed forces and they are now negotiating the release of the hostages. Another group of rebels are in the vicinity of Mokok. There is even information about a third group of rebels in Dagestan although its location is still unclear. Seven rebels were killed last night in a shoot out with Russian soldiers.
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December 17 2003, 12:49 PM
13:56 2003-12-17
Troop detail attacked in Dagestan: one serviceman killed.
A troop detail was attacked in Dagestan (the republic in the North Caucasus, bordering on Chechnya), a source at the republic's interior ministry told RIA Novosti. One serviceman died and one suffered.
"Yesterday at 6.00 p.m. a body of a 19-year old conscript junior sergeant was found with a gunshot wound on the fourth kilometer of the Buinaksk-Untsukul motor road near the infantry fighting vehicle belonging to the Russian defense ministry. Another conscript soldier, who served with him, was found at the same place with a similar wound and in a grave condition, the agency's interlocutor said.
Two Kalashnikov submachine-guns and ammunition were stolen, the interior ministry's officer added.
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January 7 2004, 2:21 PM
Ruslan Gelaev is most likely to be dead.
News.Ru
01/05/2004 13:24
A leader of one of the largest criminal organizations Ruslan Gelaev is presumed to be dead.
Gelaev has been presumably killed somewhere in Dagestan mountains in the course of a special military operation aimed at destroying various criminal organizations in the region. The operation took place in Tsuntinsky region on December 15th, 2003. This information has been reported by chief of investigations department of Republic of Dagestan Mirsabala Mirzabalaev in his interview to ITAR-TASS.
According to Mirzabalaev, five arrested militants from Dagestan's criminal organizations provided information about Gelaev's death. Based on the same sources, the criminal organization itself has been led by Ruslan Gelaev himself. Nine people died as a result of a collision between militants and frontier guards.
Today, all of the five militants (whose names are not to be revealed for the entire course of investigation) are all in jail in Makhachkalinsk region. The only available information about the captives is that they are of Chechen and Dagestan nationalities.
Their testimonies reveal that their criminal organization consisted of 40 militants. Six of them were caught in a snow slip and three of the militants fell from a cliff while being chased by frontier guards. No less than 20 militants were destroyed as a result of missile attacks.
At night on December 15th a group of militants appeared in Tsuntinsky region of Dagestan. Having reached Shauli village, they have seized local public hospital. Russian frontier guards, who followed the militants all the way to Shauli, have been trapped and killed. Nine military men including chief of frontier guards have all been murdered.
According to the militants' testimonials, their group consisting of several dozens men attempted to reach Georgia though Chechnya.
After encountering resistance from the frontier guards, the bandits divided into small groups and tried to hide in the mountains. Soon, they were all blocked by federal forces. Three Russian soldiers died while pursuing some of the militants.
On December 30th, 2003, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Ivanov informed Russian President Vladimir Putin of the fact that the liquidation of a criminal organization in Dagestan is finally over. According to Ivanov, the organization consisted of 36 people, including some Arab militants.
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January 8 2004, 2:37 PM
Russian girl released from captivity in Chechnya.
STAVROPOL, December 22 (Itar-Tass) - A young woman has been released from Chechen captivity after being held hostage by Chechen gunmen for more than nine months, police sources from Budennovsk (in Russia’s southern Stavropol region) told Itar-Tass on Monday.
Gunmen abducted Oksana Bolshakova, 26, near her house in Budennovsk and moved her to Chechnya via Dagestan. Oksana was released in the Chechen village of Shani-Yurt in a special operation by officers from the Russian Federal Security Service. Details of the operation have not been disclosed.
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January 12 2004, 12:15 PM
543 Acts of Terrorism Committed in Chechnya in 2003.
Pravda.Ru
01/09/2004 16:56
Grozny, the capital of Chechnya is still the center of the subversive activity.
Chechnya Interior Minister Aly Alkhanov says that 543 crimes related to terrorist activity were committed on the territory of the republic over 2003; at that the number of terrorist acts in Chechnya made up 351 a year ago.
Alu Alkhanov says: "The number of terrorist crimes is still rather high. Grozny, the capital of Chechnya is still the center of the subversive activity. About half of the terrorist acts registered in Chechnya were committed in Grozny." The interior minister reports that acts of terrorism have been registered in other districts of the republic as well. Almost every act of terrorism is directed against authority executives and law enforcement officers. As a result of terrorist acts, 140 police officials were tragically killed, 266 wounded and 11 people are missing.
RIA Novosti quoted the Chechen interior minister as saying that the Interior Ministry and the FSB have developed a joint plan on counteraction to terrorism and extremism. Alu Alkhanov adds that joint operations conducted in 2003 resulted in disclosing of over 60 acts of terrorism, which is in general higher as compared with 2002.
At the same time, the minister stresses that not a single act of terrorism has been disclosed in some parts of the republic.
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January 12 2004, 12:26 PM
Apartment bombers sentenced to life.
Gazeta.Ru
Òåêñò: Victoria Malyutina, Irina Petrokova Ôîòî: Âåñòè
Adam Dekkushev and Yusuf Krymshamkhalov, accused of carrying out a series of terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of nearly 300 Russians in Moscow and Volgodonsk in September 1999, were sentenced to life in prison by a Moscow court today. Both have been found guilty of terrorism, murder, and transporting and manufacturing explosives.
According to investigators, both men received training in Chechen rebel camps. The trial of Dekkushev, 40, and Krymshamkhalov, 35, accused of being involved in terrorist attacks on residential buildings in Moscow and Volgodonsk in September 1999 opened in Moscow on 31 October.
At the trial, held behind closed doors, the prosecutor demanded life sentences for both defendants. Investigation into the explosions in Moscow on 9 and 13 September 1999 and in Volgodonsk on 16 September 1999 was carried out by the Prosecutor General’s Office. In April 2003 the prosecutors said they had completed their work. In September the PGO endorsed the indictment act and delivered the case file to the court.
Investigators said that Krymshamkhalov, a resident of Kislovodsk, was the right-hand man of Achemez Gochiyayev, a native of the North-Caucasian republic of Karachai-Cherkessia, but registered as living in Moscow. Prosecutors believe Gochiyayev to be the mastermind of the apartment bombings in Moscow. Gochiyayev’s group comprised 15 people including Krymshamkhalov, Dekkushev, Timur Batchayev, Khakim and Alim Abayev and Denis Saitakov.
The investigators established that preparations for the attacks were carried out at rebel Chechen bases in Serzhen-Yurt and at a mineral fertiliser plant in Urus-Martan where the explosive mixture used in the bombings was made. The work was carried out under the guidance of the Arab mercenaries Abu Umar and Abu Dzhafar; the field commander Khattab is said to have approved of the plans. All three Arabs have since been killed.
In summer 1999 the terrorists shipped hexogen, disguised as sugar, to a food warehouse in Kislovodsk. At the entrance to the city the truck was met by a traffic police officer, Stanislav Lyubichev, who was later detained by investigators.
At the warehouse, which belonged to Krymshamkhalov’s uncle, the rebels packed the explosives into bags marked with the logo of a local sugar plant. Dekkushev found a truck which was later used to transport the explosives to Moscow.
Having determined their plan of action, the terrorists divided into several groups. The first group, headed by Krymshamkhalov, went to Moscow. That group included several people who had studied explosives, including Denis Saitakov, Khakim Abayev and Ravil Akhmyarov.
Achemez Gochiyayev met them in Moscow and on the following day the hexogen was delivered to three addresses – Guryanova Street, Kashirskoye Shosse and Borisovskiye Prudy. Shortly afterwards, two blasts tore through residential buildings in Guryanova Street and Kashirskoye Shosse, claiming 228 lives.
Meanwhile, another group of terrorists headed to the village Mirnyi, near Mineralnyye Vody, where the terrorists decided to store two tons of hexogen in a shed belonging to a distant relative of Krymshamkhalov. In early September 1999 Timur Batchayev and Adam Dekkushev took the explosives to Volgodonsk.
According to the FSB, all the members of Gochiyayev’s group, except Gochiyayev himself, have either been detained or killed in the course of the counter-terrorist operation in Chechnya.
Three years ago the Stavropol Regional Court handed down a guilty verdict to several members of Krymshamkhalov’s group. Aslan Bastanov, Murat Bastanov, Muratbi Bairamukov, Muratbi Tuganbayev and Taikan Frantsuzov were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 9 to 15 years.
The prosecutors detained Krymshamkhalov a year ago. The suspect was arrested in Georgia and extradited to Russia at the request of the PGO. Earlier, Dekkushev, too, was deported from Georgia. As for Gochiyayev, his name is still on the federal wanted list.
On the first day of the trial Krymshamkhalov partially admitted his guilt. According to Krymshamkhalov’s lawyer, Shamil Arifulov, his client said he did accompany the shipment of explosives to Volgodonsk, but he had no idea that the substance packed in the sugar bags was hexogen and that it was to be used to perpetrate terrorist attacks.
Moreover, Krymshamkhalov admitted that he had received training at a rebel camp. He also confessed to illegally crossing the state border between Russia and Georgia. However, he refuted accusations of his alleged involvement in illegal armed formations, claiming he had never taken part in any combat activities.
Dekkushev pleaded innocent at the trial, retracting the testimony he made during the preliminary investigation. According to his lawyer, Natalia Tarasevich, Dekkushev had earlier admitted that he, together with Krymshamkhalov, had accompanied a shipment of hexogen packed in sugar bags, without having any idea as to what was inside. On the first day of his trial Dekkushev said he had given that statement under duress.
On Monday the Moscow City Court sentenced Dekkushev and Krymshamkhalov to life in prison. Both were found guilty of perpetrating acts of terrorism, participation in illegal armed formations, the manufacture, storage and transportation of explosives, and illegally crossing a state border. Krymshamkhalov was also found guilty of bribing a traffic policeman.
In line with the ruling, both will serve their sentence in a high-security prison. The court also ordered them to pay 1 million roubles in material damages to the terror victims, and some 3 million roubles in moral damages. A lawyer representing the victims said, however, that it was unlikely any compensation would be paid.
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January 12 2004, 12:32 PM
Friday, 9 January, 2004, 08:48 GMT
Russian student survives bombers - twice.
BBC
The mother of a Russian economics student has been speaking of her feelings after her daughter survived two separate train bomb attacks in three months. On 5 December, 21-year-old economics student Katya Malukova was travelling to university in the city of Pyatigorsk when a huge explosion ripped through the crowded train. The explosion killed 42 people. Katya was among more than 100 people injured. It was the second time Katya had cheated death - she was also caught in a blast on the same train which left six people dead on 3 September. That time she escaped unharmed. "We don't feel protected at all - I certainly don't," Katya's mother Natasha told BBC World Service's Everywoman programme. "I never would have believed that a terrible attack like this could be repeated on the same train - at almost the same time. "I never thought it possible."
Improvement.
Katya remains in hospital as a result of the December attack. Her mother described her current condition as "improving". "Her head's not hurting so much now, but it's still bad. She had severe concussion," she said. "Her ears were also damaged by the explosion, and they haven't improved, because her ear drums actually burst due to the noise of the explosion. "She also has severe chest pains from the pressure of the explosion." Ms Malukova recalled her reaction when she first heard he daughter had been injured. "I was getting ready to go to work at about 7.50am on 5 December. The phone rang, but I didn't recognise the number," she said.
"I heard Katya's voice. She said 'Mum, there's been an explosion on the train, and they're taking me to the hospital now'. "I began screaming, and my husband took the phone from me and began asking Katya what had happened to her. "She just answered that she was covered in blood, and didn't know what was going on." Ms Malukova said that her daughter had already been severely traumatised after being caught in the September bombing. "She was in severe shock. She couldn't even look at a train for two weeks," she stated. "It was only in the last few weeks that she had started to feel better about the whole thing, and wasn't so scared about getting back on a train. "But then this second explosion happened, and this time the explosion was in the second carriage - the one she always goes in with all her student friends."
Psychological help.
But despite having been caught in two bomb attacks, Katya will still have to travel by train to university in the future, Ms Malukova said. "The only other way is by taxi, but that's not really an option for us - it's too expensive," she said. "She has to keep using the train. But we're not even talking about that at the moment. "She's got to get better. She'll need to undergo treatment for a long, long time. She'll also need psychological help. "Her hearing also needs to be treated for several months. Then maybe, after all of that, she can return to her study. But even then it will only be part-time." Ms Malukova said she did not really know how to describe her own feelings about the attackers, or the reaction of the authorities. She added: "I just hope that what has happened to our child never happens to any other child or mother. "It has just been a nightmare."
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January 21 2004, 4:08 PM
Another gang exterminated in Chechnya.
NTV
01/21/2004 15:25
Another criminal gang has been liquidated in the Urus-Martanovsky region of Chechnya.
The gang consisted of 15 people. Head of the regional headquarters of the Northern Caucasus Ilya Shabalkin stated in his Tuesday's interview that the gang had been kidnapping people.
The criminals used fake documents of policemen and those of law enforcement authorities.
According to the investigators, the gang's leader Abuwalid Astamirov had been personally convicted in 35 killings and several terrorist acts. Astamirov was killed in the course of the operation.
The gang's main base had also been destroyed. It was located by a village Tanga. According to Shabalkin, they discovered a list with peoples' names who had to become the next victims. Among them were politicians, members of law enforcement, reports ITAR-TASS.
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January 22 2004, 2:05 PM
Terrorism: Investigation in process.
RIA "Novosti", ITAR-TASS
01/22/2004 12:48
A case regarding an explosion in the town of Kaspiisk will soon be forwarded to court, stated Assistant General Prosecutor of the Russian Federation Vladimir Kolesnikov.
The explosion in Kaspiisk took place on May 9th, 2002 killing 43 and injuring more than a hundred people.
"Investigation of the case is getting close to an end. It will be send off to court in the nearest future," said Kolesnikov in his interview. According to him, all cases of terrorist acts in Dagestan and in Moscow have been solved.
"Five people have been accused of the crimes already. Among them are accomplices and terrorists themselves. Investigators expect the case to be send off to court by the end of this month", stated he. Kolesnikov also mentioned that the main terrorist had been determined as well. Apparently, he is Commander Rappani Khalilov, who is currently hiding in Chechnya, reports ITAR-TASS.
As far as Moscow's terrorist acts are concerned, there were two major ones committed in summer of 2003 at Tushino airfield and in December of last year by the "National" hotel at the heart of Moscow. Both of them are still under investigation.
More than ten people died and more than sixty were injured as a result of the terrorist act at the Tushino airfield in the course of "Krilya" rock festival. Several women suicide bombers triggered the explosion.
On December 9th, 2002 another woman suicide bomber has activated an explosive on Mokhovaya Street, by the "National" hotel. Six people died and more than ten were injured.
In the course of a press conference in December of 2003, Chief of the Investigation Department Grigory Shinakov has pointed out a possible connection between the terrorist act at Tushino airfield and the one at the hotel.
"Both explosions appear to have been triggered by means of similar devices," stated Shinakov. He also mentioned that both crimes are of identical character.
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January 26 2004, 10:13 AM
Truth about Chechnya.
Pravda.Ru
Yuri Kondratyev
01/23/2004 14:55
In the following article, I attempted to portray in brief the entire chronology of events which had taken place in "peaceful" Groznyy before and after "Chechen revolution."
Let me apologize in advance for some minute chronological inaccuracies. After all, so many incidents have taken place in my life in the course of all these years. Some of my friends from Groznyy encouraged me to write even more detailed account of everything that happened in their town. However, I have to say "no". It is just too painful to recall everything. Three years after escaping from Chechnya, I have been constantly fighting. Every night I would wake up sweaty. I was haunted by horrible nightmares as though I ran out of bullets and could not surrender.
Today, I sleep peacefully. Nothing disrupts me. I would not want to return to those nightmares. Forgive me.
Many Groznyy residents are scattered throughout Russia these days. Many of them would be capable of writing much more using much better language. I received a letter from one of Chechen refugees. He writes that he would never be able to portray everything he saw in his hometown due his worries about family's wellbeing. Well, that is understandable. Chechens are everywhere these days. They do not abide by the laws. They can easily kill someone who attempts to present a detailed account of everything he/she witnessed.
I have also received several "comments" regarding this story with a clear threat to "rip my head off", "kill", "torture", etc. Author of the book "I fought this war" B.N. Mironov who survived the fist Chechen war asked me to publish this story.
1990.
In the course of many years, (beginning from 1980) people have been rather skeptical about leaving their homes at night. After all, we all have been living in a lawless republic. Chechens were always suspicious of people of other religions. After Gorbachev successfully splintered the country into pieces and each nationality began striving for sovereignty, everybody became extremely anxious to banish all the "invaders" from their territories. Some countries however were doing it in a "civilized" manner; others only began talks regarding the subject matter. Chechnya however decided to take instant actions. It is worth mentioning that even back then Chechnya have always been famous for its incredibly high crime rate. Almost every other Chechen lad carried a knife in his pocket. Robberies, beatings, rapes were so common in the republic that people soon stopped being surprised.
Life was becoming more interesting with every day. It was anarchy. Despite people in police uniform in the streets, the republic was living according to its own laws. Nobody knew whom those policemen tried to protect. Besides, the main KGB building had been destroyed. Afterwards, one of my acquaintances KGB major who worked in that building told me the following story. Two security guards were on their weekend duty. When a massive crowd of people started storming the building, one of the guards (Russian) decided to talk to the crowd and calm them down. His Chechen partner shot him several times in the back. Afterwards, he opened the doors and let everybody in. Bandits robbed the entire building. They even stole stationary. There was a unique collection of telephones in the building. Only five or six sets have been manufactured in the entire USSR. The equipment was destroyed. As a result, the building was turned to a giant public toilet. Chechens became aware of their own lawlessness.
The reason for such horrendous act appeared to be quite clear. Chechens simply wanted to show their supremacy in the republic. Afterwards, they began a slow process of ousting of non Muslim government officials from their posts. Some of the politicians were kidnapped. Witnesses refused to comment. After several of such instances, it became evident that Chechens were serious.
One can easily buy weapons at numerous bazaars and even by banks. Dealers offer quite large assortment of armory. It is possible to purchase any kind of weapon, from knives to mortars. Bullets, grenades, bombs are also present. Many drool over such abundance.
Based on the all national will, after the reign of Army General Dudaev in Chechnya, after shameful Russian Army had to leave the republic, abandon its own territory, everybody wanted to burn all bridges with us. Yeltsin with his supporters sold or simply gave away all of us along with Russian weaponry to its protÈgÈ. As a result, we had been alienated from everyone.
Plain murders did not appeal to anyone anymore. Everybody took for granted. It was no longer shocking. So Chechens began cutting their victims into pieces, raping little children and throw them off balconies. Some claimed it was pure nonsense refusing to believe the facts. Shortly however everyone could witness authentic proofs. People started to get used to the idea of "death". It no longer appeared as mysterious and scary. We encountered it daily; it was constantly by our sides.
Such chaos only grew worse. I checked my gun every time before going to bed. At times when it was quite outside, I struggled to fall asleep. Silence was too fearful. I could only sleep with the sound of rare gunshots outside. My wife and I would sometimes even argue about weapons used. After a while, we both could distinguish those gunshots pretty well.
1993...
I remember one day my friend and I were traveling to his place. We stopped not far from a local bazaar. I decided to wait for my friend in the car while he had to get something outside. Suddenly, as I turned my head, I noticed a young man approaching me from afar. One should not be a genius to assume that such encounters never result in anything positive. I secured my shotgun between the seats and continued waiting.
"Hey you", addressed me the lad. "Drop me off at the next district". I decided to structure my conversation with him as though he was a mental patient; trying not to disturb him.
-You see, I ran out of gas. Sorry, can't help you.
-Hey you, I told you, drop me off at the next region. Do it! Otherwise I"ll throw a grenade in the back of your car. You wouldn"t be able to escape.
I looked closer; one of his pockets looked stuffed. He was not joking. I was unable to escape from my car quickly. I was keeping my cool. Suddenly, I grabbed my shotgun and pointed it at his stomach. "Step away from the car", I ordered him. The lad turned pale. He probably did not expect such response. I turned on the ignition key and slowly began moving forward. He did not even attempt to run after me. I got lucky, Thank God.
Epilogue
What happened next? My destiny is just one among the millions who have to be refugees in their own country. I've been wandering somewhere in Moscow suburbs, had my passport annulled. Afterwards, I was able to acquire Canadian citizenship; worked in Korea.this is where I am now while writing this story.
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January 26 2004, 12:51 PM
Understanding the Chechen War , part I and II.
“My country in her intercourse with foreign nations, may she ever be right but, right or wrong, my country!”
Stephen Decatur (1779-1820)
During the years of the anti-Russian war in Chechnya (1991-2000) our liberal Ministry of Truth spread many extraordinary lies in support of the Chechen terrorists, and it remains mysterious how so much rubbish can be squeezed into the head of the average Russian "intellectual". Let us take a brief look at the main themes of the anti-Russian propaganda pushed out by the liberal media during those years.
In the earlier stages of the conflict the Ministry of Truth exploited the prejudice that had built up in the Soviet times by saying: “We can not fight the people - the people can not be conquered,” and "There are no good or bad nations; there was only the ill-willed Stalin, who, by use of forced boundaries and criminal "deporation of whole nations" managed to destroy the traditionally warm relationships between the peoples of the Caucasus region, etc., etc. However, sometimes around 1997, when Chechen ruffians, in a blind reliance on their immunity, began torturing and even beheading, not only Russians, but other people from “civilised" countries and even targeted liberal journalists (e.g. kidnapping of Elena Masyuk), the liberals in the media had to admit the crimes and find an excuse for them. So they began peddling the theme of the historical guilt of Russians for over 400 years of oppression of the Chechens and called the Russians for confession and repentance. Hence we have to look through our own history to ascertain certain facts.
A widely accepted belief is that the mountain people choose to live in the types of area they do because of specific features of their character - love for freedom, exaggerated pride, romanticism etc. In fact, in the case of Chechnya, we are dealing with the remnants of one of the oldest nations, who hid away in the Caucasus Mountains from powerful enemies centuries ago. The reality is that life in the mountains is not easy, and mountain people mostly yearn to move to the valley and plains.
Ancient Chechens
Contrary to what the Ministry of Truth says, the historical enemies of the Chechens are not Russians but their nomad neighbours, who use to cut the throats of anyone who dared descend from the mountains to live in the plains. Due to weak organisation and permanent mutual hatred, these people could not establish any effective government to defend them. The real historical enemies of the Chechens were not Russians, but Kalmyks. When four centuries ago the Russian Tsar allowed Kalmyks to settle on the Volga they terrified the Chechens then living nearby. Before the Kalmyks, the Nogay tribes had also given Chechens no peace.
Not Colonisers.
Russians are usually pictured as colonisers of the Caucasus, oppressing proud and freedom-loving local nations. Today's Russian intelligentsia are always sympathetic to Caucasus people on these grounds. But what are the historical facts? For a start, looking at things from the imperial Russian point of view, there never was any necessity to colonise these people. There were no economic reasons for doing so. For instance, the locals could not be subjected to any taxation on a substantial scale because of their shameful poverty (and that was not the way Russia used to deal with the nations in their empire anyway). And what of the local soil? The quality of soil in the Caucasus is very questionable. The Russian nobility never intended to settle in the mountain areas. So there were no pragmatic reasons for Russians to embark on the difficult conquest of Caucasus.
According to Russian ethnographer Lev Gumilyov, Georgians at the end of the 18th century managed to persuade the "half-insane" Pavel I to established a protectorate over their country (actually, Pavel was just simple minded and open-hearted rather then insane; he was moved by idealistic principles of Orthodox unity and mutual help). Considering the Napoleonic wars and revolutions of that time, the diversion of military resources to the unimportant Caucasus was very unwise. Georgians, who at that time belonged to Persia, were in a very difficult situation - unlike the Armenians, who enjoyed relative prosperity in the Osman Empire. However, part of Eastern Armenia belonged to Iran, where Christians were unwelcome. The support by Russia of her brother Orthodox Georgians involved her in a number of bitter wars with Turkey and Iran. In the first part of the 19th century Russia won these wars with minimal effects. In 1827 the Russian Army General I. F. Paskevitch liberated Yerevan, the Armenian capital. In exactly that period Russian interests required interference in the affairs of the mountain peoples; at that time Islamic jihad and so-called “national liberation movements against Tsarist Russian oppressors” started.
Cossacks
Actually, Russia had no interest in the mountain peoples themselves; she was concerned about the safety of supplies to her army. However, the mountain peoples were hired by Iran, Turkey and later Britain to attack Russian military convoys. Besides this, the mountain people had further reason to hate the Russians: their foreign trade was mainly the slave trade. For profitability, this business has its parallels in our time only in financial lending and oil exports. Selling off castrated Georgians boys to Turkish harems was particularly lucrative. Of some interest is the fact that in the time of the "liberal" reforms in late 20th-century Russia this ancient business was restored with full support of "human-rights" activists in the rebellious Chechnya.
Caucasus Chronicles
The incorporation of Georgia (1801-1810) and Azerbaijan (1803-1813) into the Russian empire are matters outside the scope of this article, though it is worth mentioning that after joining Russia Georgia's population increased fourfold. Russian military actions against the mountain tribes of Dagestan, Chechnya and the North West Caucasus from 1817 to 1868 are named the Caucasus Wars.
General Yermolov
There had been sporadic attacks on the fortified line of the Russian border with these lands, and passive resistance against these had not proved effective. In 1816 the Russian commander-in-chief general Ermolov started a systematic advance towards Chechnya and the highland parts of Dagestan. In fact, the transfer of the fortified line from the Terek to the Sunja rivers marked the beginning of full-scale war. Ermolov had up to 50,000 Russian Army regulars and up to 40,000 Cossacks. However, most of these forces had been engaged in service on the frontier as garrisons of the newly build fortified towns. Only protection by the Russian Army had allowed peasants to settle on the plains around North Caucasus. Hence Russia had not any substantial force with which to fight with mountain peoples.
In the middle 1820s Myurids in Chechnya and Dagestan started to form an imamat, a kind of small supranational empire. For the first time, Ghazi Mohamed (Kazi Mullah), proclaimed in 1828 to be Imam (a kind of spiritual emperor), called for a gazavat (or jihad - a holy war) against “infidels” (i.e. Russians). Shamil was his disciple. However, at the beginning most of Myurids' effort was spent on slaughtering the Avar and other local nobility. In 1830 Ghazi Mohamed led an army of 8,000 in the failed attempt to seize the Avar capital Hunzah. In 1832 Russians had stormed and occupied the Imam residency and Ghazi Mohamed was killed.
Imam Shamil
A new Imam managed in 1834 to seize Hunzah and kill the Avar ruler and his family for his refusal to join forces against the Russians. In revenge, the Imam himself was killed and replaced by Shamil. The Russians persued a war against Shamil with variable success. After a series of defeats by the Russian Army, Shamil signed an armistice in 1837, but again resumed military activity in 1839. By 1842-1846 Shamil controlled Avaria and part of Dagestan and enjoyed relative successes in his war against Russia. However, after 1846 he suffered a series of disastrous defeats at the hands of the Russians.
By the time of the start of the Crimean War (1853-1856) Russia firmly controlled the Caucasus between the Black and Caspian seas. In the North Caucasus, mountain peoples on the both sides of the Georgian military road were practically independent: on the eastern side were Shamil and his Myurids; on the western side were the Abkhazians and the Cherkesses, who, formally recognising Russian authority, freely made contact with Turkey and were buying weapons and selling slaves. The Russian fleet struggled to prevent this. Russian policy was to defend the border and to sign peace treaties with the mountain tribes. Occasionally, the Russians would send limited numbers of troops to destroy centres of military resistance in the mountains. Some mountain people consistently supported the Russians; other hesitated, betraying treaties and oaths. Apart from foreign support, the mountain peoples had a further reason to oppose the Russians - to protect their "traditional" ways of life - periodic raids on neighbours to take slaves, mostly for resale. One could perhaps call such wars against the Russians “national”, but could they be called wars of “liberation”? It depends on one's idea of what that term means!
The Crimean War demonstrated the danger of the situation in the North Caucasus, and after the war operations against the mountain peoples became constant and persistent. As a result, in April 1859 the Russians occupied Shamil’s capital Vedeno, and later stormed and occupied Gunib, where Shamil hid with 400 Myurids. Shamil surrendered, and after that lived peacefully in Kaluga in Central Russia. He died in Medina on his way to Mecca in 1871.
On November 20th 1859 Cherkes forces of up to 2,000 under Chamil's representative Mohamed Eminom surrendered to the Russians. For a few years Myurids continued military operations around the Black Sea in the hope of support from Britain and Turkey. Officially, the Caucasus War ended on May 12th 1864 with the Russian occupation of the Kbaada Valley.
Chechen horsman
There is a widespread belief that the Chechens have been the fiercest fighters against the Russians. That is not true. The most fierce resistance Russians have met among the mountain peoples has been on the shores of the Black Sea. Local tribes there did not want to surrender and submit and they fought to death. When surrender became unavoidable and imminent there were cases of collective suicides by whole families. Some other fled to Turkey. Later Russia had no problem west of the Caucasus, but in the east the situation was different.
As the Russian offensive in Chechnya continues, events are being watched with particular concern in Turkey, a country with plenty of people who trace their roots to the Caucasus. The Turkish government has joined international calls for military action to come to a halt, though it is cautious about needlessly provoking Russia. Instead, it is a grass-roots movement in Turkey which is busy helping the Chechen people in their hour of need, as is evident at a small hospital in an Istanbul suburb.
Dozens of Chechens here have been treated with the help of Turkish Islamist aid groups. Indeed, 150 new patients are expected to arrive at this hospital soon. In the wards, the patients - all young men - were nervous about being interviewed as they were concerned about the possibility of Russian reprisals against their relatives back home. Mohamed, a former student, lost his arm during a Russian air raid in Grozny. He would not say exactly how he had come to Istanbul.
Turkish anger.
Mohamed told me that he was grateful for the help given by Turkish Muslims, but other countries are doing nothing. "Only God can decide when the war will come to an end," he said. Real anger is palpable at a big pro-Chechen demonstration in Istanbul where protesters are expressing their frustration at what is happening to fellow Muslims in Chechnya. The Russians allege that financial and material aid to Chechnya is flowing through Turkey, although this is hard to prove. Pro-Islamist groups say their focus is on humanitarian assistance, but they say the government could and should do more.
"No official policy can stand against the will of the people for long", says Bulent Yildirim of the National Youth Foundation. "Turkish public opinion is very sympathetic to the Chechens. So the current government will have to change its policy - or the people will change the government." Turks of Chechen origin are busy helping the few refugees who have made it to Turkey. Bouka Aidamirova escaped across the Chechen mountains and crossed into Georgia with her son, just before the Russians shut the route down. Bouka says she wants to go back - but only when the Russians have gone for good. For the moment however, she is stranded.
Turkey must be cautious.
Politicians in Ankara may be sympathetic, but Russia is a huge neighbour, and Turkey's second largest trading partner. There are good reasons for treading carefully, according to Fehmi Koru, a political commentator, in a country with its own large minority group, the Kurds. "Turkey is very much dependent on Russian natural gas for example. And also there are people who feel that if Turkey tries to make a fuss about the Chechens, people will bring up the Kurds," Mr Koru says. At the moment, the Turkish government will not pour oil onto troubled waters. But if the war in Chechnya drags on, there may be pressure for a change of heart.
Re: Photos support Basayev's part in Grozny blast.
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January 30 2004, 12:43 PM
13:41 2004-01-30
Federal forces in Chechnya destroy two militants and detain one.
Two militants were destroyed and one detained in the course of a special operation in the Vedeno district of Chechnya. RIA Novosti was told about it on Friday in the Regional Operational Headquarters for Controlling the Anti-Terrorist Operation in the North Caucasus.
"Servicemen of the Federal Forces found a group of militants of some fifteen men near the village of Makhketa," said a spokesman for the headquarters. According to him, when the servicemen tried to block the bandit group a battle broke out.
"During the skirmish, two members of the illegal armed group were killed and one detained. There are no victims among the servicemen," said the spokesman.
Thanks to the information of the detained, he said, the servicemen found a base of the terrorists with caches not far from the place of the battle. They withdrew from it a machinegun, 14 sub-machineguns AK-74, five sporting guns and about 20,000 cartridges," said the spokesman for the headquarters.
Re: Photos support Basayev's part in Grozny blast.
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January 30 2004, 12:51 PM
Suicide Bomber Detained in Dagestan.
Pravda.Ru
01/28/2004 10:29
The "black widow" was scheming an act of terrorism
Russian police officers in the Chechen Republic detained a 19-year-old resident of the Chechen settlement of Shelkovskaya, Shebzukhova, the widow of a killed terrorist. The girl was detained in the Dagestan city of Kizlyar. It was reported on Monday that the suicide bomber was ready to commit a subversive act. Now, the police are searching for people who trained the terrorist, ITAR-TASS reports.
Two major acts of terrorism were prevented in Chechnya during the last weekend. The RF Interior Ministry press center in Northern Caucasus reports that powerful home-made explosive devices stuffed with metal balls, screw-bolts, screw-nuts and nails were discovered in Grozny and Achkhoi-Martan.
What is more, two terrorists were neutralized in Grozny. Police officers inspected a car when two terrorists in the automobile started firing. One of the criminals was killed with response fire, the other fled and hid in a destroyed house. At that, he wounded a police officer. When the terrorist was blockaded in the ruins and was told to lay down arms he killed himself.
Re: Photos support Basayev's part in Grozny blast.
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February 5 2004, 1:58 PM
Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2004. Page 3
I Was an Outcast, Says Bomber.
MoscowTimes
By Simon Saradzhyan
An FSB sapper preparing to defuse the bomb on 1st Tverskaya Yamskaya Ulitsa on July 10. It exploded minutes later, killing him. AP
Two of three young women sent to Moscow to be suicide bombers last summer by Chechnya-based Islamic fundamentalists had been ostracized by their families, one of them said in an interview, published in the Izvestia newspaper on Tuesday.
Zarema Mazhikhoyeva, a 23-year-old widow from Ingushetia, was arrested after failing to detonate a bomb in downtown Moscow last July. She told the paper she had joined a Wahhabite rebel group after stealing $800 worth of jewelry from the family of her late husband.
Mazhikhoyeva said she sold the jewelry to fund her and her daughter's escape from her in-laws, who had given the child to her childless brother-in-law after her husband's death. "[I became] the shame of the family," Mazhikhoyeva said in the interview from the top-security Lefortovo prison, where she is being held awaiting trial on terror charges.
Describing how she came to join a band of Chechnya-based Wahhabite rebels, Mazhikhoyeva said she decided to become a shakhid, or martyr, to repay her in-laws, as they would receive compensation of $1,000 from the rebels if she carried out a suicide bombing.
Mazhikhoyeva is charged with attempting to detonate a homemade bomb on 1st Tverskaya Yamskaya Ulitsa on July 10. The bomb went off hours later, killing an FSB bomb disposal expert who tried to defuse it.
Mazhikhoyeva said she lost her nerve one month before the botched attack, and was trying to draw attention to herself on the busy street so that she would be arrested. "I realized I would never be able to blow myself up," she said, Izvestia reported.
In the days leading up to the bombing attempt, two male minders from the rebel group stayed with Mazhikhoyeva in a house in the Moscow region village of Tolstopaltsevo -- along with two other young women preparing to carry out suicide bomb attacks.
Zalikhan Elikhadzhiyeva, 19, and Zinaida Aliyeva, 26, blew themselves up four days before Mazhikhoyeva's bombing attempt, killing 14 bystanders at a Tushino airfield rock concert.
Mazhikhoyeva said Elikhadzhiyeva's family had disowned her after she ran away with her stepbrother and Chechen rebel Magomed Elikhadzhiyev. It was he who later convinced Elikhadzhiyeva to become a shakhid, Mazhikhoyeva said.
According to the interview, of the three young women, only Aliyeva fitted the classic "black widow" profile, a term used to describe a Chechen rebel's female relative who avenges his killing by Russian troops.
Experts say both Mazhikhoyeva and Elikhadzhiyeva had violated one or more of the informal, but strictly observed social or religious laws that still govern poverty-stricken rural communities in the North Caucasus.
"The traditions are structured in such a way that women can more easily become outcasts," said Artur Martirosyan, a Caucasus expert and program manager at the Conflict Management Group in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Martirosyan noted the similarities between Elikhadzhiyeva's case and that of Palestinian suicide bomber Reem al-Reyashi. Al-Reyashi had allegedly been caught cheating on her husband and was forced to carry out the bombing as punishment, Israeli media reported.
Aleksei Malashenko of the Carnegie Moscow Center agreed that social marginalization had emerged as a factor, along with ideology and revenge, motivating female suicide bombers.
"Those who are marginalized by society and its norms are [easy prey] for catchers of souls," Malashenko said.
Re: Photos support Basayev's part in Grozny blast.
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February 6 2004, 9:56 AM
Wed Jan 28,11:46 AM ET
Bulgarian-Canadian says writing book on Moscow hostage drama was therapeutic.
JOHN MCKAY
Bulgarian-Canadian Vesselin Nedkov now living in Montreal with his wife, has co-authored his account of the terrifying experience in 57 Hours: A Survivor's Account of the Moscow Hostage Drama. (CP / handout)
TORONTO (CP) - Vesselin Nedkov first spotted the gunman out of the corner of his eye, slipping stealthily out of the shadows along the side aisles and sprinting towards the theatre stage.
He wore camouflage gear, a black ski mask and had a Kalashnikov assault rifle slung over his shoulder. At first, Nedkov thought it was part of the play, a huge Broadway-style musical production called Nord-Ost that in October 2002 was the hottest theatre ticket in Moscow. But within minutes Nedkov, a young Bulgarian who had immigrated to Canada, would be plunged into a deadly hostage crisis as more than 40 armed Chechen terrorists took over the theatre, wired it with bombs and outlined their demands of the Russian government.
For the next 2½ days and nights, the lives of Nedkov and 800 other theatre patrons hung in the balance, pawns trapped between the fanaticism of the trigger-happy, suicidal rebels inside and intransigent Russian authorities outside who appeared unwilling to negotiate a solution.
After a special forces tactical unit finally made its move, the terrorists were slain and amazingly none of the bombs detonated. But nearly 130 of the hostages were dead, most as the result of the mysterious gas piped into the theatre to disable everyone inside as the operation went down.
Nedkov survived. And along with his co-author, Toronto-based writer-editor Paul Wilson, his recollection of the harrowing ordeal, 57 Hours: A Survivor's Account of the Moscow Hostage Drama, was published last month by Viking Canada.
It was understandably a trauma for all involved, including Nedkov, who had been wrapping up a business trip in Moscow and was preparing to return to Montreal to settle down with his new wife.
"It was really hard to revive in detail all the memories, all the faces, all the people, the terrorists," Nedkov says from Montreal as he discusses his time spent writing the book. "But in the end these two months, they passed.
"It's helped me very much because it's had a therapeutic effect on me."
He says a therapist had advised him that he should talk about it as much as possible because it would help him put those nightmares "on the shelf" along with all his other memories.
He even paid a return visit to Moscow last year to interview fellow survivors and, strangely, to go back and see Nord-Ost, which had been interrupted in its middle by the terrorist event.
"Before entering the theatre, it was really hard. The whole day that we had to go there, I was very nervous," he recalls. "But I enjoyed the play after that. The second part of the play is much better than the first part."
As for the frequently-asked hindsight question, were 127 innocent lives justifiable collateral damage compared to the 800 that might have been blown up, Nedkov says the military operation was a brilliant success, but the authorities failed to have sufficient rescue and medical resources on hand afterwards.
He says it was clear the priority was to liquidate the terrorists, not to save the hostages, most of whom died either in piles of bodies dragged outside, or when placed unconscious on buses that eventually took them to various Moscow hospitals. They even refused to tell doctors what the gas was and its antidote, a mystery even today.
"I mean, they left us an hour-and-a-half under the gas while they were searching around. And there were no doctors, nothing like that. They should have done this better."
While a major news event globally, the hostage crisis played out at the same time as the Beltway sniper drama in the U.S. and not surprisingly, western media gave a western story priority.
Nedkov seems forgiving about the West's apparent myopia on issues like the ongoing bloody war in Chechnya, a tragedy the terrorists were trying to illuminate with their actions.
"I believe that the media is just going along with the needs of the viewers, because this is not something that really bothers them."
In fact, he was impressed that western journalists asked all the important questions while those in Russia and even his native Bulgaria were more interested in bloody, tabloid-style details.
These days, as he pursues his MBA at McGill University, Nedkov says it seems like such a cliche but that it's great just to be alive.
"And I still have these moments of trying to enjoy the simple things like the chirping of birds. Life is really beautiful. I love Montreal."
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Read an excerpt from Vesselin Nedkov's book 57 Hours: A Survivor's Account of the Moscow Hostage Drama.
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57 HOURS - a survivor’s account of the Moscow hostage drama.
Vesselin Nedkov and Paul Wilson
From Chapter 22:
It was about 8:00 p.m. With cries of “There’s going to be war!” Movsar, waving his AK-47 like a pointer, ordered us all to move toward the centre of the theatre where the largest bomb was propped up on one of the seats. It looked almost harmless, like a fat water tank about to topple over on its side, but there were those two ominous wires hanging out of it leading to the detonator, which was held by one of the women sitting next to it.
We were stunned, and responded to Movsar’s order slowly and reluctantly. Most of us were exhausted and deeply discouraged. Many appeared to have given up hope. Irina and I were near the end of our row and as people began to move to the centre, we tried our best to keep our position on the outside of the pack. Again, it probably didn’t matter much, but we felt some small comfort in keeping our distance from the bomb.
By this time, most of the terrorists, including the women suicide bombers, had gathered in the auditorium. The women moved as close to us and to each other as they could, forming a perimeter around us, as though we might try to break free and escape. It was one of the few times that all the terrorists appeared to be in the same room at once, though I knew others must have been posted outside the auditorium.
People began again to make calls on their cellphones, pleading with those outside to urge the Russians not to do anything. Many were weeping, some were simply sitting with their heads down, praying. Then one of the terrorists ordered us to get under our seats, and without thinking, we all got down, covered our heads with our hands, and waited. It didn’t occur to me at the time what a ridiculous order it was. The whole point of having us gather round the bomb was to make sure that we would die instantly. Why then were they ordering us to take shelter? Shelter from what?
I think this was the moment I finally believed—or rather I knew, because it was something I felt in my bones—that I would not survive. I kept hearing in my head that infernal slogan, “We want to die more than you want to live”—the one they repeated at every opportunity, reminding us of it, rubbing it in. It was meant to demoralize us, and it was finally beginning to work.
The children huddled on the floor with us must have felt even more helpless and terrified. I remembered peeking into the rehearsal rooms on the third floor during the intermission—long ago now, in another life—seeing kids in cat costumes practising dance routines, or singing choruses from Nord-Ost, or learning how to tap dance, and feeling their enthusiasm and the dedication of their teachers. They were here because their parents wanted them to have these opportunities, or because they wanted them to see this play and catch some of its spirit.
Did they feel the same certainty I did that they were about to die? And had the terrorists chosen this theatre, this play, because they knew there would be children in the audience?
I felt an almost uncontrollable rage at this intrusion of violence and cruelty and death into the lives of so many people who did not deserve it. Yes, there had been moments when I had begun to believe that there must have been good reasons for the Chechens to take such extreme measures. But it wasn’t the men—the Movsars and the Abu Bakars and the Yassirs—who had made me see things that way, but the women, the black widows wrapped in their dark shawls and willing, apparently, to blow themselves up wearing sweaters that had belonged to their dead husbands and sons, ready to die because what, really, did they have left to live for? I could not feel sympathy for their cause, and certainly not for their methods. But I did understand their desperation and their suffering. I knew how Petia and my mother would feel if I were to die here; they might feel a similar desperation, though I also knew that they would never go to the same lengths to express their anger and grief.
It was these black-veiled women, more than the men, who made me feel that we were doomed. The men had laid the plans; maybe not these men, but men somewhere, men standing behind them. The women who were guarding us with bombs strapped around their waists, who displayed an incomprehensible dedication to duty, were as trapped as we were in this situation that seemed, more and more, to have only one possible outcome.
I don’t know how long we stayed like that, cowering under our seats. But the next thing we heard was laughter. We looked up. It was the terrorists, laughing at us, mocking us. The whole exercise had been a joke, designed to humiliate us, to remind us of how helpless we were, how much at their mercy we were. It was the ugliest laughter I had ever heard.
When that dreadful sound stopped, there was absolute silence. No one said a word, no one moved, no one made a sound. After a long pause, the seats began to creak as, one by one, people got up off the floor and took their places again. When I looked around, I saw that most of the male terrorists had gone, leaving the women still in their places, sitting or standing at regular intervals around us, their hands on the detonators.
A long time passed before I could think calmly again. I took a deep breath and looked around me. Some people appeared glassy-eyed and stunned. Others slumped in their seats, staring at the floor, not talking to the people beside them. There was no sense of relief in their air. It was as though we all knew that we’d just been through a dress rehearsal for death.
Terror in Moscow - Interview with a Canadian Survivor.
CBC
Originally Broadcast on October 23, 2003
Vesselin Nedkov was on a business trip to Russia when he found himself trapped inside the Moscow theatre held hostage by Chechen nationalists for 57 hours.
How did you find yourself in the theatre that night?
I lived in Russia for three years before immigrating to Canada. This was the last trip to retrieve my belongings and say goodbye to old friends. I had purchased the tickets to Nord Ost as a way of thanking one of my friends, Irina Filipova for providing me with many hours of instruction in English.
When did you first realize something was wrong?
About 15 minutes into the second act a man jumped on the stage with a gun. At first I thought it was part of the show. He fired a shot towards the ceiling. I had received military training during a stint in the Bulgarian army and thought the shot sounded like a blank. But when I saw the plaster on the ceiling crack, I knew that he was using live bullets. I was shocked. Over the next half hour I began to realize how dangerous the situation really was.
How did the people around you react?
I was amazed at how brave the Russian people were. There was an instructor with about a dozen teen students who were taking lessons in one of the theatre's many classrooms. He was almost jovial, trying to keep people's spirits up. Everybody was trying to reassure everyone else that things would be okay. People didn't panic.
How serious was the situation?
Very. We were caught between two unpredictable powers. On one side the terrorists believed in their cause. Very early on they showed they were serious when they murdered a young girl in cold blood. But the Russian Army was on the other side and it was clear that they weren't going to negotiate. There were moments when I was quite sure that I'd never leave the theatre alive.
What were your impressions of the leader, Mosvar Barayev?
I spoke with him several times. Since I was a foreign national there was hope that the terrorists would let us go. At the very beginning of the siege they had separated us from the rest of the group and indicated that we would be allowed to leave. But it didn't happen.
The terrorists were quite angry because the Russians had censored their interview with Russian TV by removing the sound from the footage. We phoned our countrys' ambassadors and arranged for uncensored foreign coverage on CNN and other world media in exchange for being released. I approached Mosvar and explained the deal to him. But it was too late.
In my conversations with him, Mosvar seemed young and immature. He was only a country boy. He didn't appear to be appropriate for his position. It seemed to me that somebody else was really in charge. He was only there for the public image.
What did you learn about the negotiations with the Russian government?
I could see that the terrorists were not happy with the way things were going. Minor political figures were allowed into the theatre but no one with any real power. It was shocking to me that the Russian government made no effort on behalf of the hostages. I couldn't understand why they didn't pretend to remove forces from Chechnya or at least release some political prisoners just to calm the hostage takers.
Afterwards some of the Russian survivors told me that they were happy that the foreign nationals were not released. They believed that it was the only thing keeping the Russian army from storming the theatre and bringing a quick end to the siege.
The other bad sign was that the terrorists brought no means to communicate with the outside world. They used cell phones borrowed from the hostages. A women a few seats away received a call from the FSB and was asked to give the phone to one of the terrorists. But they didn't want to talk. Now if they seriously had intended to negotiate, why didn't they bring a means of communication with them?
What was the lowest moment?
On Thursday evening, the terrorists crowded us all around the main bomb in a circle. They had us duck to the floor. Then there was silence for what seemed the longest 15 seconds in my life. Afterwards the terrorists laughed. They just wanted to show us how vulnerable we were. I didn't think I was going to survive.
What do you remember of the rescue?
All along the terrorists suspected it was a trick. The Russian forces had planted a rumour that an invasion would happen at 3AM and when that hour passed the terrorists seemed to relax a little.
At dawn I felt a burning feeling in my nose and people began talking around a gas that was coming. My friend Irina gave me a wet handkerchief and I put it to my face. I was out cold within seconds and that's the last thing I remember.
Where were you when you woke?
I woke up on the bus on the way to the hospital. My tongue was swollen; I had bitten it many times. I was shaking all over and very unsteady. My pants were around my ankles because the Russian soldiers had stripped many of us naked to determine that we were not terrorists. Both of my knees were injured. It was clear that I had been dragged out of the theatre.
At the hospital we were given an injection. The nurse told me the army had used Sarin gas which wasn't true. The doctors had no idea what they were dealing with. Many people were vomiting a black substance. I was still afraid that I was dying. It took several hours for me to feel better. Then I was euphoric.
I later learned that it took the Russian Army over a half hour to storm the theatre. I don't know why the terrorists simply didn't blow us all up - that will always be a mystery to me. They had plenty of opportunity.
Why do you think you survived?
It was partly god's will. Also I had maneuvered myself as close to the entrance as possible and perhaps I was one of the first hostages to be taken out. Throughout the ordeal I remained clear headed. I was constantly occupied in trying to work out what was happening and what I could do to prevent my own death and the death of those around me.
There seemed to be no clear reason for why some people survived and others didn't. In a situation like that you have to find in yourself the hope and the will to survive. I think the people who were too emotionally and physically exhausted were the ones that didn't make it.
How do you feel about the rescue effort?
Clearly if it weren't for the Russian Army I would not have survived. But there is no justification for the poorly organized rescue effort. Too many innocent people died because there were not enough doctors and ambulances or information about what had really happened.
To this day there has been no accountability for the rescue effort. Such a thing would not have happened in North America.
What did you learn from the experience?
Like most people I lived in the security of a nice home with little understanding about how other people live. The terrorists' lives and values were completely alien to me. They stormed into my middle class existence and jolted me out of a sense of complacency.
I think that we all need to be aware that danger lurks closely beneath the surface of our lives. We don't have to be afraid - that would only accomplish the terrorists goals. I learned to understand that and to treat people with a respect and tolerance.
Re: Photos support Basayev's part in Grozny blast.
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February 6 2004, 10:11 AM
Report: Female Suicide Bomber Blew Herself Up in Moscow Metro.
Novinite.com
Politics: 6 February 2004, Friday
A female suicide bomber blew herself up in the packed Moscow underground train on Friday morning, killing at least 30 commuters, Russian agency News Ru reported.
Interfax also say Russian police is looking into a possible suicide female bomber.
If the explosion is confirmed as a bomb attack, suspicion is likely to fall on separatist militants from Chechnya.
One thousand and five hundred commuters are reported to have been on the underground train at the time of the explosion.
According to News Ru the train continued to move forward some 300 meters after the explosion went off.
Serious fire and thick smoke were reported inside.
Rescue teams are pulling the bodies of the killed and injured.
About 40 people were killed and hundreds others injured in the Moscow metro blast, which occurred at the height of rush hour in the second carriage of the underground train, Interfax reported.
Up to 350 were reported injured in the incident, many suffering from broken bones, smoke inhalation and burns, Russian radio reported.
A bloodied survivor of the blast in a Moscow metro station, which was ripped apart Friday morning. Russian radio said up to 350 were injured in the explosion, many suffer from broken bones, smoke inhalation and burns. At least 40 were killed. Photo by CNN
Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the blast, which ripped apart an underground Moscow metro train car during the morning rush hour on Friday morning, killing at least 40 people.
Putin called the blast terrorism.
"Only with the united efforts of the world community can we deal with this plague of the 21st century," he said, according to Interfax news agency.
Moscow Deputy Mayor: Explosive Hidden in Backpack.
Novinite.com
Politics: 6 February 2004, Friday
The explosive, which reportedly caused the blast in the Moscow metro on Friday morning, may have been hidden in a backpack, Moscow Deputy Mayor said.
The blast is widely believed to a terrorist act. If the explosion is confirmed as a bomb attack, suspicion is likely to fall on separatist militants from Chechnya.
ITAR-TASS commented it is difficult to set the death toll of the blast and cited witnesses describing body parts lying in the streets.
About 40 people were reported dead and another hundred injured in the blast, which occurred at the height of rush hour in the second carriage of the train as it entered a tunnel from Paveletskaya station.
Bulgaria's Embassy Sets Up Crisis Headquarters after Moscow Blast.
Novinite.com
Politics: 6 February 2004, Friday
Bulgaria's Embassy in Moscow has established a crisis headquarters after an explosion ripped off a packed Moscow underground train, killing at least 22.
At least 30 people were reported injured in the blast.
The explosion went off as it entered a tunnel from Paveletskaya station, severing damaging the train.
Russian police officials have told Reuters they could not rule out the possibility it was a terrorist attack.
BBC correspondent reports of scenes of panic and confusion as commuters fled the explosion scene.
Today's blast comes after year six people died when a female suicide bomber blew herself up outside Moscow's National Hotel last December.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.
Surviving passengers were left shocked by the blast.
Commuters caught up in the Moscow underground blast have spoken of scenes of terror and panic as the explosion ripped through the train. One woman, her face covered in blood, told Moscow's Channel One television station there were "very many victims". "There was (panic). Everybody was shouting," she said. "We could not open the carriage doors for a long, long time. Finally, the driver managed to open them and everybody walked out."
Passengers had to walk 2-3km through underground tunnels to get out, she said. At Avtozavodskaya station, the nearest overground point to the explosion, distraught parents arrived to search for their children. "My daughter is there!" a weeping woman in her 50s shouted repeatedly. A nearby shop worker said a blood-spattered survivor, shaking uncontrollably, came into the store shortly after the blast. "He said 'give me a vodka,'" she said.
"He told us that he saw arms, legs scattered around the carriage," the worker, Lena, said. "He said it was bloody carnage." The BBC's Sarah Rainsford at Paveletskaya station, which the train had left, says there are chaotic scenes, with blood-soaked stretchers on the streets, fleets of ambulances and other emergency vehicles, and helicopters hovering overhead. "There are crowds of people milling around, trying to absorb what has happened," she said. A Reuters staff member at the scene, Nikolai Isayev, said he saw some of the injured being taken away.
Injured.
"One had a head wound and another was apparently unconscious," he said. "The injured are being loaded into emergency vehicles and being driven off." Rescuers fought to bring people to safety, but said there were many dead. Estimates of the number of dead and injured rose steadily in the hours after the blast. The survivors are suffering from injuries including broken bones, smoke inhalation and burns.
Re: Photos support Basayev's part in Grozny blast.
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February 6 2004, 10:31 AM
Moscow Metro Map,
To: kattracks
Ugh. Murder bombing. I've always felt that was the most chicken-[censored] way to do things. You don't have the guts to stick around and receive the reprocussions of your actions.
The other thing that bothers me is that this will be a road map to other terrorists to do this in cities in the United States. In the New York subway during rush hour? I don't even want to imagine how much of a disaster that could be.
5 posted on 02/06/2004 12:16:32 AM PST by kingu
This message has been edited by TsarSamuil from IP address 212.181.9.227 on Feb 6, 2004 12:35 PM
Vladimir Zhirinovsky expects new terrorist acts in Moscow until the election date.
RBC
02/06/2004 13:44
Deputy Chairman of the State Duma, Leader of Liberal-Democratic Party Vladimir Zhirinovsky condemned the act of terrorism in Moscow Metro and expressed criticism to Moscow police and security services.
"Moscow police have been lying idle for several years while acts of terrorism and disturbances are going on in the capital city", Zhirinovsky said at the State Duma meeting. According to Zhirinovsky "act of terrorism will be continued until the Presidential elections in March". "The elections can became the bloodiest ones", said Zhirinovsky.
He said about the need to strengthen the control over migration to Moscow. "All dormitories are occupied by illegal newcomers while students have no places to stay". According to Zhirinovsy, tough measures must be undertaken including dismissal of the Chief of Moscow city police and security services.
According to a locomotive brigade, an explosion has ripped through one of the train car's around 8:30 am today in the Moscow metro.
Zamoskvoretskaya metro line has trains traveling in the following direction: from "Rechnoi Vokzal" to "Novokuznetskaya". Trains are currently stopped between stations "Krasnogvardeiskaya" and "Novokuznetskaya", reports press service of the Moscow metro in its interview to RBC.
According to a locomotive brigade, an explosion in one of the train cars has ripped around 8:30 am today in the Moscow metro. The train was traveling from "Paveletskaya" to "Avtozavodskaya" station.
Rescue workers and ambulances are currently at the scene. They continue to evacuate people from the smoky tunnel.
According to the preliminary information of the Moscow State Department of Internal Affairs, the blast occurred in the second car of the train. More than 30 ambulances are at the scene.
Latest News: 30 people have been killed and nearly 370 have been injured as a result of the blast in the Moscow metro. People in serious and critical conditions are being admitted to Moscow's hospitals.
According to the Ministry, a number of the dead can exceed a hundred, since the entire train has been seized with fire.
There is a possibility that the blast was triggered by a suicide bomber.
The blast equaled to almost 2 kg in trinitrotoluol equivalent, said a representative of the investigation brigade. The explosion ripped in 500 meters from the station. The train continued moving for another 300 meters until it stopped.
There was a total of 1500 people in the train at the time. Rescuers finished evacuating people from the tunnel at 10:15am. Approximately 700 people have been evacuated.
The blast triggered massive fire (of the highest 5th category) in the metro. There were nearly 100 people in the second car, reports ITAR-TASS.
President Vladimir Putin has been informed about the terrorist act. Ministry of Internal Affairs along with FSB has arrived to the scene. Director of Moscow's Department of Emergency Situations Alexander Eliseev was also present.
Acting Mayor of Moscow Valery Shantsev has just left for the crime scene. He intends to examine the situation personally hear reports of the city's services.
Re: Photos support Basayev's part in Grozny blast.
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February 6 2004, 1:19 PM
February 6, 2004
At Least 39 Killed in Bomb Blast in Moscow Subway.
New York Times
By STEVEN LEE MYERS
MOSCOW, Feb. 6 — A bomb exploded inside a crowded subway train here during the morning rush hour today, killing at least 39 people and wounding 122 in what officials said appeared to be the latest and one of the worst terrorist attacks linked to the war in Chechnya.
The bomb — said to be hidden inside a backpack or suitcase — tore the second car of a subway train as it approached the Avtozavaodskaya station at 8:45 a.m. and hurled bodies and body parts from the train. Hundreds of passengers — some of them bloodied, many of them dazed — had to stagger hundreds of yards through smoke-filled tunnels to reach safety.
As they emerged, they described a scene of fear, confusion and carnage deep beneath the heart of the Russian capital. Officials said the death toll would almost certainly rise; the force of the explosion tore many bodies into pieces, complicating the identification of the dead.
"I saw five bodies near the tracks and some metal parts," said Anna Kolmykova, 51, who was riding two or three cars behind the one hit by the blast. Police officers who happened to be in her car helped lead the survivors out.
"Those officers warned us about the bodies and pieces of metal so that we would not stumble," she said, her face smeared with black soot. "It was dark and full of smoke."
President Vladimir V. Putin, appearing with the new president of Azerbaijan at the Kremlin, responded obliquely, as he did on Dec. 9, when a suicide bomber killed herself and five others in front of the National Hotel, only a few hundred feet from the Kremlin itself.
Mr. Putin did not immediately address today's bombing in detail, but called for an intensified international effort to combat terrorism.
"It is the plague of the 21st century," Mr. Putin said in televised remarks.
Senior police and military officials announced that they had increased security at subway and railroad stations across Moscow, but there appeared to be little the authorities could do to prevent new terrorist attacks.
Mr. Putin's reserved remarks suggested an effort to minimize any political damage from the continued violence and fear stemming from the war in Chechnya, now in its fifth year. Mr. Putin, who rose to power as the second war in Chechnya unfolded, faces re-election on March 14, and though he is universally expected to win, he finds himself presiding over a conflict with no end in sight despite his reassurances that the worst was over.
With today's attack, there have been 13 terrorist bombings in the last year, most of them suicide attacks. More than 250 people have died in the attacks, including, with today's bombing, some 50 in Moscow itself.
Irina M. Khakamada, a former parliamentary deputy who has launched a quixotic challenge to Mr. Putin, said the Kremlin's military and political efforts in Chechnya, including a referendum and presidential elections in the republic last year, had proved ineffective.
"The peace process that is under way is not guaranteeing peoples' security," she said in a radio interview on Ekho Moskvy.
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February 6 2004, 1:43 PM
Act of terrorism in Vladikavkaz city of Northern Osetia republic.
Russian information agencies
02/04/2004 19:12
Investigators qualify the explosion in Vladikavkaz on February 3 as act of terrorism.
The explosive was radio-controlled fougasse having charge equivalent to 7-8 kilograms of trotyl, reported Operational Staff of investigating this crime. The explosion occurred at 5:17 by Moscow time at the busy intersection of Borodinsky and Gorky streets.
Central Market, Republican Center for Standardization, Headquarter of Hamid Bank, secondary school, plenty of small stores and bars are located nearby. Minor traffic accident preceded the explosion: a motor-car slightly pushed the red VAZ-2107 motor-car parked near the bank, and escaped from the accident scene. Several seconds later the red vehicle exploded.
At the moment of explosion two trucks with cadets of North Caucasian Military Academy of Interior Troops were crossing the intersection. One truck passed the intersection, but another was in the striking zone of the explosion. The employees of the Ministry on Emergency Situations and firemen had to calculate losses.
Two people were killed. The elderly woman-passer-by"s head was torn, and third-year Academy cadet Teimuraz Tsarikaev had his head traumatized and died in hospital. Five more cadets and the couple sitting in another vehicle were wounded by the explosion fragments. One of the injured is in critical condition.
Nothern Osetia experienced a number of acts of terrorism in recent years. The explosion in Vladikavkaz"s Central Marketplace in 1999 killed 55 people. In 2003 explosions in several Russian cities killed hundreds of civilians. In December 2003 over 50 people were killed by explosions in Essentuki and Moscow. All these explosions resulted from the military conflict in Chechnya.
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February 9 2004, 12:06 PM
Monday, Feb. 9, 2004. Page 5
Security Is Raised in the Bustling Metro.
The Moscow Times
Interior Ministry troops patrolling a train at Avtozavodskaya metro on Saturday. Security has been increased since Friday's blast. Misha Japaridze / AP
Amid heightened security, service was fully restored on the Moscow metro less than eight hours after Friday's blast.
Trains rushed past the site of the blast, between the Paveletskaya and Avtozavodskaya stations, at increased speed, in what local media suggested was an attempt to prevent passengers from seeing traces of devastation in the tunnel. But passengers could still glimpse remains of victims' clothes scattered in the darkened tunnel, local media reported.
Train traffic on the so-called green line resumed as normal at 6:06 p.m. Friday, metro chief Dmitry Gayev said.
He said the rails and tunnel had escaped damage.
"The only thing that passengers may see are the increased police patrols, but the most important thing for commuters -- the train schedule -- is back to normal," he told Ekho Moskvy radio.
Police officers toting automatic rifles stood watch near some entrances to the metro system Sunday, but at others no extra security measures were observed.
The city's metro carries 8.5 million people per day, according to the latest study conducted in 2002. The explosion occurred on the third-busiest of the metro's 11 lines, which carries nearly 1.2 million passengers per day.
But security is generally lax, despite a series of bombings on the metro and in other parts of the city in recent years.
The metro has recently put up billboards near escalators, urging passengers to report any unattended bags, and announcers follow station names with a reminder not to leave belongings behind when getting off the train.
A separate branch of the Interior Ministry is assigned to maintaining security on the metro, and some stations have police posts -- but officers are rarely seen patrolling the stations.
Gayev proposed installing cameras in train cars, in addition to those already in place in stations and transfer walkways.
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February 9 2004, 12:08 PM
Monday, Feb. 9, 2004. Page 1
Blast Stokes Nationalist Rhetoric.
MoscowTimes
By Catherine Belton
Shocked reaction to Friday's metro bombing is strengthening voices calling for a crackdown on ethnic minorities in the capital and a toughening of state power as the influence of nationalist and hawkish forces rises.
In one of the strongest reactions to the blast, Dmitry Rogozin, co-leader of the populist-nationalist Rodina bloc, called for the declaration of a state of emergency and laid the blame for the attack squarely at the feet of "ethnic crime."
"It is clear that this terrorist act was an attempt to undermine the power of the state in the country," Rogozin said Friday, Interfax reported. "This was committed on the eve of the presidential elections and the reaction to it should be the harshest.
"The enemy is here, within," he said. "This is ethnic crime, which is supporting terrorists arriving in Moscow, which owns property in Moscow and is imposing its will on the authorities. This ethnic crime is behaving insolently and should get the harshest response."
Moscow has been the target of a string of violent terrorist attacks ever since a series of apartment bombings in the capital in 1999 triggered the second war in Chechnya. Chechen terrorists have been seen to be behind most of the attacks. There is a large Chechen diaspora in Moscow.
Rogozin's Rodina bloc surged into the State Duma with a surprisingly strong showing in this December's parliamentary elections on a nationalist and anti-big business ticket. The campaign tapped into a rich vein of ethnic resentment as well as an ideological vacuum left by the collapse of communism and the failure of liberal market reforms to boost living standards for the majority.
The bloc joined Vladimir Zhirinovsky's nationalist Liberal Democratic Party, which also boosted its standing in the Duma, to give nationalist forces nearly 20 percent of all seats. The rise in influence of nationalist factions comes as forces from the security services grow in power under former KGB official President Vladimir Putin.
On Friday, Zhirinovsky, too, called for all immigrants from the Caucasus regions to be deported from the capital. Although he stopped short of Rogozin's calls for sweeping police powers under a state of emergency, he called for the introduction of night patrols and, in some cases, curfews, Interfax reported.
Even though Rogozin and Zhirinovsky had the most extreme reactions to the blast, analysts said the growing voice of nationalist forces in the country's political life could embolden leaders to take tougher action.
"The situation in the country and the results of the Duma elections could give [Moscow Mayor Yury] Luzhkov and other leaders carte blanche to introduce tougher measures in pushing out migrants and in increasing police powers," said Yevgeny Volk, political analyst at the Heritage Foundation.
On Saturday, Luzhkov was already gearing up for action. He said the city government was going to tighten measures against illegal migration into the capital. The heads of the city's law enforcement agencies decided at a meeting Saturday "to sharply and powerfully strengthen the work [of officials] that decide who are illegal guests," he said, Interfax reported.
He said his government planned to "raise the question of strengthening the registration regime" in the capital. Moscow already has one of the toughest registration systems for non-residents in the world.
Luzhkov has announced similar measures in the wake of other terrorist acts. Following the Dubrovka theater siege in fall 2002, Chechens registered as living in the capital were rounded up for questioning. Analysts said the new political climate could push him even further this time to target ethnic groups in the city, but they doubted such measures would have much effect.
Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov, the former interior minister, also called for greater police powers. He said more funds should be disbursed to the security services so that better security equipment could be installed in places where a lot of people congregate, such as the metro. He joined other deputies in calling for more powers to be granted to the security services, but stopped short of calling for a state of emergency.
Analysts said it was unlikely Rogozin's call for a state of emergency would find any greater resonance, but they said moves to beef up security could strengthen the hand of those calling for tougher authoritarian measures.
"Terrorism is becoming an element of everyday life in Russia, just like in Israel," said Lilia Shevtsova, political analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center. "This can be used to strengthen totalitarian tendencies. This is much more of a threat."
She said the Kremlin would seek to keep the lid on nationalists like Rogozin because growing nationalist sentiment could ultimately provide an even bigger threat to Putin's power base.
"The Kremlin already let the genie out of the bottle by allowing Rogozin and Rodina into the elections, but it is not in Putin's interests to play further with this. It could give rise to a nationalist leader who could be a threat to Putin," Shevtsova said.
"Despite the Chechen war and despite the regular terrorist acts, nationalism is still not a dominant part of the Russian mentality," she said. "It is possible to stop nationalism in its tracks as a dominant ideology as long as the Kremlin does not force it to the top."
Kremlin-connected political analyst Sergei Markov said it was likely Rogozin had taken things too far. "His reaction was hysterical," he said. "It will earn him points among his nationalist audience, but it will lead to a worsening of his relations with the Kremlin. It's the Kremlin that's going to have to clean up after him."
Later on Friday, Rogozin took the rhetoric even further in calling for the reintroduction of the death penalty. Fellow Rodina co-leader Sergei Glazyev joined him.
Zhirinovsky and other politicians of almost all political stripes lashed out at law enforcement agencies for failing to prevent the latest terrorist act.
Irina Khakamada of the Union of Right Forces, who is running as an opposition candidate in March's election, said the work of the security services was ineffective even though they have called the fight against terrorism their top priority.
"Why after a whole series of terrorist acts has nobody from the security services been fired?" she asked, Interfax reported.
Zhirinovsky was asking the same questions and suggested he would make a great new chief of police.
Khakamada was joined by fellow Union of Right Forces co-leader Boris Nemtsov in blaming the Kremlin's policies in Chechnya for the latest attack.
"The latest terrorist act comes against the backdrop of the start of the election campaign and is without a doubt connected to the unsolved problem of Chechnya, whatever people say about the legitimacy of the new regime," Khakamada said, Interfax reported.
In an effort to create at least the semblance of peace in the republic, presidential elections were held in Chechnya last year in which pro-Kremlin candidate Akhmad Kadyrov won a sweeping majority. Outbreaks of fighting between federal troops and rebels, however, occur almost daily.
"People understand that Kadyrov's rule will not bring them peace," Khakamada said.
Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov also laid the blame for the attack at the feet of the Putin administration. He warned that Putin's own policies were unleashing a wave of extremism.
In a statement, he called on the country's leadership "to sharply increase the effectiveness of its battle against terrorism and at the same time begin to pull out the roots of extremism, which are hiding in [the leadership's] own economic and social policies," Interfax reported.
As Russia's elite lashed out at the failures of its own security forces, world leaders from U.S. President George W. Bush to British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac were quick to send their condolences.
"No cause ever justifies the killing of innocent life," Bush said in a statement. "The United States stands with Russia in opposing terrorist acts and in our determination to bring the perpetrators to justice."
U.S. Ambassador to Moscow Alexander Vershbow condemned the bombing as "a cowardly attack."
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan also sent his condolences. "Once again the world has become a witness to the death of dozens and the wounding of even more innocent people, who were just taking their daily trip in an overfilled metro car," he said in a statement.
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February 9 2004, 12:19 PM
ssia vows to destroy Chechen rebels (Russia Alert - They are bloody mad can you blame them)
Reuters UK ^ | Sun 8 February, 2004 21:48 | By Mark Trevelyan, Security Correspondent
Posted on 02/08/2004 5:07:21 PM PST by gdyniawitawa
MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - Russia's defence minister says there is a clear connection between Chechen militants and al Qaeda and has vowed that Moscow would "calmly and systematically" wipe out the rebels.
Sergei Ivanov said on Sunday Russia would never negotiate with the Chechen separatists it blames for a bomb attack on the Moscow metro that killed at least 39 people on Friday.
"Whoever hopes we will start negotiations, let them go and start negotiating with Osama bin Laden or Mullah Omar," Ivanov said, referring to the al Qaeda and Taliban leaders.
"We will not negotiate. We will destroy these people calmly and systematically," he told a news conference in Munich.
Ivanov said investigations had not yet determined whether there was a foreign or al Qaeda connection behind the Friday morning rush-hour bomb on the Moscow underground.
But he said operational and financial links between Chechen separatists and bin Laden's network had clearly been demonstrated.
"The connection of these terrorists with the Taliban and al Qaeda has long ago been proved," he said.
Fugitive Chechen separatist leader, Aslan Maskhadov, has denied he was involved in the blast and called for talks.
Maskhadov, ex-president of the rebel region, has little or no control over extremist rebels led by warlord Shamil Basayev.
Ivanov expanded on comments to the Munich Security Conference on Saturday in which he said some foreign fighters were still active in Chechnya.
He said Russian 'spetsnaz' commandos were killing several foreigners a month, and regularly encountering Turks.
"The last Turkish citizen who was killed with a gun in his hand this week in Chechnya had previously, according to his passport, visited Pakistan as a 'tourist', and our experts believe it's clear he had been in a terrorist training camp in Pakistan," Ivanov said.
He said the Turk had then entered Chechnya illegally via Georgia. Many ethnic Chechens live in Turkey.
Russia has backed the United States in its war on terror since the September 11 attacks in 2001, and has consistently depicted its struggle with Chechen militants as part of the same global battle.
It has used this to justify its military operations in Chechnya, where it has fought two wars since the collapse of the Soviet Union, despite frequent criticism from human rights groups.
Ivanov said the type of militants active in Chechnya were also to blame for attacks much further afield.
"These people, if you can call them human, move about the world and carry out similar actions in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, Russia and Turkey," he said.
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February 9 2004, 12:36 PM
Victim of terrorist act, "I was not terrified. I was intimidated"
Information agencies
02/07/2004 18:34
The victims of terrorist attack in Moscow Metro continue to give new details of the tragedy.
One of the witnesses named Mikhail who had gone in the fourth Metro car said that the exploded second train car was completely destroyed. The car was overcrowded with people getting ready to get off at Circular Metro line.
According to Mikhail, the second car passengers served as living shield - the blast wave got stuck in the crowd. Were the act of terrorism conducted not at rush-hour, more people could be killed. "The second car doors were widely opened like butterfly"s wings. It was scary to look inside", said Mikhail.
Mikhail"s sheepskin coat was torn by glass fragments. "The smoke was acrid, and passengers started breathing through scarves and caps". After the power was cut off in the tunnel, the passengers came to the exit encountering rescue crews on the way.
Anna Emmanuilovna was very close to the blast epicenter - she was in the third train car. She said to NEWSru.com,
"First we all herd claps. I was sitting, but the young man standing next to me said that a girl had been thrown out through the window. I did not see fire. There were some officers in our car and they prevented passengers from panicking. I did not see dead people. When I was leaving the train car, somebody told me to watch my step because something was on the ground. It might be a piece of the car. We were walking for 30 minutes along the tunnel filled with smoke before reaching the station platform. I was not scared to die. I was intimidated. I want to leave this country".
An ambulance doctor said to NEWSru.com that many passengers evacuated from the train were hospitalized. The doctor mentioned the words of the woman she had treated, "After a loud clap something soft was thrown into my face. My hair was caught on fire".
Exploded train engine driver Valery Gorelov reported the details of the accident in live interview to Rossiya TV Channel.
The engine driver says that soon after train"s leaving Avtozavodskaya station he heard a clap, and one of the windshields in his cabin got broken. Gorelov applied emergency braking, and the train stopped in several dozen meters.
The engine driver contacted traffic superintendent and told to cut off the high-voltage power in the tunnel. After receiving confirmation Gorelov opened the train doors and began evacuating people.
Vladimir Gorelov said that people were not panicking and pushing one another during the evacuation, Lenta.ru reports.
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February 9 2004, 12:38 PM
Today I saw hell.
Livejournal
02/06/2004 19:40
I must be a lucky man to survive the trip on the Metro train whose car exploded.
This was terrible and I must also be a strong-willed person not to be overwhelmed with panic.
My morning started as usual - I came to Kantemorovskaya Metro Station, met my friend Ilya (he works as a carpenter in the South-West of Moscow), and we went to the Metro together. The way to Avtozavodskaya Station was OK, the train stopped, let new passengers in and proceeded towards Paveletskaya Station. After about one minute of the train moving in the Metro tunnel I heard not loud explosion somewhere in the front of the train. At that moment a cloud of yellow smoke was brought by wind and the broken power cables on the both sides of the car started disseminating sparkles. The train passed about 50 more meters and then stopped. Acrid smoke was biting my eyes. At that point I got scared. I thought it could be some poisonous gas. Luckily, I was wrong, otherwise nobody would survive. I pressed the button of the radio for contacting the engine driver and said that there was much smoke in the car. The engine driver replied the situation was under control and the passengers would be evacuated shortly. For two minutes nothing was going on except for smoke. I took off my cap, urinated in it, folded and started breathing through it. The conduct the Ministry on Emergency Situations recommends. Somebody did the same. I squatted and advised the people to do the same. While sitting, we heard some bastards were breaking windows. This is justified when the train stops in the tunnel, but not when there is smoke in the tunnel. The engine driver announced that the rail was cut off from power and opened the doors saying we should go in the direction of Avtozavodskaya Station. I jumped to the rail, helped some woman to leave the train car and went forward. Ilya left the car from another side and showed me the gesture meaning that he was OK. I calmed down a little. People around me could hardly move because the passengers from the behind train cars continued leaving the train and moving along the tunnel. Too many people during rush-hour. Somebody started panicking, "We will suffocate here!"
The woman whom I had helped to leave the train was shouting that we should go in the opposite direction, she said Avtozavodskaya station was there. She was screaming that everybody was going to die. I turned around to her and cursed at her badly, calling her to calm down. And she did. The people started moving to the station. After we passed the train we could see no smoke, and there was light coming out of the lamps on the tunnel walls. We were going along the rails, stepping on glass and pieces of iron. Somebody fainted and two men were carrying this person.
Then hell started. 50 meters away from the train proceeding along the tunnel, for about 20 meters I was going through blood, meat, pieces of flesh. I am not going to describe this. This was terrible. I have never seen such a terrible scene before.
Then we went to the station platform where I threw away my cap, washed my face, went out to the street and could recover my breath. No work for today. I am going to have a nap for a couple of hours.
Don"t worry - I am OK. I was neither injured nor poisoned with gas. I just had to throw away my cap.
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February 9 2004, 12:44 PM
Politicians see Chechen link in metro blast.
Gazeta.Ru
Yelena Rudneva
Many politicians and political analysts are convinced that the blast that ripped through the Moscow metro on Friday morning was perpetrated by Chechen terrorists and is timed to coincide with campaigning for next month’s presidential elections. ''This act aggravates the situation before the elections,'' LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky said. Dmitry Rogozin, the State Duma deputy chairman even suggested postponing the polls.
Dmitry Rogozin, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma:
In connection with the terrorist act it is necessary to convene an emergency session of the Federation Council and to declare a state of emergency, postponing the presidential elections. The authorities must show their worth. Such a city as Moscow cannot put up with it. We don’t need elections with boxers taking part in them. There are other, more important problems.
LDPR leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky:
This act aggravates the situation before the elections. I do not rule out that new blasts may occur during the presidential election campaign. It is necessary to introduce a special status for Moscow and to take tougher measures on the part of law enforcement organs with a view to prevent terrorist attacks.
Viktor Ozerov, Chairman of the Federation Council’s Committee for Security and Defence:
I do not rule out that the goal pursued by the terrorist act was to sow panic and fear among Muscovites, as well as to destabilise the situation in the capital in the run-up to the elections. It is also possible that the attack was aimed at robbing the incumbent head of state of votes. His opponents, first and foremost, those who are currently abroad, could use this situation to suit their purposes.
The metro is the most vulnerable place from the standpoint of organising terror attacks. With such a flow of people it is difficult to monitor the situation on all lines and stations; also it is difficult to exercise visual control on the metro. People themselves can assist greatly but exercising maximum vigilance and helping law enforcement organs in an effort to prevent terrorist attacks.
Maxim Dianov, Chairman of the Centre for Regional Research:
I am convinced that the goal of the terrorist act is to sow instability and panic in the run-up to the presidential election. But we proved to be up to the challenge. There is no panic in the city.
Viktor Ilyukhin, Chairman of the State Duma’s Security Committee:
This terrorist act is politically motivated and Chechen forces are involved. We already have evidence proving Chechen complicity in the Volgodonsk blast. I am afraid that here also there is a Chechen trail. I am afraid this attack is not the last. Certain forces consider it possible to destabilise the situation in the country before the polls. I think this is connected with the elections, because Putin has rivals, including those among Chechen [separatist] formations.
Gennady Seleznyov, State Duma deputy:
This is the work of terrorists. This is linked to the election campaign in order to sow panic and disorganisation.
Valery Bogomolov, Secretary of United Russia’s General Council:
The explosion in the capital shows that enemies of stabilisation in Russia and those who oppose order and normal development of civic society have not given up their efforts to destabilise the situation and to produce a negative reaction towards the authorities. Terrorist attacks can be stopped only when society is consolidated. If people unite in their aspiration to put an end to terror, the special services will cope with it.
Irina Khakamada, presidential candidate:
Another horrible terrorist act is carried out against the backdrop of the election campaign, and, beyond doubt, is caused by the unsettled Chechen crisis, no matter what is said of the legitimacy of the new Chechen authorities. The fact that terrorists carry out their terrorist acts in the capital not only on the surface but also under ground, where those attacks lead to particularly grave consequences, proves that the special services are failing to do their job properly.
Federation Council speaker Sergei Mironov:
Again we have become witnesses to a man-hating act, proving that today there is no threat more terrible than terrorism. A monstrous crime has been committed. At that hour thousands of Muscovites were hurrying to work, metro carriages were overcrowded. We must unite and do everything to stop the bloody wave of terror that has engulfed the whole world today.
Rudnik Dudayev, Chechen Security Council Secretary:
The leadership and the people of Chechnya condemn this barbarian act. A reasonable person is not capable of such a deed, whatever goals he pursues. The population of Chechnya knows all the horrors of such terrorist attacks. We offer our sincere condolences and commiserate with the families of the victims, and, for our part, are ready to do what we can to help if the federal centre finds it possible to accept such help from us.
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February 9 2004, 12:49 PM
Moscow mourns metro blast victims.
Gazeta.Ru, Reuters, Interfax Ôîòî: AFP
According to the latest reports, 39 people were killed and more than 120 injured after a powerful blast tore through a packed carriage on the Moscow metro on Friday morning. Over 100 survivors of the attack are still in hospital. The Moscow authorities have declared Monday an official day of mourning. The first funerals of the blast victims will be held later today.
Russian security forces launched a massive manhunt on Saturday for the perpetrators of Friday’s bomb attack. Police threw up a security cordon around Moscow and stepped up document checks on the streets. They also published a composite picture of a man they said was a suspect and briefly detained two men who bore a resemblance to the photofit.
In the meantime, over 100 survivors of the attack are still receiving treatment in hospitals across the city. At 6 a.m. on Monday there were 105 survivors in hospital, the city health department told Interfax. One of them was in a critical condition; 17 in a grave condition; 46 in a condition of medium gravity and 41 in a stable condition. In the two days following the blast 11 people were discharged.
Hundreds of Muscovites queued up to donate blood for the injured. Yevgeny Savenkov told Reuters after giving blood at a clinic: ''I have got a little child, a wife and many brothers. When I imagine that this could happen to them, I felt unwell. That's why I decided to come here.''
Dozens of passers-by gathered on Saturday to lay flowers at the entrances of the two stations linked by the tunnel where the blast took place. Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov ordered a day of mourning in the capital on Monday when the dead will be buried and warned that the death toll may rise.
''Unfortunately the number of victims of the terrorist attack may still rise, since 14 people in city hospitals were critically injured in the attack and a further 24 were seriously hurt,'' Luzhkov told reporters on Saturday.
Moscow's deputy prosecutor Vladimir Yudin said 20 of the dead had been identified, but added that he thought the number known to have died so far was unlikely to rise significantly. ''Judging by the evidence we possess, including (body) fragments of people who were killed, we have no reason to believe that the number of those killed is significantly more than (39),'' he told Interfax news agency.
Putin told reporters there was no doubt fugitive Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov had masterminded the attack. ''We do not need any indirect confirmation. We know for certain that Maskhadov and his bandits are linked to this terrorism,'' he said shortly after the blast. ''I do not rule out that this could be used both in debates taking place in the Russian presidential election and as a lever to put pressure on the current head of state.''
But the separatists strongly denied their involvement. A spokesman for the fugitive Chechen leader said neither Maskhadov nor his separatist government were ''connected to this bloody provocation and (they) unequivocally condemn it''.
Meanwhile, the investigation into the attack is continuing. According to the main theory being examined by investigators, the blast was carried out by a suicide bomber who was inside the second carriage of the metro train, when the explosion occurred. At the same time, investigators are looking at the possibility of the explosive device being set off by remote control.
A special investigative team has been set up to conduct the probe, Deputy Interior Minister Alexander Chekalin, who has been appointed the head of the operational headquarters for investigating the act of terrorism, told the press.
This latest tragedy in Moscow has again drawn the public’s attention to the unsolved problems of Chechnya. Putin has shunned talks with Chechen rebels who disagree with his peace plan – based on a referendum last year entrenching Chechnya firmly within Russia, and the subsequent election of a pro-Moscow president.
Fighting terrorism, he said, meant an ''unconditional rejection of any dialogue with terrorists as any contacts... only encourage them to commit ever bloodier crimes. Russia does not hold negotiations with terrorists, it destroys them.'' Chechnya could become an election issue, though most parties, a few liberals apart, broadly back Putin's stance.
''It is clear that whoever committed this terrorist act wanted to destabilise the situation ahead of the presidential elections,'' left-wing nationalist and presidential candidate Sergei Glazyev told a debate on NTV television. ''The main target is the president and we ought not to attack state authority, which is what they achieved today. But it must be said that the authorities do not defend us the way they should.''
Recent attacks in Moscow by Chechen separatists include a suicide bomb last December a short distance from the Kremlin which killed six people. Last July, two Chechen women blew themselves up at an outdoor music festival, killing 14 other people. A total of 129 people, among hundreds held hostage for three days in a Moscow theatre, were killed in October 2002 when security forces used a toxic gas to storm the building.
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February 9 2004, 1:14 PM
Friday, 6 February, 2004, 14:25 GMT
The world's busiest metro.
By Patrick Jackson
BBC News Online
A bomb on the Moscow Metro strikes at the very heart of this vibrant city of about 9 million souls where a trip "na Metro" is part of everyday life for most. It is the busiest underground railway in the world, recording about 9 million passenger rides per day compared with 8 million for Tokyo and 3 million for London. The network was planned in Soviet times but its relatively cheap fares and extensive network mean that despite Russia's boom in private car ownership over the last decade the Metro is as busy as ever.
And with nightmarish traffic jams now a daily feature on the streets above, people from every walk of life still descend into the Metro where the punctuality and sheer quantity of trains hurtling through the tunnels is the envy of a congested network like the Tube in London. Friday's explosion occurred on one of the busiest lines, the Zamoskvoretskaya ("Moscow River"), more familiar to travellers as the green diagonal line on the map linking the city's two main airports - Sheremetyevo in the north and Domodedovo in the south. It is a line which passes right through the heart of the city, with stations for Red Square and the Bolshoy just a few stops away from where the bomb went off. The attack happened between Paveletskaya, which serves a rail terminal of the same name and a smart business district, and Avtozavodskaya, named after a nearby car factory.
From bomb shelter to target.
Just a few years after the Metro was opened in 1935, its elegant stations - some of the deepest in the world - were serving as shelters from German bombs during the Second World War. Many Russians associate terrorism with the collapse of the USSR, with its police state securities, and the ethnic conflicts which then erupted, of which Chechnya has been the bloodiest. However, the first known terror attack inside the Metro itself came during the Brezhnev years, on 8 January 1977, when a bomb planted in a carriage by Armenian separatists killed seven people and injured another 37. Before Friday's explosion which claimed at least 39 lives, there were four other bomb attacks on the Metro, none of which has been linked conclusively to a particular group:
In June 1996, a bomb on the Serpukhovskaya Line killed four and injured 12
In January 1998, a bomb injured three people at Tretyakovskaya Station
Thirteen people were killed and 118 injured by a bomb in a pedestrian tunnel leading to Tverskaya Station in August 2000
In February 2001, an explosion injured 20 inside Belorusskaya Station
The one thing which impresses first-time users of the Moscow Metro is the amount of security there appears to be - from the uniformed monitors posted by the escalators to the policemen checking ID cards of passengers with bulky luggage at random in the aisles. But in the rush hour of a winter's morning in Moscow, where heavy coats are the rule and many passengers would be carrying luggage, it would have been relatively easy for a determined bomber to pass through the ticket barrier and into the stream of humanity heading for the trains.
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February 9 2004, 2:07 PM
Arab fanatic suspected in metro blast.
The Australian.news.com/The Sunday Times ^ | February 09, 2004 | Staff
A SAUDI Islamic militant based in the breakaway republic of Chechnya is suspected of being behind the bomb attack on the Moscow metro that killed 39 people and wounded more than 130.
Abu-al-Walid al-Ghamidi, 36, has been identified by the FSB, the Russian intelligence service, as one of the most powerful figures in the Chechen rebel leadership. As the commander of several hundred Arabs fighting alongside the rebels, he is thought to have been responsible for a wave of suicide bomb attacks that have killed more than 200 people in just over a year.
He is also believed to have been one of the masterminds of the October 2002 Moscow theatre siege, which ended with the deaths of 40 Chechen terrorists and 129 of their hostages.
Walid, a follower of the Wahhabi sect that dominates worship in Saudi Arabia, signalled the determination of Chechen extremists to take their war against the Kremlin to Russian soil when he broadcast a statement from the republic last year on the Arab television network Al-Jazeera.
"If operations in Chechnya continue they will harm Chechen people, so we have decided to export operations inside Russia," declared Walid, a bearded man with long black hair who wore a uniform and spoke against the backdrop of a Chechen flag.
"We consider all Russian people warriors because they elected this leadership when it pledged to crush the Chechen people.
"God willing they will pay for their fight with their blood and their sons."
The statement raised fears of a series of bombings aimed at disrupting next month's presidential election, which is expected to return Vladimir Putin to power.
Fugitive Chechen leader Aslan Maskhadov yesterday denied responsibility for Friday's metro bombing, the worst of its kind in Moscow.
However, he does not speak for more radical rebel commanders such as Walid and Shamil Basayev, the militant Chechen with whom the Saudi is said to have plotted the theatre siege.
Despite the ferocity of the blast, there was an unexpected air of normality yesterday at the Avtozavodskaya metro station, which is lined with white marble and Stalinist mosaics glorifying Soviet workers.
Trains were running to schedule and there was no obvious police presence. A bucket filled with red roses and carnations at the entrance to the station and a lingering smell of burnt bodies were the only reminders of the carnage of 24 hours earlier.
Police were questioning survivors and studying footage from a surveillance camera of two women suspected of being suicide bombers and a man believed to have been their accomplice, standing on the platform with two suitcases. Shortly before the explosion, the man had apparently approached a member of staff and said: "You'll have a party on your hands."
CENTRAL ASIA - CAUCASUS ANALYST Wednesday / February 26, 2003
AMIR ABU AL-WALID AND THE ISLAMIC COMPONENT OF THE CHECHEN WAR.
Andrew McGregor
Following the death of Amir Ibn al-Khattab last spring, there was speculation as to whether the foreign Islamist mujahidin would continue to play a large role in the Chechen struggle for independence from Russia. Khattab appears to have been replaced by a 35 year old Saudi, Abu al-Walid. Unlike the often flamboyant Khattab, al-Walid' has a more reclusive style. Ample speculation surrounds him, incuding whether he exists at all. Al-Walid is an experienced and worthy successor to Khattab in the field. What remains to be seen is whether al-Walid can preserve the supply networks of volunteers and money under enormous international pressure is being applied to terminate these conduits.
BACKGROUND: A native of southern Saudi Arabia, al-Walid's real name is 'Abd al-Aziz al-Ghamidi. In 1987, al-Walid left for Peshawar, the transit point for Arab volunteers heading into Afghanistan. There, he would have received training and support from the Mukhtab al-Khidmat, an organization run by Dr. 'Abdullah 'Azzam and funded by Osama bin Laden. As the Afghan war wound down, al-Walid made a short trip home before volunteering for new jihad operations in Bosnia in 1993. In June of 2002, the London-based Saudi newspaper al-Majallah published an interview with al-Walid's family in Saudi Arabia. His family revealed that he was pious but religiously moderate, one of eleven sons, and once had a taste for acting, but had little to say about his days in Afghanistan. In Bosnia, al-Walid may have served alongside some 300 veterans of the Afghanistan war. While they proved effective fighters, they were joined by hundreds of other foreign Muslims whose military skills were questionable, and whose religious Puritanism antagonized tolerant Bosnian Muslims. Many of the 'Afghans' were organized as part of the regular Bosnian Army's 7th Battalion under the command of Abu 'Abd al-Aziz 'Barbaros', an Indian Muslim with experience in Afghanistan and Kashmir.
When the Dayton Accords made the mujahidin presence in Bosnia politically uncomfortable, several hundred of the 'Afghans' began transferring to Chechnya in late 1995. Al-Walid may have served with Khattab in Chechnya as early as March 1995, planning and participating in some of the war's most successful actions against Russian convoys. In the role of Khattab's naib (deputy), he joined the 1999 attack on Dagestan that contributed to sparking the current war. In April 2000 he led a successful attack on the Russian 51st Paratroop regiment. In May 2002 came reports that al-Walid was holding the captured crew of an Mi-24 helicopter hostage, threatening to kill them if the Russians did not release 20 jailed Chechens. There are allegations that al-Walid is variously an agent of Saudi intelligence, the Muslim Brotherhood, or Bin-Laden's al-Qaeda.
The FSB claims that al-Walid organized the 1999 Russian apartment-block bombings, planned bacteriological attacks on Russia, and was behind the May 2002 Kaspiysk bombing in Daghestan. IMPLICATIONS: In September 2002, questions were raised as to al-Walid's actual existence. The Director of the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya claimed that Akhmed Zakayev and other representatives of the Maskhadov government had told him there was no such person as Abu al-Walid. Russian journalist Anna Politkoyskaya (one of the few outsiders to report from behind Chechen lines) was quoted as saying none of the fighters she knew had ever seen al-Walid. Further complicating the picture were numerous reports that al-Walid had drowned in June 2002 while crossing the Khul-Kulao River by horse.
The first known pictures of al-Walid appeared on Movladi Udagov's Kavkaz (Caucasus) website. The site showed a youthful looking al-Walid posing with Basayev, Maskhadov and other leaders of the Chechen rebellion. Al-Walid affects the long hair and beard popular with the late al-Khattab and other Arab mujahidin in Chechnya. Russia blames Abu al-Walid and Shamil Basayev for the devastating December 27 truck-bombing of the Chechen administration building in Grozny, allegedly carried out with funding from the Muslim Brotherhood. Russian officials claimed that the 'Arab methods' used in the suicide-bombing pointed to 'Arab militants trained in Afghanistan'. The Muslim Brotherhood has vigorously denied any responsibility for the Grozny bombing or other violent acts, though they are likely involved in fund-raising for the Chechen mujhadin as well as their acknowledged funding of humanitarian organizations active in Chechnya.
Al-Walid appears to be serving as deputy to Basayev, the Amir of the Majlis al-Shura. Basayev has resigned his command, however, since admitting responsibility for the disastrous events in Moscow. Officially, Basayev is now nothing more than the commander of the Riyadus- Salakhin Suicide Battallion, a newly formed unit of radical Islamists. Al-Walid continues as Commander of Eastern Front operations. The mujahidin under al-Walid are multi-ethnic in origin. Besides Arabs from the Gulf region and North Africa, there have at times been volunteers from Turkey, other parts of the Russian North Caucasus, Central Asia, Western Europe and even Japan. The composition of the group is fluid but is hard pressed at present to insert new members.
A group of about 80 Arabs may have entered Chechnya last Fall. There are also claims that many Saudi-sponsored Arabs active in Chechnya have recently relocated to the Middle East due to the failure of the Salafists to gain popular support in the Caucasus. Khattab understood the importance of public relations, realizing that in order to keep funds coming, the Chechen jihad had to be visible. A videotape team always accompanied Khattab's operations, and the Amir frequently made himself available for interviews (by satellite phone or other means) to the Muslim media. Al-Walid's more secretive style may jeopardize the mujahidin's financial links. CONCLUSIONS: Russian allegations of al-Qaeda control of al-Walid and the Arab fighters (and lately, the entire Chechen rebellion) make for useful propaganda, intended to draw American support. These charges rest on the belief that Bin Laden controls the thoughts and actions of every militant in the Islamic world. Since his death, Khattab's military career has been compared favorably to Bin Laden's by some of the most radical shaykhs in Saudi Arabia.
While Khattab was a constant presence on the battlefield and never pretended to be a scholar of Islam, Bin Laden has pretensions of religious leadership and has brought destruction upon Muslim lands. Khattab strongly denied any al-Qaeda connections to his command. The importance of the Arab fighters in the Chechen war may actually be diminishing at the same time as Russian authorities are trying to emphasize it. While their numbers are too small to affect the fight one way or another, they remain important in command roles and as conduits to those in the Islamic world willing to support the struggle. Unlike the Russians, the Chechens have a very limited pool of manpower to draw upon, making it nearly impossible to refuse the help of any trained volunteer. Veterans of Afghanistan were initially important in training Chechen rebels, but such training is no longer needed, as Chechens have mastered their own tactics and weaponry. Shrinking financial support from the Gulf States may further reduce the influence of the Arab mujahidin in Chechnya. AUTHOR BIO: Andrew McGregor works with Aberfoyle International Security Analysis, Toronto.
In China the entrances to ALL bus and train stations have x-ray machines. Even if you are only going in to buy a ticket or meet someone, ALL your bags and luggage will be x-rayed. It seems to work quite well and it doesn't really slow things down too much. Maybe this is what is needed.
Chris Hall, Weymouth, UK
I have read some comments here where people refer to diplomatic solutions in Chechnya; but now a Saudi warlord has gained control of the terrorist element there it means the fanatics are firmly entrenched. Putin will never pull the troops out under such circumstances. With this type of terrorist in place there can be no diplomatic solution. I'm no admirer of Putin but he's making the best job of an impossible situation. The thing he must do now though, is set in place security measures so that Russian citizens can go about daily life safely.
J, Belgium
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February 11 2004, 9:25 AM
Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2004. Page 10
Blame It All on the Oligarchs.
MoscowTimes.Ru
By Yulia Latynina
Last week, Moscow was hit by the worst terrorist act since the Nord Ost hostage-taking in October 2002. The official body count is 39.
Over the weekend, Dmitry Rogozin, co-leader of Rodina, called for the declaration of a state of emergency. Mikhail Leontyev, presenter of Odnako on Channel One, argued that the forces behind the terrorist act are those whose toes the state has been stepping on most actively of late -- "first and foremost the oligarchs." However, he forgot to mention that they finance such acts using money that should have been paid in taxes to the state.
Terrorist acts will continue to happen in Russia for two reasons.
First, because it is in the very nature of the system in place in Chechnya. Chechen field commanders produce terrorist acts, just as the Ostankino meat plant produces sausages. It's their business, just as is the case in Palestine. In both Chechnya and Palestine, there are people with power, influence and money who would not have power, influence and money if there were no terrorist acts.
It is not easy to fight terrorism even in a normal country, just as it is not easy to deal with gangrene even in a clean operating theater.
If, however, the operating theater is located in a pigsty, the nurses have pinched all the lightbulbs and the surgeon is not thinking about how to do the operation right, but about how he can cut off the patient's hand with his gold watch -- then it's a very different matter. And that is the second reason why terrorist acts will continue to occur.
Four years ago, President Vladimir Putin came to power promising to "waste the terrorists in the shitter." The terrorists, instead of ending up in the shitter, ended up in the metro, and the war in Chechnya still goes on. However, at some point the Kremlin decided to say that there was no war in Chechnya and then had Akhmad Kadyrov elected as president last year.
Kadyrov is capable of many things. He can ensure universal support for a party that promised to waste terrorists in the shitter (at certain polling stations, they say, there was 109 percent support initially) and propose that Putin be made president for life. He can also transform his own security service into the main armed force in the republic.
But he cannot prevent terrorist acts from taking place. Just because you can manipulate the vote does not mean that you can control Chechnya. Nobody controls the whole of Chechnya. The republic is controlled by men with machine guns, whose control only extends as far as the range of their weapons.
Thus, when the issue arose of what should be the main plank of Putin's re-election campaign the decision was taken to make it the war on the oligarchs, not on the terrorists. And it was Mikhail Khodorkovsky, not Shamil Basayev, who ended up in jail.
The security and law enforcement system of the country has contracted AIDS. Instead of destroying the alien bodies of bandits and field commanders, it engages in protection rackets and extortion. The louder the claims that the war in Chechnya is over, the more active chekists will become in redistributing property rather than chasing terrorists; and the more horrific terrorist acts will become.
And then someone has to be blamed, but who? Leontyev made an excellent suggestion. As we all know, if chickens die on a collective farm, then it is not the fault of the collective farm system, but of wreckers. If the metro is blown up then it is not the fault of the siloviki, but their victims. After all, the war is over in Chechnya, Kadyrov is in charge and Putin enjoys 100 percent support in the republic.
But Russia is at war with Chechnya, just as Israel is at war with the Arabs.
And Russia will lose this war because the top brass are too busy doing other stuff, like trading kerosene and weapons, launching criminal cases against Yukos and Vimpelcom, riding around in fancy cars and holidaying at expensive resorts.
The foot soldiers of this war, however, use the metro.
- Yulia Latynina is a columnist for Novaya Gazeta.
----------------
WELL, THE OLIGARCHS STILL GOTTA GO TO JAIL REGARDLESS OF CHECHNYA, WHAT'S SHE THINKING??
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February 11 2004, 9:31 AM
Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2004. Page 4
EU Gets Tough With Russia Over Chechnya.
MoscowTimes.Ru
The European Union formally set out its policy toward Russia on Monday with a strongly worded statement saying the bloc would press Moscow on human rights and Chechnya while boosting ties with other ex-Soviet states.
The EU decided in December on a complete review of its Russia policy ahead of the bloc's expansion in May to take in three former Soviet Baltic republics and several ex-satellite states of the former Soviet Union.
The new document appeared aimed at establishing clarity after Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, as holder of the rotating EU presidency in November, praised Russia's Chechen policy -- a direct contradiction of European Commission views.
Monday's communication called for "policy coherence" over Russia, an economic power with vast resources and a major supplier of natural gas to the EU it will soon border.
It reflects long-standing European concerns over what the union sees as Russia's poor record on human rights.
"The communication calls for the EU to underline that the EU-Russia partnership must be founded on shared values and common interests, which implies discussing frankly any Russian practices that run counter to European values, including those on human rights, media freedom and cooperation on the environment," the commission said in a statement.
But State Duma International Affairs Committee chairman Konstantin Kosachyov on Tuesday downplayed the importance of the statement.
Kosachyov told reporters he believed the final version of the document -- which will be discussed by the 25 current and future bloc foreign ministers in Brussels on Feb. 23 -- would be "balanced" and not "humiliating" for Russia.
Kosachyov said he thought "a set of radically minded EU officials" was trying to express anti-Russian sentiments that were based on "caveman" ideas of the situation in Russia.
EU-Russian trade was worth 78 billion euros last year, but an EU official said last week the bloc was frustrated that the two sides were making slow progress in relations in other areas.
Ties between Brussels and Moscow are set to move up on the agenda following EU enlargement, but the communication setting out the new policy notes that "in many areas EU and Russian positions appear to have diverged" in recent years.
Divergences include Russia's failure to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, the need to make a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with all 10 acceding EU states work more effectively, and the Chechen conflict.
The communication also recommended the EU upgrade its policy toward the southern Caucasus countries of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, and the western states of the former Soviet Union -- Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova.
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February 12 2004, 3:08 PM
Police official jailed for aiding Chechen terrorist.
Ãàçåòû.Ru
A court in Moscow found a police officer guilty of abuse of office for issuing official registration to Chechen rebel Luiza Bakuyeva who took part in the October 2002 hostage raid at the Nord-Ost musical theatre. Igor Alyamkin was sentenced to seven years in prison. The court also banned him from civil and police service for a further three years.
The Lefortovo court of Moscow on Thursday found police officer Alyamkin guilty of abusing his position, exceeding his authority, fraud and bribe-taking under Articles 285, 286, 290 and 159 of the Criminal Code and sentenced him to seven years in a medium-security prison.
Defence lawyers for Alyamkin said they would appeal. According to his lawyer Vladimir Kiselyov, investigators failed to prove Alyamkin’s guilt in court. Former colleagues of the accused who attended the session walked out of the courtroom before the judge had finished pronouncing the verdict, saying: ''They have turned everything inside out!'' Alyamkin admitted his guilt only partially by confessing to exceeding his authority.
Investigators claimed that in August 2002 Alyamkin was appointed acting inspector at the passport registration desk of the Nizhegorodsky police department in southern Moscow. In October 2002 shortly before the Nord-Ost hostage-taking a police officer, Alexei Promyslov, sent his acquaintance, a certain Gribkov, to Alyamkin asking him to issue registration for a Chechen woman Luiza Bakuyeva.
The court established that Alyamkin himself had arranged registration for Bakuyeva, though his duty amounted only to accepting the application and documents necessary for the applicant’s registration from the woman and forwarding them to his superior for consideration. However, none of the senior police officers ever saw those documents.
Alyamkin knew, however, that applications for registration from persons arriving from the Chechen Republic were to be considered personally by the head of the police department. The court also established that Alyamkin had regularly sold migration cards to people who arrived in Moscow from other regions. In particular, for a bribe he registered five residents of Moldova
On 28 February 2003 Alyamkin was caught in the act by the police force’s internal security service as he was extorting a bribe from a woman who had applied for Moscow registration. Witnesses and experts invited by the prosecutors confirmed Alyamkin’s guilt in court. Investigators also presented tape-recordings of Alyamkin’s phone conversations. In one such conversation Alyamkin had told his friend that ''there are migration cards on sale in their department''. He asked if his interlocutor wanted to buy blank application forms from him.
Alyamkin, along with two other police officers, was arrested in the framework of the investigation into the Nord-Ost hostage drama. Later the court ruled that policemen accused of exceeding their authority by issuing Moscow registration to Chechen terrorists should be tried separately.
In October 2002 Chechen rebels raided the Nord-Ost musical theatre in Moscow’s Dubrovka district and took over 800 theatre-goers and actors hostage. After a three-day siege Russian security forces stormed the building using a narcotic gas to disable the terrorists. Over 100 people died during and after the storming, most of them from gas poisoning. All the terrorists were killed.
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February 13 2004, 1:05 PM
Two rebels involved in police deaths killed in Dagestan.
Interfax. Friday, Feb. 13, 2004, 3:59 PM Moscow Time
MAKHACHKALA. Feb 13 (Interfax) - Two rebels involved in the death of three policemen earlier Friday have been killed in Dagestan's Khasavyurt region, Dagestani Interior Ministry press officer told Interfax.
"In the woods near Khasavyurt, two of the three rebels who killed Dagestani police officers earlier today were eliminated," the press officer said.
At about 6:30 a.m Friday, the police were conducting an operation to detain a suspected murderer, Sultan Abukhov, in his home village of Bamnatbekyurt, when they came under fire. Three police officers were killed and four wounded during the operation, the Ministry said.
There is information that the rebels tried to flee the village and head towards Chechnya, but were encircled near Khasavyurt.
The police are currently combing the area to locate the third rebel.
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February 13 2004, 2:19 PM
16:54
No regrets for Yandarbiyev - pro-Moscow Chechen president.
Zelihman Yandarbieyev was an acting president of Chechnya in 1995-1996, and later a Chechen representative in Afghanistan and Arab countries.
Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov said on Friday that the death of the separatist leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev was hardly a regrettable fact.
"Yandarbiyev was the chief ideologue of the separatists and later of their terrorist organisations which brought such tragic consequences to Chechnya, Kadyrov told the Interfax news agency. "You will find no one (in Chechnya) who will regret what happened to Yandarbiyev. Thousands of people, whose relatives had died or suffered as a result of Yandarbiyev's actions, might have had a reason to do this," Kadyrov said. //Reuters
Former Chechen leader dies after Qatar blast-police.
Former Chechen President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev died on Friday from injuries sustained when his car was hit by a blast in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar, police said.
"He is dead," Qatari police official Haman Ali al-Misnad told Reuters after he emerged from the surgical intensive care unit at Hamad Hospital in the capital Doha where Yandarbiyev had been taken. The official gave no further details.
Qatar-based Al Jazeera television earlier said Yandarbiyev was seriously injured after his car was hit by a blast in Doha and that two people travelling with him had been killed. The station gave no details. //Reuters
Russians say attack on Yandarbiyev result of Chechen internal feud.
An attack on former Chechen president Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, which took place in Quatar on Friday may be connected with an internal feud among the Chechen separatist leaders and their sponsors, the Interfax news agency has reported, citing comments by a source in Russia's law enforcement bodies. ''Yandarbiyev was aware of the transfers made from abroad to the Chechen bandit formations. Today, as the situation has changed, many foreign sponsors change their attitude to financing Chechen rebels and witness like Yandarbiyev are simply dangerous for them,'' the source said.
Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev died on Friday, a short time after his car was destroyed by a bomb blast in Quatar's capital Doha. //Gazeta.Ru
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February 23 2004, 12:12 PM
17:52 2004-02-21
Survey: 42% of Russians favor death penalty for convicted terrorists.
59% of Russians favor toughening punishments for terrorists, according to a recent VTsIOM survey. In addition, 42% said they supported the death penalty for convicted terrorists, 33% of respondents were in favor of restricting the movement of residents of the Northern Caucasus to other Russian regions and 26% supported the urgent economic recovery and return to a peaceful way of life in Chechnya.
Furthermore, 45% of respondents were convinced that the police were to blame for the Moscow Metro bombing earlier this month. 22% said the government was at fault, 16% said the lack of law and order in country was the cause of the blast, 14% said the Metro security was at fault, 11% of respondents said President Vladimir Putin was responsible and 10% said all Russians were at fault. Meanwhile, 59% said that the organizers of the blast would not be found, while 29% said they would.
After the Moscow Metro bombing, 33% of respondents say that they are afraid of becoming a victim of terrorism. 48% said they felt some danger, 10% didn't have any fears and 7% were confident terrorism would not impact themselves or their loved ones. 1600 people were surveyed from February 13 through February 16.
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February 23 2004, 12:26 PM
Security high in Moscow for Defenders of the Fatherland Day.
Interfax. Monday, Feb. 23, 2004, 2:21 PM Moscow Time
MOSCOW. Feb 23 (Interfax) - About 1,400 police officers are deployed in the central part of Moscow to maintain order during events marking Defenders of the Fatherland Day, the city's police chief Vladimir Pronin told Interfax on Monday.
A mounted police regiment and a canine squad have been moved to the city center, he said.
Special attention is being given to the metro, where security has been on high alert since the February 6 terrorist bombing, Pronin said.
Nearly 7,000 people are expected to attend events marking today's holiday, Pronin said.
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February 23 2004, 12:27 PM
Powerful bomb found in Grozny.
Interfax. Monday, Feb. 23, 2004, 3:01 PM Moscow Time
GROZNY. Feb 23 (Interfax) - Law enforcement officials accidentally found a powerful explosive device in a destroyed building on Grozny's Lugovaya Street on Monday, a police department source told Interfax.
The device consisted of four plastic bottles each containing 800 grams of TNT with iron bolts placed around it, he said.
Sappers removed the device to a safe place and blew it up. A search for those who planted the device is underway.
In the village of Zakan-Yurt in the Achkhoi-Martan district, police officers found a plastic bag in an abandoned farm containing explosive taken from an aerial bomb, the source said.
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February 26 2004, 2:13 PM
Chechen Suspect Killed (another one bites dust)
MT | Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2004
MOSCOW (MT) -- A Chechen rebel suspected of masterminding a series of attacks in Moscow and southern Russia last year has been gunned down in Ingushetia, RIA Novosti reported.
Khamzat Tazabayev, who is believed to be the right-hand man of Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, was thought to be behind the double suicide bombing at Moscow's Tushino rock festival, the suicide bombing of a bus near the military hospital in Mozdok and the attempted suicide bombing on Tverskaya, an FSB spokesman said.
He was killed in a special operation conducted by Ingush FSB forces at the village of Ali-Yurt, the spokesman said.
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February 26 2004, 2:20 PM
Basayev says he is ready to defend Moscow metro (Islamo comedic relief)
Russian Journal ^ | February 24, 2004
Posted on 02/24/2004 7:38:28 PM PST by RussianConservative
MOSCOW - A notorious rebel Chechen warlord has claimed responsibility for blowing up a gas pipeline near Moscow and expressed concern over the explosion that tore through the capital's metro earlier this month. Moreover, Basayev said he is ready to dispatch ''special subdivisions to maintain law and order in the capital''. It seems that Mayor Luzhkov’s agreement is the only thing needed to have them officially registered in Moscow.
Basayev failed to justify the fears of Russian special services who had anticipated new terrorist attacks on the day of the 60th anniversary of the deportation of Chechens. Instead, Basayev reminded them of his existence in a more peaceful manner, by issuing a press statement.
The statement reads that the Islamic group Riyadus-Saliheyn, operating under his command, claims responsibility for carrying out ''a successful sabotage operation'' that resulted in the destruction of two gas pipelines and the blowing-up of a Moscow water-heating station.
In his statement, published by rebel news agency Kavkaz Tsentr, Shamil Basayev maintains that ''altogether 60 artillery shells were used in the sabotage operation''. The attack was aimed at temporarily cutting off gas supplies to the Russian capital and disrupting the normal operation of its heating system.
However, the rebel leader laments, not only did the Russian authorities guilefully ''classify all information about the action as secret'', but in fact they disrupted the rebels’ plans by redirecting gas intended for Belarus to the capital.
''The statement by the Russian authorities that the reason for cutting off gas supplies to Belarus is its debt is nothing but a bluff. Gas supplies (at the height of the winter season!) to Kaliningrad, Poland and other regions have been cut as well. We are hereby refuting these statements as being false and not conforming to reality,'' Basayev said.
Furthermore, Basayev claimed, the entire act of sabotage near Moscow has been videotaped, and the footage will be forwarded to the media in the near future. The Russian authorities have so far ignored Basayev’s statements. They are most probably investigating the incident that occurred on 18 February in the Ramenskoye district near Moscow.
On that day, in the vicinity of the village of Starnikovo, experts found a crater under a pipeline and 10-mm holes in a 200-mm gas pipe. On the day after the incident Alexander Alexeyev, a senior police official with the regional police directorate told Gazeta.Ru that judging by the size of the crater, either two explosive devices of about 200 grams of TNT or a bucket of petrol blew up under the pipeline.
An explosive device planted by unknown saboteurs under another pipe in the same area was discovered and defused by sappers before it detonated. Local police suggested that local teenagers, who had watched too many action movies, could have been to blame.
No serious damage was inflicted to the gas network and all the capital’s heating stations are operating normally, the city authorities said.
Remarkably, in his statement, Shamil Basayev expressed concern about the latest events in Moscow, including the recent blast in the metro. He even expressed his willingness to dispatch special units to protect law and order in Moscow. Earlier Basayev claimed responsibility for the October 2002 rebel raid on a Moscow musical theatre and a suicide bombing at an open-air rock concert in the capital in July 2003.
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February 26 2004, 2:38 PM
Russian secret agents held in Qatar.
Gazeta.Ru Ôîòî: AP
Two Europeans, detained a week ago by the Qatari authorities on suspicion of having murdered Chechen rebel leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev in Doha, have turned out to be Russian security officers. On Wednesday evening official charges were brought against the two. The Russian Foreign Ministry broke its prolonged silence and demanded the release of the agents, who were carrying out ''tasks linked to the struggle against terrorism''.
The Russian security agents, detained in Qatar on 18 February, have been officially charged with complicity in murdering Chechen rebel leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. Yandarbiyev was killed on 13 February when a bomb destroyed his jeep after he and his 13-year-old son left a Doha mosque, where they had attended Friday prayers. Yandarbiyev died immediately; his son was hospitalized with wounds.
Initially, the Qatari authorities detained three Russian nationals, but one of them was later released.
The Russian Foreign Ministry only responded to the arrest of the agents a week later. In the early hours of Thursday Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov demanded that the Qatari authorities immediately release ''Russian citizens held illegally and ensure their unhindered return to Russia''.
Remarkably, the ministry waited for as long as a week before it issued the statement, obviously hoping to settle the situation through unofficial channels. Officials at the Russian embassy in Qatar confirmed to Gazeta.Ru they had been informed of the detentions immediately after it occurred, though not by the local authorities, but their own sources.
The Russian ministry pointed out that ''the Qatari authorities have not only seized Russian citizens by force, but in breach of elementary norms of international relations they did not inform the Russian embassy of their actions''.
On Wednesday the Qatari ambassador to Russia was summoned to the Foreign Ministry, where Ivanov made the following statement: ''On the night of 18-19 February in Doha, the capital of Qatar, the local special forces arrested three Russian citizens visiting the Russian embassy on business. The arrest was carried out using firearms and extreme physical force.''
Ivanov described the arrest as ''a provocation''. ''Our country has nothing to do with the incident. Attempts by the Qatari authorities to shift the blame for the attack on Yandarbiyev to the arrested Russian citizens have no grounds - they have nothing to do with this incident. The insinuations of the Qatari authorities cannot be assessed as anything other than a provocation,'' Ivanov told the ambassador.
Interestingly, certain points in Ivanov’s statement suggest that the Qatari authorities did, in fact, have grounds to suspect the Russian pair of murdering Yandarbieyv.
Firstly, Ivanov admitted that the Russian citizens detained in Qatar were agents of the Russian special services. ''In their status of being attached to the embassy they were in Qatar on legitimate grounds and were there without any breaches of local legislation carrying out tasks of an informational and analytical nature linked to the struggle against international terrorism,'' Ivanov said.
The minister also dwelt on Yandarbiyev’s ties with terrorist networks and accused Qatar’s leadership of harbouring the rebel whose name had been added to the UN list of the most dangerous terrorists.
''As for Yandarbiyev himself and his presence in Qatar, the following must be noted: he was added to the UN sanction list as one of the most dangerous international terrorists, for his crimes on Russian territory, and for direct links with Al-Qaida and other terrorist organizations,'' Ivanov said. ''In accordance with UN anti-terrorist resolutions, all states are obliged to prosecute terrorists or hand them over to the country where they carried out the crime.''
Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, the former president of the self-styled Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in 1996-1997, had lived in Qatar since 2000. He became one of the most prominent proponents of radical Islam among the Chechen rebels. During the hard-line Islamic rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Yandarbiyev opened a Chechen Embassy in Kabul, and a consulate in the southern city of Kandahar.
Yandarbiyev’s murder occurred only a week after a bombing in the Moscow metro killed 41 people. Vladimir Putin blamed Chechen rebels for the attack.
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February 27 2004, 10:58 AM
Friday, Feb. 27, 2004. Page 1
Kadyrov Jr. Flexes His Muscles in Chechnya.
MoscowTimes.Ru
By Simon Ostrovsky
Ramzan Kadyrov throwing punches in the Ramzan sports club in Gudermes. He says he dreams of killing rebel leaders Aslan Maskhadov and Shamil Basayev. Ivan Sekretarev / AP
GUDERMES, Chechnya -- Ramzan Kadyrov's personal empire is a sports complex filled with boxers and bodybuilders. But his influence emanates far beyond the sweaty halls of the "Ramzan" boxing club in Chechnya's tattered second city.
A muscle-bound boxer himself, Kadyrov runs the security service for his father, Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov. The 1,500-strong paramilitary force has been accused of sowing fear throughout the republic and guaranteeing the president's grip on power.
In a rare meeting with foreign journalists last week, Ramzan Kadyrov, 27, brushed aside concerns by human rights groups and said it was his dream to kill rebel leaders Aslan Maskhadov and Shamil Basayev and exterminate radical Islamists.
"The prophet said it is a holy duty to kill every one of them, not to talk to them or argue with them. You see one, you shoot and you leave. If there is any resistance -- salaam aleikum!" said Kadyrov, punching the air with his bruised knuckles.
Human rights groups say it is exactly this shoot-first, ask-questions-later attitude that is the trouble with Kadyrov's forces. According to the Chechen presidency's own statistics, there were 477 disappearances last year. Human Rights Watch has estimated 60 disappearances per month in the first half of 2003.
When President Vladimir Putin launched a second military campaign in Chechnya in 1999, Kadyrov's father was the republic's head mufti. A former supporter of rebel leader Maskhadov, Akhmad Kadyrov switched sides. Putin appointed him head of the Moscow-backed Chechen administration in 2000.
Ramzan Kadyrov's security service has been accused of intimidating Chechens into supporting the Kremlin line in a number of key votes last year: a March constitutional referendum that paved the way for presidential elections in October, as well as the State Duma ballot in December.
The senior Kadyrov won the election -- in which he was the only candidate -- with more than 80 percent of the vote, in balloting that the Moscow Helsinki Group said was "a shameful farce." Large international organizations refused even to monitor the election.
The number of voters participating in the Duma elections in Chechnya was 11 percent higher than the republic's voting population, according to the Central Elections Commission. United Russia, the pro-Kremlin party, won more than 80 percent of the Chechen vote.
The Kremlin bills these votes as evidence of increasing stability in Chechnya. Ramzan Kadyrov has since been charged with heading Putin's re-election campaign in the republic, according to Kadyrov assistant Shamsail Sarliyev.
"Although the people may have some complaints about their safety here, in general they are positive [that Akhmad Kadyrov took power]. This was proven by voter turnout at the constitutional referendum -- it was as high as in Soviet times," said FSB Colonel Ilya Shabalkin, spokesman for the federal forces in Chechnya.
Ramzan Kadyrov said it was his duty to bring constitutional order to the republic so that the Chechen people "can live normally like in other places, like England, France and Moscow."
In the meantime, he travels with an entourage of equally burly men in pinstriped suits driving unmarked silver Ladas.
Like his father, Kadyrov and his cousins fought against Russian forces in the first Chechen war, from 1994 to 1996. Many of the men now under his command were rebels who were amnestied and have now taken up arms for the pro-Moscow side, he said.
"My work would be more difficult without their help," the senior Kadyrov told reporters on a separate occasion.
Human rights groups, however, have detailed how the security force deals with people considered enemies.
The Moscow-based Memorial organization has published eyewitness accounts of alleged abuses by Ramzan Kadyrov's men, known locally as "Kadyrovtsy."
"I looked outside the window and saw ... that they were dragging him by the legs face down in the earth. His arms were broken, you could see the bones, there was blood. It was so cruel," reads the account of a nurse from a hospital in Sleptsovskaya, Ingushetia, where a large number of Chechen refugees have been staying. Kadyrov's men are believed to have staged a raid there in August that resulted in the killing of one man and the disappearance of five.
Memorial also reports a raid by Kadyrov's men in the Zavodskoi district of Grozny in September, which left two of his men dead, possibly by friendly fire.
According to witnesses, Kadyrov's masked men picked a house at random and entered it, saying "two of ours were killed, we have to take someone away." As a result, the men led away Zainalbek Khakimov, 20, and Kazbek Visaitov, 24. The two men were beaten and released several days later without being charged.
When confronted with such accounts, Kadyrov leaned forward on his elbows, his head seemingly riveted to his shoulders.
"I don't want our mothers and sisters to cry, I don't want our people to be kidnapped," he said, his voice almost as raspy as his father's.
Kadyrov refused to take journalists to a former chicken farm outside Gudermes that human rights activists allege is the site of detentions and beatings. He said those reports were no more than rumors.
Accounts of excesses by his men are fabrications by "the enemies of Russia," Kadyrov said. "People who sympathize with the terrorists are the ones who say I do these things."
Kadyrov, the president of the Chechen Boxing Federation, prefers to focus on the good he has done for Chechnya, like helping create the sports club where he held the news conference.
Kadyrov staged an elaborate fighting show by young boxers and then put on a pair of gloves himself to show off his prowess. Dozens of teenagers in a neighboring building exhibited their skills as weightlifters and wrestlers.
When Ramzan unsuccessfully attempted to lift a hefty weight for the TV cameras, an assistant swiftly took his place, bench-pressing the massive barbell without taking off his tie.
Whether or not they fear Kadyrov, people in Chechnya are well aware of his influence.
Makka Salamova, 55, stands outside the Ramzan sports center every few days in the hopes of telling its namesake about the disappearance of her two sons.
"There's no access to him," she said in tears. "My two sons where taken away three months ago, I don't know by whom. I want him to help me find them."
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March 1 2004, 2:11 PM
Qatar authorities may release arrested Russians shortly.
Newsru
03/01/2004 14:33
Qatar authorities may release the two Russian special servicemen - suspects of murder of former Chechen militants" leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiev - within the next few hours.
Interfax quoted Al-Jazeera report that simultaneously Russia will release the two Qatar sportsmen detained in Moscow on February 28. The sportsmen are from Qatar national judo team.
Zelimkhan Yandarbiev was killed in Qatar capital Doha on February 13 - the vehicle he was in when returning from the mosque, was exploded.
Russian Embassy in Qatar has no data on releasing the arrested Russians.
Russian Embassy in Qatar has no information that the arrested Russians can be released on March, 1.
The Embassy representative said to RIA-Novosti that they have no official information and know the news on the possible release of the detained Russian from media.
Russia accused the two detained Qatar citizens of ties with militants.
Russian special services detained two Qatar citizens in Moscow and brought the charges of ties with the illegal militant units in Russia against them.
The Qatar citizens were detained on the same day when Qatar authorities arrested Russian special service officers on accused them of organizing the assassination of Zelimkhan Yandarbiev.
According to Qatar QNA state information agency, the arrested men are members of Qatar national judo team.
They were going to Serbia to participate in the tournament to prepare for the 2004 Olympics. The two sportsmen were arrested on February 26 while boarding the plane in a Moscow airport. They arrived in Moscow from Belarus.
Obviously, the arrest of Qatar citizens in Moscow is Russia"s response to detaining two Russian special service officers in Qatar capital Doha. Later the arrested officers were accused of organizing the murder of Yandarbiev.
Director of Moscow Bureau of Al-Jazzera Akram Khasam said to Interfax reporter February 29 that Qatar ambassador in Moscow received to explanations on the incident.
Group of Russian lawyers arrived in Dokha.
A group of Russian lawyers arrived in Qatar capital Dokha on February 29 to provide legal assistance to the two Russian citizens arrested in Qatar.
Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Alexander Saltanov said in an Interfax interview that Russia "is conducting serious preparations for defending the Russian citizens arrested in Qatar".
Earlier Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Ivanov made special statement that "Neither Russia nor its detained citizens are involved in assassinating Yandarbiev".
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March 1 2004, 2:14 PM
Russia, Qatar to swap prisoners.
Gazeta.Ru Ôîòî: ips.org
Doha may release two Russian security agents shortly, Qatari media speculated on Monday. Earlier local media said that Russia had detained two Qatari athletes in Moscow in a move largely seen as Moscow’s response to the 19 February arrest of its two agents on suspicion of murdering former Chechen rebel president Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev.
The Al-Jazeera television network, reported on Monday that Qatari authorities are set to release two Russian agents detained in the early hours of 19 February in Doha on suspicion of murdering former president of the self-styled Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev.
Earlier Qatari media reported that Moscow had detained two Qatari citizens, members of the national wrestling team, who were heading to Serbia via Moscow to take part in a qualifier for the Olympic Games. Later reports specified that both of the detainees are Belarusian citizens with a valid residence permit in Qatar.
The athletes –Ibad Akhmedov (ethnic Azeri) and his instructor Alexander Dubrovinsky (ethnic Belarusian) – arrived in Moscow from Minsk on Saturday. After a short stopover in the Russian capital they were to continue their journey to Serbia, but were detained by the customs officers at the Sheremetyevo II airport.
The customs service alleged the two had currency on them they had failed to declare. For some reason, their case was then forwarded to the special services.
So far Russian special services have not released any comments on reports of the Qatari athletes’ detention. "So far, we are leaving reports about the detention of Qataris in Moscow without comment," a special services spokesman told Interfax.
The Saturday arrest is seen by many as Moscow’s response to the detention of two Russian agents in Qatar on 19 February.
Last week the Russians were officially charged with complicity in murdering Chechen rebel leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. Yandarbiyev was killed on 13 February when a bomb destroyed his jeep after he and his 13-year-old son left a Doha mosque, where they had attended Friday prayers. Yandarbiyev died immediately; his son was hospitalized with wounds.
Initially, the Qatari authorities detained three Russian nationals, but one of them was later released.
The Russian Foreign Ministry responded to the arrest of the agents a week later. In the early hours of Thursday Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov demanded that the Qatari authorities immediately release ''Russian citizens held illegally and ensure their unhindered return to Russia''.
The Russian ministry pointed out that ''the Qatari authorities have not only seized Russian citizens by force, but in breach of elementary norms of international relations they did not inform the Russian embassy of their actions''.
Ivanov described the arrest as ''a provocation''. ''Our country has nothing to do with the incident. Attempts by the Qatari authorities to shift the blame for the attack on Yandarbiyev to the arrested Russian citizens have no grounds - they have nothing to do with this incident. The insinuations of the Qatari authorities cannot be assessed as anything other than a provocation,'' Ivanov told the ambassador.
Interestingly, certain points in Ivanov’s statement suggest that the Qatari authorities did, in fact, have grounds to suspect the Russian pair of murdering Yandarbieyv.
Firstly, Ivanov admitted that the Russian citizens detained in Qatar were agents of the Russian special services. ''In their status of being attached to the embassy they were in Qatar on legitimate grounds and were there without any breaches of local legislation carrying out tasks of an informational and analytical nature linked to the struggle against international terrorism,'' Ivanov said.
The minister also dwelt on Yandarbiyev’s ties with terrorist networks and accused Qatar’s leadership of harbouring the rebel whose name had been added to the UN list of the most dangerous terrorists.
Qatar ignored Russia’s statement, saying on Friday that the Russian agents’ case will be heard in a open trial.
Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, the former president of the self-styled Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in 1996-1997, had lived in Qatar since 2000. He became one of the most prominent proponents of radical Islam among the Chechen rebels. During the hard-line Islamic rule of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Yandarbiyev opened a Chechen Embassy in Kabul, and a consulate in the southern city of Kandahar.
Yandarbiyev’s murder occurred only a week after a bombing in the Moscow metro killed 41 people. Russian President said the attack had been carried out by Chechen rebels over an internal strife and possible financial conflict.
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March 2 2004, 1:15 PM
Tuesday, Mar. 2, 2004. Page 3
Gelayev Believed Killed in Dagestan.
The Associated Press
MAKHACHKALA, Dagestan -- A man resembling senior Chechen warlord Ruslan Gelayev has been killed in a clash with federal troops in the mountains of Dagestan, officials said Monday.
Russian officials in the past repeatedly have reported Gelayev's death, and the latest claim could not immediately be confirmed.
The body of a man who appeared to be Gelayev was found Sunday, said Muslim Tsurmilov, a spokesman for the local branch of the Federal Border Guard Service.
A spokesman for the Federal Security Service's branch in southern Russia said forensic experts will examine the body to confirm its identity.
Vladimir Rudyak, an aide to Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky, said two captured rebels from Gelayev's group have identified the body as his.
Itar-Tass quoted unidentified officials in Dagestan as saying the man was wearing camouflage and had a submachine gun, a F-1 grenade and Wahhabi propaganda materials on him.
The last widespread report of Gelayev's death came after officials accused him of leading a band of rebels that killed nine border guards during a foray in Dagestan's mountains near the border with Chechnya in December.
The body believed to be Gelayev's was found near the bodies of two border guards outside the village of Bezhta, in the same region in southwestern Dagestan where the December foray took place.
Tsurmilov said the border guards apparently had died when they fell from a cliff while pursuing the rebels.
Gelayev, 39, won notoriety during the first war of the past decade between federal forces and separatist Chechen rebels, in 1994-96. He also played a prominent role in the second war, which began in September 1999, leading numerous raids and ambushes against the federal forces.
Details about Gelayev's past are sketchy.
He has three criminal convictions from Soviet times and once served as defense minister and deputy prime minister in the government of Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov.
Chechnya experts believe Gelayev has long been the most independent of all Chechen warlords, and that he has acted separately from Maskhadov and warlord Shamil Basayev.
This message has been edited by TsarSamuil from IP address 212.181.9.227 on Mar 2, 2004 2:30 PM
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March 3 2004, 9:45 AM
Gelayev, a dead chechen PIG.
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March 3 2004, 3:34 PM
Death of Chechen terrorist Ruslan Gelaev.
RBC
03/02/2004 13:36
On March 1 in Makhachkala, Dagestan imprisoned Chechen terrorists identified the dead body of one of their most notorious commanders - Ruslan (Khamzat) Gelaev.
The terrorist leader was killed neither by commandos nor by special servicemen, but by two young frontier guards. They ran into him in the outskirts of their native village.
According to Kommersant newspaper, on February 28 Gelaev"s bodyguard and herder took Gelaev to the lower part of Chaekha ravine stretching from Chechen village Bezhty to Pankisskoe ravine in Georgia. There Black Angel (the call-sign of Gelaev) said good-bye to his companions and started climbing the ravine. After losing all his soldiers in unsuccessful raid in Dagestan, Gelaev decided to go through the mountain passes to his main base in Pankisskoe ravine in Georgia where his wives, children and relatives are living. The terrorist leader started most of his raids from Pankisskoe ravine. He recruited people from all the area of the former USSR for his military units.
This time Gelaev failed to reach the ravine. According to the information of the police station in Bezhta village, at the same time two 22-year old local residents - soldiers Abdulkhalik Kurbanov and Mukhtar Suleimanov were climbing down Chaekha ravine. After completing their mandatory military service in a small frontier post, the young men continued guarding the state border on contract basis. The frontier post was only 10 kilometers away from their native village, and the soldiers used to visit the village to have a meal, meet girlfriends or spend a weekend. On Saturday of February 28 Abdulkhalik Kurbanov wanted to visit his wife (he married only two months before), and Mukhtar Suleimanov who was not married decided to make a company to his fellow-soldier.
Even the most experienced frontier guard would hardly recognize Gelaev in the man the two soldiers ran into. Ruffled beard, black shabby pants from jumpsuit, old parka and rubber boots made him look like a beggar, not a dangerous terrorist commander.
It is hard to say what exactly happened. Probably, one of the frontier guards called Gelaev or tried to check his ID - and the militant opened fire from his machine-gun. Gelaev fired point-blankly, probably he was hiding his short-barreled machine-gun under his parka until the very last moment, and both the frontier guards immediately fell bleeding heavily. The bullet hit the head of Soldier Suleimanov and immediately killed him. Abdulkhalik Kurbanov was wounded in his chest, but was able to fire back. His bullets shattered Gelaev"s left elbow and tore away his hand. This did not spot the militant - he killed the soldier with two point-blank shot into his head. Gelaev was holding his machine-gun with one hand.
Black Angel himself had little time to live. The traces on the snow witnessed the last moments of the terrorist"s life.
Immediately after the fight Gelaev ran up to the ravine, but he was able to run only about 50 meters - he became weaker with every step because blood was pouring out of his hand. Gelaev was fighting for life until the very last moment. He stopped, cut off his left hand with the knife and threw it onto the snow. Then he took tourniquet out of his first-aid kit and put it on the wound, made several steps, fell, got up again. He walked another 50 meters and stopped, took a can of coffee out of his pocket and chewed some coffee powder. Probably Gelaev hoped this would give him more strength. Then he took out and bit a bar of chocolate.
Gelaev was grabbling his last meters to the Georgian border. He died in this pose with his hand gripping the bar of chocolate. Policemen looking for the lost frontier guards found his dead body.
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March 8 2004, 2:58 PM
Suspects Detained over Moscow Blast.
Novinite.com
Politics: 5 March 2004, Friday
Police has detained a number of suspects over the blast in the Moscow subway on February 6, which claimed the lives of 40 people and wounded more than 100 others, RIA Novosti reported.
Nikolay Petrushin from the Interior Ministry was cited as saying that there are many arrested, but their links to the bloodshed are not proven yet.
Interrogations are currently underway.
The blast rattled a carriage during morning rush hour as the train was travelling from Paveletskaya station to Avtozavodskaya station, southwest of the city centre, around 8:40 a.m. local time.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, but Chechen insurgents are blamed for a series of suicide bombings in Moscow and elsewhere in Russia.
Moscow's subway system - the world's busiest with an average 8.5 million passengers a day - has long been seen as especially vulnerable to terrorism. Police routinely stop people in the stations who have Chechen or North Caucasus appearance, but cheek-by-jowl crowds during much of the day make thorough surveillance impossible.
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March 8 2004, 2:59 PM
14:34 2004-03-05
Big terrorist act headed off in Southern Federal District.
Staff of the Federal Security Service of Russia (FSB) prevented on Thursday a major act of terror which militants planned to stage in one of the cities of the Southern Federal District (SFD) by suicide bombers, Ilya Shabalkin, an official spokesman for the regional headquarters for the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus, told RIA Novosti.
According to him, on the day before operatives of the FSB department for Chechnya and Stavropol Territory spotted, in the village of Alkha-Yurt of the Urus-Martan district, two camouflaged cars VAZ-2106 and Gaz-24, stuffed with three hundred kilograms of explosive. Wires for detonating the bombs had been taken out to the passenger compartment.
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March 10 2004, 10:27 AM
Russia's risky row with Qatar.
By Sergei Blagov
MOSCOW - Russia and the tiny emirate of Qatar have become embroiled in a bitter row over the continued detention of two Russian agents, suspected in a conspiracy to assassinate exiled Chechen leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, killed when a bomb destroyed his sport-utility vehicle in the Qatari capital Doha last month. But the controversy may prove to be a major setback for Moscow's recent attempts to boost its relations with the Islamic and Arab worlds, given the situation's deep Islamic roots.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has denounced the assassination and supported efforts to investigate the "criminal act". In a statement this week, foreign ministers from the six-nation GCC said the February 13 killing of Yandarbiyev defied human, religious and moral values.
But Kuwaiti Information Minister Muhammed Abu al-Hasan, whose country currently chairs the group, told reporters he did not believe tensions between Russia and Qatar over the issue would escalate. The GCC would like its good relations with Russia to "flourish and prosper", the minister added.
Despite such positive words, relations between Russia and the Arab world could be adversely affected by the spat with Qatar, argued Alexander Pikayev, Moscow-based expert of the Carnegie Endowment. There is an anti-Arabic lobby in Moscow that could use this opportunity to undermine relations between Russia and the Arabs, he said.
Meanwhile, Russia has been making strong moves to boost its position in the Islamic world. In February, Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov announced a decision to set up an Islamic university in Moscow. "No doubt, the university will spectacularly promote inter-religious accord in Russia," Ivanov said. "Russia is determined to step up friendly contacts with Muslim countries."
Last October, Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the 10th Summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Kuala Lumpur and sought an observer status in the OIC for Russia. The Kremlin has been arguing that there are more than 20 million Muslims in Russia, more than in many Muslim states, hence Russia needs to join the OIC, at least as an observer.
Russia's economic interests also hang in the balance. Notably, this Sunday, Russia's top oil company concluded an unprecedented agreement with the government of Saudi Arabia for the development of natural-gas deposits. The project is to be implemented by a joint venture between Russia's LUKoil and the kingdom's Saudi Aramco, in which LUKoil would hold an 80 percent stake. A 40-year concession agreement between the government of Saudi Arabia and the joint company involves the development of natural-gas and gas-condensate deposits of 30,000-square-kilometer Block A, in the center of the country. LUKoil reportedly plans to invest up to US$200 million in the project.
Last September, Russian and Saudi officials signed a five-year agreement on cooperation in the oil-and-gas sector. According to the Russian Energy Ministry, the framework accord could lead to deals worth up to $25 billion. But Russia has good reason to fret as it is understood that a relatively minor incident in Qatar may have repercussions for the Russian pursuit of oil and gas riches in the Persian Gulf region, notably if inflammatory discourse in Moscow continues.
Russia's tit-for-tat tactics.
In the wake of the detention of the two Russian agents, hardline rhetoric has been emerging from both sides. Moscow will take all possible measures to free the agents, now detained in Qatar, Russia's acting Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov stated last Wednesday. Ivanov did not elaborate, but in October he announced that Moscow could use preventive military force in case of a "direct threat" to Russian citizens.
One Russian politician even directly called for violent action against Qatar. Dmitry Rogozin, co-leader of the nationalist Rodina political movement and the parliamentary deputy speaker, was quoted last week as calling for the use of military force to compel Qatar to free the Russian agents, arrested last month.
However, bearing in mind the sizable US military presence in the emirate, the Kremlin distanced itself from Rogozin's inflammatory rhetoric. "The statement by Rogozin is his own personal view and does not reflect the Russian position," the Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
Moreover, in an apparent response, two Qatari citizens, members of the national wrestling team, have been detained in Moscow. Last Wednesday, the Qatari Foreign Ministry said the pair, Nasser Ibrahim Saad Al-Medheihiki and Ibrahim Ahmad Nasser Ahmad, who represent the Qatari Wrestling Federation, remained in Russia's custody. Another Qatari citizen, naturalized Belarussian Ibat Akhmedov, was reportedly detained by Russian authorities at Moscow's Sheremetyevo-2 international airport, but was eventually freed.
Meanwhile, Qatari newspapers have accused Russia of using mafia tactics to pressure the Gulf Arab state to release the two Russians. "The federal government in the Kremlin insists on acting like mafia," said a Qatari daily, al-Rayah. Added the Doha-based Al Sharq daily: "It seems the Russians are not satisfied with their scandalous assassination of Yandarbiyev, but have added to that piracy and kidnapping of Qatari citizens for the very clear purpose of swapping the Qataris for the Russians."
Moscow maintains its innocence.
The two Russians arrested for their alleged links to Yandarbiyev's murder appeared before a judge last week and now face formal murder charges. A third Russian agent who was arrested has been released because he carried a diplomatic passport.
Yandarbiyev, 51, who was acting president of Chechnya from 1996-97, had been living in exile in Qatar for about three years, despite repeated Russian requests for his extradition. The United Nations had included Yandarbiyev on its list of people with links to al-Qaeda, and the US Treasury had seized his assets in the United States.
Moscow has flatly denied any Russian involvement in the death of Yandarbiyev. The Foreign Ministry called the arrests of two Russian secret agents "a provocation" and violation of international law. Three Russian citizens and members of the secret services "were legally assigned to the Russian Embassy in Qatar, conducting analytical work in connection with countering international terrorism, without violating local legislation", said the statement. Moscow demanded that others be released and accused Qatar of "connivance with international terrorism" by providing asylum to Yandarbiyev.
Russia has maintained that Yandarbiyev was responsible for financing Chechnya's separatist rebels and organizing terrorist attacks, including the seizure of a theater in Moscow in October 2002 by at least 41 Chechens. All of the Chechens and 129 of the approximately 800 hostages died when Russian commandos stormed the theater. Russia officials claimed that Yandarbiyev gave the orders by telephone to the theater hostage takers.
Officials in Moscow attributed the bombing to a vendetta from Yandarbiyev's days in Chechnya or internal feuds among Chechens over distribution of foreign money for Chechen rebels, which reportedly went through Yandarbiyev's hands. The current Chechen president, Akhmad Kadyrov, who opposes the separatist rebels, argued that "the Chechen people had no reasons to feel sorry about what happened ... He was our enemy after all," Kadyrov said. Chechnya's Deputy Interior Minister Sultain Satuyev reportedly said that Yandarbiyev's killers should be proud of their action. "I'm sorry I was unable to shoot him myself," Satuyev said.
On the other hand, Chechenpress, an online news service of the Chechen rebels, ran a statement of the Foreign Ministry of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria that expressed its "highest gratitude" to Qatar. Moscow views Ichkeria representatives as terrorists and seeks their extradition from a number of countries, and the display of Ichkeria's gratitude may have further fueled Russia's ire.
However, some Russia media remained unconvinced by the official denials and headlines made mentions of "the pickax", referring at the 1940 murder of Leon Trotsky in Mexico by a pickax-wielding assassin dispatched from Moscow. The last known Russian "special operation" abroad was the 1959 assassination in Germany of Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera.
Now, as Qatar accuses Russia of terrorism, piracy and kidnapping, the row hardly helps Moscow to present itself as a fighter against terrorism. Yet last weekend, Moscow got a sort of psychological boost as seven Russian citizens previously held at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were placed in a jail in Pyatigorsk, southern Russia.
Russia has urged the United States to release its citizens, some of whom are believed to have been fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistan and to be linked to guerrillas from separatist Chechnya. The release of the suspected Taliban collaborators to Russia arguably indicates that Moscow is still seen as a partner by Washington in the fight against international terrorism, and came as a sort of confirmation of Russia's anti-terrorist credentials - despite the escalating tension between Russia and Qatar.
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March 10 2004, 10:35 AM
Rebel commander killed in Chechnya.
Interfax. Wednesday, Mar. 10, 2004, 11:51 AM Moscow Time
GROZNY. March 10 (Interfax-South) - A rebel group commander has been killed in Chechnya, Chechen presidential security service chief Ramzan Kadyrov told Interfax on Wednesday.
"An armed clash with an illegal armed group took place during a large-scale special operation involving units of the presidential security service and the Chechen Interior Ministry. Six rebels were killed and another four injured. Aslan Gazuyev, commander of the Riada-as-Salikhin rebel group, which was part of Shamil Basayev's unit, was killed as well. The clash occurred between the villages of Shuani and Yalkhoi-Mokhk in the Kurchaloi district," Kadyrov said.
Another 17 rebels have surrendered to the Chechen authorities. A total of 15 rebels were killed during the 10-day operation
Magomed Khambiyev, a former aide to Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, has turned himself in to the federal authorities. Some reports suggest the ex-defense minister of the self-styled Chechen republic of Ichkeria was actually forced to surrender as a result of an operation carried out by the son of Chechnya’s pro-Moscow president.
Even if that proves to be the case, the Chechen authorities will most probably amnesty the rebel warlord in an attempt to encourage other rebels to lay down their weapons.
Khambiyev, who also commanded the eastern front of the Chechen resistance movement, may be released shortly. At the end of last week he turned himself in to the pro-Moscow Chechen authorities. It seems very likely that he will be exempted from criminal liability under an amnesty scheme developed for rebels who lay down their arms voluntarily.
No special amnesty act will have to be adopted in order to release Khambiyev, a source in Chechnya’s prosecutor’s office said on Tuesday. Articles 208 and 222 of the Russian Criminal Code, which stipulate punishment for participating in illegal armed formations and the illegal possession of weapons, state that a person who voluntarily withdraws from an illegal armed group and surrenders his weapons is exempt from criminal liability. Those provisions may well be applied to Magomed Khambiyev, the source said.
Although nothing has been heard of Khambiyev for the past 18 months, his surrender is the first important achievement of Akhmad Kadyrov’s presidency. In the run-up to Chechnya’s presidential elections last October he stated several times that he would convince all separatists to surrender. Kadyrov had, from time to time, also mentioned talks with rebel warlord Ruslan Gelayev, until he was shot dead by two Russian border guards earlier this year.
Khambiyev’s alleged complicity in serious crimes has yet to be established, the prosecutor of Chechnya, Alexander Nikitin, told the press. An investigation has already been launched and he is currently being held at a remand centre in Tsentoroi. The prosecutor did note, however, that neither Khambiyev nor his aide Kharon Bikbulatov, who surrendered with him, is suspected of any crimes currently being investigated in the republic.
The final decision on Khambiyev’s release will be passed either by the prosecutor’s office of the republic or by the Federal Security Service directorate for Chechnya with the prosecutor’s office’s consent.
However, judging by earlier statements on Khambiyev made by the Russian military and the pro-Moscow Chechen authorities, there is enough evidence to instigate criminal proceedings against him under several articles. For instance, the military said earlier they suspected Khambiyev of masterminding an assassination attempt on Akhmad Kadyrov when he still held the most senior clerical post in Chechnya.
Also, the Russian authorities openly accused Khambiyev of organizing an attempt on the first pro-Moscow mayor of Grozny, Supian Mokhchayev, and Sergei Zverev, the then-deputy to Vladimir Putin’s plenipotentiary to the North Caucasus, in 2000. Both men survived the attacks.
All that will probably now be forgotten. Following Khambiyev’s demonstrative surrender Akhmad Kadyrov made it clear that he would intercede on the rebel’s behalf with the law enforcement agencies.
''From the very beginning and to this day Khambiyev has always been a staunch opponent of Wahabbism. He was never involved in abductions, murders of civilians and the clergy,'' Kadyrov told Interfax.
Ilya Shabalkin, chief spokesman for anti-terrorist operations in the northern Caucasus, cautiously noted that ''so far it is a bit too early to talk of amnesty for the so-called Defense Minister of Ichkeria Magomed Khambiyev''.
According to official reports Khambiyev surrendered following talks with the elders of the village of Benoi, where he was hiding, and with Ramzan Kadyrov. However, those talks were preceded by a special joint operation carried out by Akhmad Kadyrov’s security forces under the command of his son Ramzan and special-purpose OMON police forces, Kommersant Daily reported on Tuesday.
The rebel’s house was initially surrounded, but he somehow managed to escape through the window and leave undetected. Kadyrov’s men then detained all the male occupants of Khambiyev’s house. A rebel web site confirmed that report in a statement released by the so-called Foreign Ministry of Ichkeria, which said that the Russian military had taken 16 members of the Khambiyev family hostage and demanded the voluntary surrender of Magomed Khambiyev and his brother Umar, a foreign emissary of the separatists, in exchange for the lives of their relatives.
Shabalkin also indirectly confirmed that report, saying that on 5 March 21 members of Khambiyev’s unit surrendered their weapons. ''Apparently, that is what prompted Khabiyev to surrender to the republican authorities,'' the official said.
Almost all of them were released shortly afterwards so that his relatives could persuade the general to surrender. On the following day one of the relatives disclosed Khambiyev’s whereabouts to Kadyrov’s men.
President of the Chechen Republic Akhmad Kadyrov hailed Khambiyev’s surrender, saying that his decision signifies ''the demise of Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov''. The president’s son Ramzan Kadyrov in televised comments did not rule out that Maskhadov himself may soon surrender voluntarily. ''Talks on that have already been launched,'' he assured the press.
09 ÌÀÐÒÀ 16:38
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Magomed Khambiyev has proved one of the most consistent separatists. Ever since he was appointed defense minister in the Chechen separatist government and a brigade general in 1997, Khambiyev commanded the so-called eastern front, defending the important rebel strongholds of Kurchaloi, Nozhai-Yurt and Dargo. Throughout the years Khambiyev remained loyal to Aslan Maskhadov and, unlike Shamil Basayev, implicitly obeyed all the president’s orders.
Khambiyev fell out with Basayev at the beginning of the second Chechen war, and the two clashed openly several times, exchanging insults and, according to some reports, even gunfire. In February 2002 Khambiyev’s house in Gudermes was destroyed in a blast, the organizers of which still remain unknown.
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March 12 2004, 1:43 PM
Will war in Chechnya be ended?
Pravda.Ru
Maksim Artemiev
03/10/2004 18:26
There is a sudden change in Chechen war. Every day we hear news of successes of Russian military.
Majority of news relates to killing or capturing terrorist leaders. Gelaev and Basnuklaev have been killed, former "Defense Minister" Magomed Khambiev surrendered. What is really going on in Chechen Republic?
Is there a possibility that President of unrecognized Republic Ichkeria Aslan Maskhadov will surrender like Chechen leader Shamil did 150 years ago?
It is hard to give a definite answer under such complicated circumstances. Every detail, from amount of weapons the Chechen terrorists have to the special features of character of Chechen nation, should be taken into account. It is not easy to define what kind of "victory" Russia needs in this war.
The Kremlin"s position is straight: there are illegal military units terrorizing civilians and attacking Russian Army. All their actions are absolutely criminal, there is nobody to negotiate with and no reason for negotiations. "Russia does not negotiate with terrorists, Russia kills them". Residents of Chechnya have made their choice by voting for the Draft of Chechen Constitution and electing new Head of Chechen Republic in September.
Such a position does not allow to comprehend many details. Meanwhile, conflicts between nations relate to the most complicated ones, their roots are deep in history and the opponents do not understand rational arguments.
Obviously, Chechens had no right to make rebellion, overthrow the legitimate government, declare their separation from Russia, create military units and fight. Proclaiming independence of Chechen Republic produced only bad results: the republic has been ruined by war, thousands of people have been killed and hundreds thousands have been made refugees. However, the common sense sphere ends up at this point and people start living and acting by other principles.
The entire history of the Chechen conflict has lasted since 1991, it is the history of irrational and deadly actions. Did anything threaten to Chechen nation in August 1991 when people came out on the streets to overthrow Communist leader Doku Zavgaev representing Russian authorities? Was the religion of Chechens banned and new deportation of Chechens prepared? No, at that point the federal authorities became extremely weak, and the republics could demand from Moscow whatever they wanted, and achieve these demands in a peaceful way, like Tatarstan. However, we know from history - when the authorities satisfy rebels" demands, the rebels may want more, they are not satisfied with what they accomplished, and this may result in revolution.
The choice of military-oriented scenario made by Chechen leaders, played fatal role. Chechen people supported Dudaev and did not think much of the consequences. When Moscow finally tried to intervene after becoming tired of bloody crimes in Russia, Chechens opposed this intervention. Two circumstances: rude actions of Russian military and Chechens" genetic inclination to help people of their nationality- contributed to the conflict.
In 1996 Chechen separatists seemed to achieve their goals by humiliating Russia and making it sign the peace treaty with them.
However, the separatists seem to have always wanted to make the things worse. In 1999 they made military raid in Dagestan. Maskhadov, Basaev and their accomplices cause Russian military response and deploying Russian troops in Chechnya. However, ordinary Chechens still did not condemn these criminal leaders.
"Chechen rebel leaders" activity is supported by "common people". These "common people" are wise. When Russia presses them, they support the new Constitution of Chechen Republic and new President Akhmad Kadyrov, but if Russian troops leave, these people will be glad to kill Kadyrov and everybody who cooperated with Russian authorities. In December 1995 Chechens elected Doku Zavgaev the President, and in 1997 they elected the President absolute antipode to Zavgaev - Aslan Maskhadov.
It is not the leaders what matters. Killing and capturing terrorist leaders produces little changes. After Arbi Baraev was killed, his nephew Movsar Baraev arrived in Moscow and conducted terrorist acts. There is no guarantee that there will not appear some new "Baraev" in Chechen mountains.
The problem is about re-educating Chechen people and convincing them that being under Russian jurisdiction will bring then benefits. This is an extremely hard job. The task of Russian authorities is persuading Chechens to become preoccupied with material wealth and the opportunity to make savings, and such Chechens will not tolerate terrorists in their land.
So far, Russian authorities are too much in propaganda. Killing some leaders of the separatists has become adjusted to the Russian presidential elections purposefully. Vladimir Putin came to power as the proponent of military resolution for Chechen conflict. Chechnya is still a wound to him. Everybody forgot his promises made four years ago - to destroy the separatists. In any case, there is no hope for the terrorists while Vladimir Putin is in power. He will never agree to negotiations with Aslan Maskhadov. This means prolonging the current situation in Chechnya for 4 more years.
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March 12 2004, 1:51 PM
Trial on Russian intelligence officers in Qatar approaching.
Russian media
03/06/2004 18:48
The term of detaining the two Russians arrested in Qatar and suspected of assassinating Chechen terrorist emissary Zelimkhan Yandarbiev, has been extended by one more month.
A Moscow diplomat said to ITAR-TASS news agency that earlier Russia requested Qatar authorities to let Russian doctors conduct medical checkup of the arrested men. "However, Qatar has not agreed so far. The negotiations are in progress, there are still hopes that it is possible to release the arrested men", said the diplomat.
Arrest of Russian officers in Qatar can make Moscow toughen its position on the issue of fighting international terrorism, said political scientist Aleksander Sharavin in a Golos Rossii interview.
Qatar has demonstrated support to Chechen terrorists. Much money was raised in Qatar for Chechen militant gangs. This may be the main course of the tough line of Qatar authorities. There are foundations sponsoring Chechens in this country, and Russian officers were gathering information on these foundations. This is ordinary reaction of special services to such activities. Russian authorities should not ignore the actions of Qatar authorities, the political scientist believes.
Russian lawyers are in contact with Qatar law firms. According to Qatar legislation, foreign lawyers cannot represent the defendant in court. Meanwhile, no Qatar lawyer has agreed to defend Russian officers in court so far, says former director of Russian special service Nikolai Kovalev. He says that the arrested officers cannot be guilty and therefore legal hearing is absolute nonsense.
After the arrest of Russians on February 20 Qatar authorities let Russian Consulate visit the arrested men only twice.
Interim Minister of Defence of Russia Sergey Ivanov has made a statement that Russia will use every opportunity to release its citizens arrested in Qatar.
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March 12 2004, 1:56 PM
12:32 2004-03-12
Two policemen wounded in Grozny.
Two policemen of the street-patrol service were wounded in the Chechen capital, Grozny, on Thursday. They tried to check the documents of two suspicious men but the latter opened fire on the policemen with pistols, Chechnya's Interior Ministry officials told RIA Novosti today.
The incident occurred in the evening on the Mayakovsky Street in the Leninsky district of Grozny.
One of the criminals was wounded in return fire. After that he, unwilling to surrender, blasted himself with a hand grenade. It was found out that he was a local resident, some Tsumayev.
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March 12 2004, 2:27 PM
Friday, Mar. 12, 2004. Page 4
Chechen Suicide Bomb Chief Killed.
The Moscow Times
Law enforcement agents in Chechnya have killed a top commander of the Riyadus-Salikhin martyrs' brigade, which has been blamed for a series of deadly suicide attacks across Russia.
Aslan Gazuyev, who reportedly commanded the group, classified by Russia and the United States as a terrorist organization, was killed during an operation conducted by Chechen police and Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov's security service in the Kurchaloi district, a local official told Interfax on Wednesday.
Five more rebels were killed and four wounded, said Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen president's son who heads the security service, Interfax reported.
Chechen rebel commander Shamil Basayev has been previously believed to be leading this battalion, but Ramzan Kadyrov said he exercised control of the group through Gazuyev.
Ramzan Kadyrov said that another rebel warlord, Boris Aidamirov, and 10 of his men surrendered Thursday. He said Aidamirov was an aide to rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov.
Magomed Khambiyev, a one-time defense minister in the Chechen rebel government, denied allegations Thursday that he had been forced to surrender after the detention of his family members, Interfax reported.
"I was in opposition to Russia for 13 years, but I decided to stop because my people want peace and tranquillity," Khambiyev told reporters in Gudermes. Khambiyev surrendered to the Moscow-backed Chechen administration this week.
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March 16 2004, 1:12 PM
Qatarians torture Russians.
Pravda.Ru
Russian and Foreign media
03/15/2004 17:50
Two Russians who have been held captive in Qatar in connection to the explosion, which had killed Chechen militant Zelimkhan Yandarbiev, finally confessed that they were not members of special services.
The information was reported by London's The Times with a reference to some diplomatic sources in this country.
In the course of the investigation, they also informed the Qatarians that the explosive device that they had placed under Yandarbiev's Jeep, had been illegally smuggled to Qatar after its trip from Moscow to Saudi Arabia in a sack with diplomatic correspondence.
Special agents could reveal such facts only in case they were subjected to tortures. Russian media sources got a hold of a document from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation supposedly containing a report of one of the consulate's employees in Doha regarding the tortures of the Russian citizens.
The Russians are being kept in horrible conditions. They remain in their cells for days. Walks are prohibited. In the course of the first three days, they were not allowed to sleep. They were physically abused in the course of interrogations. The captives cannot recall any injections; however they do confirm having blackouts.
One of the Russian captives has had a heart attack in late February of 2004. "He was denied medical treatment.", informs the report.
Zelimkhan Yandarbiev was killed in a blast of his Jeep in the town of Doha February 13th, 2004. The same day, Qatar"s government has officially informed Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the incident. Some sources claim that his son Daud has died with the Chechen terrorist. This information has not been officially confirmed however.
"The former president of the so-called 'republic of Ichkeriya' along with Aslan Maskhadov, Movladi Ugudov and Salman Raduev has been a head of the most radical group in the Chechen government as well as Dudaev's militant," stated a member of a similar group "Pamir-Ural" Alexander Sobyanin in his interview to RBC daily. While in the Chechen government, Yandarbiev has been involved in organizing attacks against federal services.
A source in Russian military organizations declared that Yandarbiev's assassination might have been something to do "with a conflict between Chechen terrorist leaders and their sponsors." "Yandarbiev was aware of all finances coming to Chechnya from abroad."
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March 16 2004, 1:18 PM
Arab extremist in Chechnya Abu al-Walid threatens Russia with new acts of terrorism.
NATIONAL » :: Mar 15, 2004 Posted: 13:01 Moscow time (09:01 GMT)
MOSCOW - 'Further terrorist acts in Russia will depend on the results of the presidential elections,' according to a videotaped message released by the leader of Arab extremists in Chechnya, Abu al-Walid, and reported by law enforcement agencies in Moscow to a Rosbalt correspondent on Sunday.
The taped message was turned over to Russian authorities by the Arabic television station, al-Jazeera. According to al-Walid, 'if whoever is elected is in favor of war in Chechnya, it means that Russians have declared war on the Chechen people.' In that case, he said, not only bombs would be sent to Russia. The guerrilla fighter demonstrated an anti-personnel 'butterfly-mine,' camouflaged in foliage and capable of destroying every living thing within a radius of tens of meters. /Rosbalt/
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March 19 2004, 1:46 PM
Officials: Deadly Russia Blast Deliberate.
Novinite.com
Politics: 19 March 2004, Friday
The blast that killed fifty-eight people in an apartment building in northern Russia was a deliberate act, according to the investigation.
The investigators believe that this was most likely a premeditated crime, Deputy Prosecutor General Vladimir Zubrin announced on Friday. He added that simultaneously with the explosion, residents in three of the city's houses called for gas service after smelling gas in the buildings.
A household fuel gas was initially said to be the most likely cause of the explosion on Tuesday morning.
Meanwhile police said that two homeless men who removed brass fittings from gas valves to sell them caused the blast.
My country in her intercourse with foreign nations, may she ever be right but, right or wrong, my country!
Stephen Decatur (1779-1820)
During the years of the anti-Russian war in Chechnya our liberal Ministry of Truth spread many extraordinary lies in support of the Chechen terrorists, and it remains mysterious how so much rubbish can be squeezed into the head of the average Russian "intellectual". Let us take a brief look at the main themes of the anti-Russian propaganda pushed out by the liberal media during those years.
In the earlier stages of the conflict the Ministry of Truth exploited the prejudice that had built up in the Soviet times by saying: “We can not fight the people - the people can not be conquered,” and "There are no good or bad nations; there was only the ill-willed Stalin, who, by use of forced boundaries and criminal "deporation of whole nations" managed to destroy the traditionally warm relationships between the peoples of the Caucasus region, etc., etc. However, sometimes around 1997, when Chechen ruffians, in a blind reliance on their immunity, began torturing and even beheading, not only Russians, but other people from “civilised" countries and even targeted liberal journalists (e.g. kidnapping of Elena Masyuk), the liberals in the media had to admit the crimes and find an excuse for them. So they began peddling the theme of the historical guilt of Russians for over 400 years of oppression of the Chechens and called the Russians for confession and repentance. Hence we have to look through our own history to ascertain certain facts.
A widely accepted belief is that the mountain people choose to live in the types of area they do because of specific features of their character - love for freedom, exaggerated pride, romanticism etc. In fact, in the case of Chechnya, we are dealing with the remnants of one of the oldest nations, who hid away in the Caucasus Mountains from powerful enemies centuries ago. The reality is that life in the mountains is not easy, and mountain people mostly yearn to move to the valley and plains.
Contrary to what the Ministry of Truth says, the historical enemies of the Chechens are not Russians but their nomad neighbours, who use to cut the throats of anyone who dared descend from the mountains to live in the plains. Due to weak organisation and permanent mutual hatred, these people could not establish any effective government to defend them. The real historical enemies of the Chechens were not Russians, but Kalmyks. When four centuries ago the Russian Tsar allowed Kalmyks to settle on the Volga they terrified the Chechens then living nearby. Before the Kalmyks, the Nogay tribes had also given Chechens no peace.
Not colonisers
Russians are usually pictured as colonisers of the Caucasus, oppressing proud and freedom-loving local nations. Today's Russian intelligentsia are always sympathetic to Caucasus people on these grounds. But what are the historical facts? For a start, looking at things from the imperial Russian point of view, there never was any necessity to colonise these people. There were no economic reasons for doing so. For instance, the locals could not be subjected to any taxation on a substantial scale because of their shameful poverty (and that was not the way Russia used to deal with the nations in their empire anyway). And what of the local soil? The quality of soil in the Caucasus is very questionable. The Russian nobility never intended to settle in the mountain areas. So there were no pragmatic reasons for Russians to embark on the difficult conquest of Caucasus.
According to Russian ethnographer Lev Gumilyov, Georgians at the end of the18th century managed to persuade the "half-insane" Pavel I to established a protectorate over their country (actually, Pavel was just simple minded and open-hearted rather then insane; he was moved by idealistic principles of Orthodox unity and mutual help). Considering the Napoleonic wars and revolutions of that time, the diversion of military resources to the unimportant Caucasus was very unwise. Georgians, who at that time belonged to Persia, were in a very difficult situation - unlike the Armenians, who enjoyed relative prosperity in the Osman Empire. However, part of Eastern Armenia belonged to Iran, where Christians were unwelcome. The support by Russia of her brother Orthodox Georgians involved her in a number of bitter wars with Turkey and Iran. In the first part of the 19th century Russia won these wars with minimal effects. In 1827 the Russian Army General I. F. Paskevitch liberated Yerevan, the Armenian capital. In exactly that period Russian interests required interference in the affairs of the mountain peoples; at that time Islamic jihad and so-called “national liberation movements against Tsarist Russian oppressors” started.
Actually, Russia had no interest in the mountain peoples themselves; she was concerned about the safety of supplies to her army. However, the mountain peoples were hired by Iran, Turkey and later Britain to attack Russian military convoys. Besides this, the mountain people had further reason to hate the Russians: their foreign trade was mainly the slave trade. For profitability, this business has its parallels in our time only in financial lending and oil exports. Selling off castrated Georgians boys to Turkish harems was particularly lucrative. Of some interest is the fact that in the time of the "liberal" reforms in late 20th-century Russia this ancient business was restored with full support of "human-rights" activists in the rebellious Chechnya.
Caucasus Chronicles
The incorporation of Georgia (1801-1810) and Azerbaijan (1803-1813) into the Russian empire are matters outside the scope of this article, though it is worth mentioning that after joining Russia Georgia's population increased fourfold. Russian military actions against the mountain tribes of Dagestan, Chechnya and the North West Caucasus from 1817 to 1868 are named the Caucasus Wars.
There had been sporadic attacks on the fortified line of the Russian border with these lands, and passive resistance against these had not proved effective. In 1816 the Russian commander-in-chief general Ermolov started a systematic advance towards Chechnya and the highland parts of Dagestan. In fact, the transfer of the fortified line from the Terek to the Sunja rivers marked the beginning of full-scale war. Ermolov had up to 50,000 Russian Army regulars and up to 40,000 Cossacks. However, most of these forces had been engaged in service on the frontier as garrisons of the newly build fortified towns. Only protection by the Russian Army had allowed peasants to settle on the plains around North Caucasus. Hence Russia had not any substantial force with which to fight with mountain peoples.
In the middle 1820s Myurids in Chechnya and Dagestan started to form an imamat, a kind of small supranational empire. For the first time, Ghazi Mohammad (Kazi Mullah), proclaimed in 1828 to be Imam (a kind of spiritual emperor), called for a gazavat (or jihad - a holy war) against “infidels” (i.e. Russians). Shamil was his disciple. However, at the beginning most of Myurids' effort was spent on slaughtering the Avar and other local nobility. In 1830 Ghazi Mohammad led an army of 8,000 in the failed attempt to seize the Avar capital Hunzah. In 1832 Russians had stormed and occupied the Imam residency and Ghazi Mohamnad was killed.
A new Imam managed in 1834 to seize Hunzah and kill the Avar ruler and his family for his refusal to join forces against the Russians. In revenge, the Imam himself was killed and replaced by Shamil. The Russians persued a war against Shamil with variable success. After a series of defeats by the Russian Army, Shamil signed an armistice in 1837, but again resumed military activity in 1839. By 1842-1846 Shamil controlled Avaria and part of Dagestan and enjoyed relative successes in his war against Russia. However, after 1846 he suffered a series of disastrous defeats at the hands of the Russians.
By the time of the start of the Crimean War (1853-1856) Russia firmly controlled the Caucasus between the Black and Caspian seas. In the North Caucasus, mountain peoples on the both sides of the Georgian military road were practically independent: on the eastern side were Shamil and his Myurids; on the western side were the Abkhazians and the Cherkesses, who, formally recognising Russian authority, freely made contact with Turkey and were buying weapons and selling slaves. The Russian fleet struggled to prevent this. Russian policy was to defend the border and to sign peace treaties with the mountain tribes. Occasionally, the Russians would send limited numbers of troops to destroy centres of military resistance in the mountains. Some mountain people consistently supported the Russians; other hesitated, betraying treaties and oaths. Apart from foreign support, the mountain peoples had a further reason to oppose the Russians - to protect their "traditional" ways of life - periodic raids on neighbours to take slaves, mostly for resale. One could perhaps call such wars against the Russians “national”, but could they be called wars of “liberation”? It depends on one's idea of what that term means!
The Crimean War demonstrated the danger of the situation in the North Caucasus, and after the war operations against the mountain peoples became constant and persistent. As a result, in April 1859 the Russians occupied Shamil’s capital Vedeno, and later stormed and occupied Gunib, where Shamil hid with 400 Myurids. Shamil surrendered, and after that lived peacefully in Kaluga in Central Russia. He died in Medina on his way to Mecca in 1871.
On November 20th 1859 Cherkes forces of up to 2,000 under Chamil's representative Mohamed Eminom surrendered to the Russians. For a few years Myurids continued military operations around the Black Sea in the hope of support from Britain and Turkey. Officially, the Caucasus War ended on May 12th 1864 with the Russian occupation of the Kbaada Valley.
There is a widespread belief that the Chechens have been the fiercest fighters against the Russians. That is not true. The most fierce resistance Russians have met among the mountain peoples has been on the shores of the Black Sea. Local tribes there did not want to surrender and submit and they fought to death. When surrender became unavoidable and imminent there were cases of collective suicides by whole families. Some other fled to Turkey. Later Russia had no problem west of the Caucasus, but in the east the situation was different.
Chechnya and Russia
Historically, the Chechens are one of the largest and most savage tribes in the North Caucasus. They never had any nobility or governmental structures and have been easily manipulated by external forces. They have served at any given moment whoever paid them the most. Chechens never have fought Russians on their own free will. Those Chechens who have lived on the plains near the Terek River have constantly supported the Russians. After the Crimean War many mountain peoples, including Chechens, considered it a great honour to serve in the Russian Army. However, during all their history Chechens have demonstrated one dominant feature: they have consistently supported whoever has allowed them to kill, rob and enslave their neighbours.
Chechens, and mountain people in general, are not inherently hostile specifically to Russians. In fact, they are equally hostile to everything foreign. The more defenceless their victims, the more aggressive and brave Chechens are. Strong Russian power has in fact pacified mutually hostile tribes among the mountain peoples, but in certain troublesome times full-scale war, with everyone against everyone, will easily break out. When there have been forces in place willing to exploit such situations against the Russians, great sufferings has been inflicted upon, not only the Russian population, but also on tribes supportive of Russia (Christian Ossetians in particular). There are numerous Ministry of Truth stories about how Stalin had inspired wars between mutually friendly Caucasus people, but these are completely groundless. Centuries-old hatreds cannot be eliminated at once. In order to inflame Chechen rebellion, the media have referred to Chechens and Ingushs as “oppressed people” and have called for mass repentance by the "barbaric" Russians. As far as I remember, the drawing of the mistaken borderline by Stalin in the Prigorodny district was pictured by the media as the reason for the Osseto-Ingush War in 1992. However, we would do well to refer to the view given in the memoirs of General Denikin, commander of the White Russians in the Civil War of 1918-1921, who said:
“Ingushes, the least numerous but most organised nation in military terms, became rulers of the North Caucasus. Their moral qualities were described long ago in the geography textbooks: “Main occupation cattle breeding and robbery.” The last-named occupation became virtually an art. Politically they followed the same tradition. They became the main force of the Soviet power and its strong supporters. At the same time they did not allow the Soviets into their own land… They robbed their neighbours - Cossacks and Ossetians - to correct what they called “historical mistakes”; they robbed Bolsheviks as a payback for their service; they robbed Kabardins just as a custom; and they robbed Vladikavkaz citizens for their helplessness”.
Everyone hated the Ingushes, yet they did their job with a persistence and in a highly organised manner. Soon they became the most prosperous tribe in the North Caucasus. Turkey and Germany supported them. Chechens were divided: part of them supported the Cossacks in their fight against the Bolsheviks; others joined the Ingushes. War between Vainakhs (a common term for Chechens and Ingushes) broke out, and with these at each other's throats the local Russians had some relief. The head of the Soviet of People's Commissars in the Terek region was a Georgian Jew, the former terrorist Noy Buachidze (who had robbed Kavrilsky Bank back in 1905). Under the Bolshevik leadership Ingushes and Chechens started the slaughter of Cossacks and the occupation of their land. According to Denikin: “A combined military unit of Red Guards and Ingushes wiped out four Cossacks villages on the Sunja line. Up to 10,000 Cossacks were completely driven away.” He continued: “There was a certain misunderstanding, for the Cossacks wanted the support of the Soviets in their fight against the Chechens and Ingushes and a local Soviet which was not controlled by the central government”. In Jewish and "intelligentsia" mythology, Cossacks at that time were depicted in much the same light as the Nazis later, and they were destined to be slaughtered for no good political reason.
Chechens and Ingushes received a lot of favours from the Bolsheviks during the Civil War: they were allowed to slaughter a part of the (to them) potentially dangerous population of the Terek region and to occupy Cossacks villages. However, the Vainakhs did not remain loyal to the Soviets (loyalty not being one of their characteristics), and when the Germans came to the Caucasus in World War II the Vainakhs wholeheartedly supported Hitler. They received weapons from the Germans and resumed the genocide of the Russian population of the region. At the beginning of 1990s the liberal press widely cited the verdict from Stalin's law for the deportation of the Chechens in order to whip up sympathy for them. However, the introductory part of this law, where Chechen war crimes were described, was not cited.
During the same period the United States Government imprisoned without trial those of its citizens of Japanese descent - though in fact Japanese forces never got within 2,000 miles of the USA. It is hard to imagine what this Government would have done to Japanese within the country who had been found to have slaughtered thousands of Americans - as happened to great numbers of Russians at the hands of the Chechen and Ingush people. Yet in the end of 1980s the leaders of the perestroyka movement demanded compensation for “oppressed” Chechens and Ingushes - especially by Russians!
Our "anti-nazis" wanted to use the Chechens in Russia for the same purposes as, in the USSR, they used nations involved in mass collaboration with the Axis powers in World War II (Crimean Tartars, Baltic Nations, West Ukrainians, etc.) In the name of "liberation", those nations helped the Nazis in the occupied territories, and yet the "liberal" media proclaimed them to be victims of communism, champions of democracy and friends of the "free world". Every attempt by the Government to stop this insolent propaganda was opposed by the liberal media.
The so-called "intelligentsia" threatened to appeal to the world community, "human rights" and "international law" (whatever that may be). A unknown Colonel of the Soviet Army, one Dudaev, was hastily promoted to General and sent from Tartu (Estonia) to Chechnya to make the revolution there. In 1991 he took power in Chechnya with little formality - he and his supporters, armed with metal bars, occupied the building of the Grozny Council and stabbed to death the Council head Kutsenko. The Russian Government made an attempt in the autumn of the same year to stop the genocide in Chechnya but this was fiercely opposed by the liberal media, which called it "the legacy of Stalin". Later Dudaev came, with official agreement, into possessions of weapons belonging to the Soviet Army units that had been stationed in Chechnya, including artillery and tanks. Chechens robbed, slaughtered, enslaved and raped the local non-Chechen population, most of which were Russian. The then Russian president left these people to the Chechens' mercies with hardly a blink of the eye. However, the main reason for this soft reaction was the importance of Chechnya to the new Russian economic policy.
"Cheque" scam
The first macro-economic operation in which the new Russian democrats and Chechens co-operated was called the avizo (certified checks) affair. Professional liberal economists in 1992 pretended that they could not understand how money from the banks of rebellious Chechnya had been transferred by the faked avizo to the rest of the country, converted into cash and later disappeared without trace. In the end, the scale of this operation was equivalent to a third of the whole Russian budget. The operation was only stopped in 1994.
It should be a matter of interest that banks operated smoothly on Chechens territory until the beginning of the first Chechen War in 1994 despite unparalleled criminal activity in the region. Chechens received their commissions. However, after the riots in October 1993, when reformers seized power in Russia, the economic role of Chechnya declined.
In this article I shall not discuss the reason for the first Chechen War, but will turn to different problems. In 1993, as well in 1917, power in Russia was seized by anti-Russian forces, which then used the Chechens against Russia - with the full support of liberal "intelligentsia". Even after the start of the first Chechen War, liberals could not resist mocking the Russian Army, which they themselves, in support of their puppet Yeltsin, had sent to the war.
However, most of the local population in the Caucasus region supported Russia in this conflict, especially the Ossetians. In 1992 the Ingushes had unsuccessfully attempted to slaughter the Ossetians in the Prigorod region near Vladikavkaz. The Ingushes insolently claimed this territory as their own. They tried to take the land by force, but were defeated by the local militia, who were later helped by the intervention of the Russian Army. The Ingushes were forced to evacuate the land completely. Long afterward, the Ministry of Truth published a declaration by "human rights" activists regretting that the Ingushes had not been adequately armed for them to slaughter the Ossetians during their occupation of the latter's land. Moreover, this declaration spoke of the "brutality" of the Russian Army in its work of helping the Ossetians liberate their territory from Ingushes.
However, the Ingushes learned their lesson. They broke off relations with their wild Chechen brothers and started negotiations with Russia. The Ingush Republic was granted independence within Russia, and it enjoyed generous tax concessions. Also the Ingushes received substantial aid from abroad.
Ingushes were involved in the slave trade and semi-legally supplied weapons to the Chechens. As a result, a republic, with a population smaller in size then any region of Moscow, was able to build a new capital containing lavish marble palaces.
The Chechens proclaimed themselves to be subject to "international law" under the name of “Republic of Ichkeria”, while at the same time proclaiming independence from Russia. Despite bountiful international help (Chechnya was filled with foreign businessmen, doctors “without borders”, historians, linguists and CIA agents), Chechnya was not to secede from Russia but only from the Russian Criminal Code. In this regard their wishes received the full support of the new democratic Russian government. After General Lebed had signed Hasav Yurt capitulation and Russian troops were withdrawn from Chechnya, it was officially recognised in Moscow that the Chechens could be kept happy only with economic aid - which became a regular tribute.
The openly criminal new Chechen Government was officially recognised by Russia, and officially enjoyed substantial subsidies, including free gas and electricity. This was reluctantly stopped only in October 1999, when the Russian Army occupied most of Chechnya. Chechens government officials were allowed to fly in their own aircraft abroad without any duty control. “Law-enforcement" bodies of the independent Chechnya were supplied with blank Russian passports. Generally, Chechnya enjoyed full Russian support in its foreign dealings. Battles in Dagestan revealed the level of support of Chechnya by the Russian Government, and Chechens were armed with the most up-to-date weapons taken straight from Russian Army arsenals.
Chechen "ethnic cleansing"
Soon the non-Chechen population in Chechnya disappeared (being slaughtered or having fled). Chechen criminal mobs, with full support from the Russian Government widened their activities in the other territories of Russia. Now hostages were taken not only in lands close to Chechnya's border but practically all over Russia. If Chechen bandits fell into the hands of Russian law-enforcement agencies they were quickly exchanged for Russian hostages held in Chechnya. Sometimes, if an especially brutal Chechen bandit was arrested in Russia, the Chechens would take a high-ranking Russian official hostage. He was then exchanged for the criminal in question. By the way, when Chechnya became independent from Russia more than half the Chechen population fled to Russia.
Chechnya itself became a safe heaven for the drug trade (both production and trafficking) and the printing of counterfeit money. Chechen territory was used by criminals (not only Chechens) as a refuge from justice. Recently, well-to-do Chechens have been constructing their new houses with special in-build rooms for slaves and hostages. To keep boys for certain needs was very fashionable [Ref. 1]. Every attempt to organise resistance to Chechens was treated by the Ministry of Truth, "human rights" activists and the "intelligentsia" as manifestations of Russian "nazism" and a legacy from imperialism.
Many interesting matters can be traced in the relationships between the Chechens and the Russian democrats. For example, Boris Berezovsky, the author of the famous phrase “Russia will pay any price to Chechnya,” tried to legalise Chechens terrorist mobs and second them to the Russian Army as independent units. The aim of this was to recruit a special guard, loyal only to the gang in the Kremlin - because support of oligarchs by the Russian Army proper was always in doubt. The project proved to be impossible because the special features of the Chechens national character.
This democratic idyll came to an end in August 1999, when Chechnya invaded Dagestan and the second Chechen War began.
Russia, Islam and the West
Shamil’s Imamat was in fact the supra-national Moslem Empire. Shamil brutally suppressed any national movement in the empire and put many more local leaders to death than had been lost in all the wars with Russia. This empire was cemented, not by religious fanaticism (which was always foreign to Caucasus) but by the hope to terrorise and rob neighbours. Adat (local law) always had priority in the Caucasus over Shariat (Moslem law).
The Ministry of Truth portrayed the Caucasus conflict as the war with the whole Moslem world. And at the first glance persons wearing green bandannas and shouting Allah Akbar! were very prominent. Hence the only way for Russia, according to the Ministry, was to turn for help to the Big Brother in the West. The West tries to promote in Russia the idea of joint action against Moslem nomad hordes in the name of unity of the “free world". However, there is also the opposite - even more idiotic point of view...
Analysis shows that support of an independent Chechnya comes from the West [Ref. 2] or from the Islamic countries (Turkey, Saudi Arabia, etc.), who wouldn’t break wind without American permission, let alone to start a war with Russia. The same is true of the support from Georgia and Azerbaijan of the Chechens rebellion. Or take, for instance, the “foreign legion” of the Chechen Army under the American-educated Jordanian citizen Khattab. Khattab went to fight against the Russians in Afghanistan, and then later to Chechnya to continue his anti-Russian crusade.
There are no Chechen “fundamentalists” without links to the West. Recently, the press in France tried to claim that Iran started the holy war against Russia. However, the Iranians deny it. True, semi-mythical Osama Bin Laden claimed to be involved on the Chechen side. In fact Bin Laden, according to the American "Ministry of Truth", started a “holy war” against the whole world and - here we go - now fights against Russia! According to the media legend, the energetic Saudi millionaire went to Afghanistan to help Talibs in their fight against communists. In fact, he acted as a CIA representative responsible for supplies and co-ordination for the Afghan Talibs.
Bin Laden a scapegoat?
Then there were the acts of terror against Americans embassies in various small countries. The search for the culprit was not long - the former friend, now “Moslem fanatic”, was proclaimed responsible. In order to demonstrate this, American fired off a couple of missiles. Now Moslem terrorists throughout the whole world obtained a wealthy and powerful leader in Osama Bin Laden. Who could ask for more? The question is: where does he keep his millions? May be in cash in Afghan currency? The sums involved would not escape the attention of Uncle Sam. Luckily for world terrorism, the US did not bother to search for the assets of the bloodthirsty terrorist fanatic!
To understand better the Western approach to Russia in connection with the Caucasus rebellion, we have to refer to the war in Tajikistan, which lasted for years. In terms of longevity, numbers of victims and the fierceness of the fighting, this war clearly exceeded the first Chechen War [Ref. 3]. Yet though Russian troops were deployed on the foreign territory, the West never had any complaint about "Russian imperialism". Why was that? The answer is that a victory for the “Islamists” would increase Iranian influence, and Iran is the undoubted enemy of the USA. That’s why "human rights" activists (with a few exceptions) kept quite on that occasion.
The West wages war against Russia in its south, using such weapons as “Islamism”. No responsible political leader has any doubt about it. The question is: what are the long-term aims of the West in this war? How is the West going to use “Islamism”? And what is this “Islamism”?
There is no such thing as a united Moslem world, nor has there been for a long time. Moslem countries are very different; they have deep political, economic and cultural divisions. Even Arab countries, very similar in many ways, cannot act together to solve common problems. Nowadays, Moslem countries have even less in common then Christian countries. There is no reason to believe that a coalition of Moslem countries would attack Russia on account of its war in Chechnya. Those countries have more important things to do. The total number of Moslems in Russia does not exceed four per cent; only a minority of this number is truly religious; and out of this number there are very few people inclined towards any kind of the religious fanaticism or so called Moslem fundamentalism. Orthodox Moslems treat our Moslem population as just opportunists. Despite the abandoned prophecies of the politicians, the Caucasus population remains deaf to the calls for any "holly war" against Russia.
The idea of “Islamism” had been introduced in the British Empire in 19th century. “Islamism” itself is in fact quite harmless for the West; it cannot consolidate the Moslem world but is very convenient for external manipulation.
There is a widespread belief that the West should act now as it acted during the Cold War, when it supported the economies of its allies. There is a belief that the West should invest in the Central Asia economies, mainly to finance the construction of oil pipelines built away from Russian territory - through the Pakistan, Afghanistan and/or the Caucasus or Turkey. However, even the seemingly sensible project of Caspian oil transportation does not look very realistic after close examination [Ref. 4]. Hence political and economical illusions enforced by the West are aimed at supporting political and economic dislocation on the territory of the former USSR. That would result in chaos in the western-oriented countries. At the first glance, that should be of no worry to Russia; in the nearest future her neighbours would suffer mass impoverishment, and then the futility of such an anti-Russian policy would be evident. As a result, the pro-western governments of Aliev, Shevardnadze, Nazarbayev, etc. would be gone. That is true, but what would replace them?
The Russian philosopher Konstantin Krylov proposed the idea of the “modern barbarity”, i.e. a society which exploits “civilisation” [Ref. 5]. This phenomenon is not in any way new, it is only that since the 19th century its use increased due to the progress of technology. Such progress allows “civilised” nations to support numerous “barbarians” on the pretext that this is to oppose yet worse "barbarians". Certainly, Chechnya is such a “barbarian” nation with a “barbarian” governmental structure. However, in this case Krylov's concept can be complemented by a new idea: one “civilised” nation can use “barbarians” against another.
The lessons of Afghanistan, Kosovo and Chechnya demonstrate that the real goal of the West is the creation of zones of mass poverty with degraded “normal” governmental structures. The West supports “barbarian” governments with criminal policies. By creation of zones of instability made of “barbarian” governments, the West obtains the tool with which to manipulate Russia - and not only Russia but also Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, China, etc. The crucial part of this strategy is to prevent Russia using adequate measures to fight terrorism on its territory.
Use of "human rights" ideology
To achieve this goal, the West relies not only on sanctions (which are not totally effective, otherwise there would be no need for the zones of "barbarian” states) but, mostly, on ideological pressure, heavily relying on prejudices that are a legacy from Soviet days. Here the liberal "intelligentsia" play an important part [Ref. 6], with their use of the concept of “international humanitarian law” [Ref. 7]. To orchestrate all this, the West has hired numerous "human rights" activists.
What can be done about anti-Russian “barbarism”? Each case must be treated separately. So what should be done about the Chechens and Ingushes? In their hearts, Chechens do not consider non-Chechens human beings, even when they are their next-door neighbours. The only question is when they can translate their feelings into action . For instance, in one village near Chechnya in October 1999 a Chechen shot 40 of his Russian neighbours (mostly elderly people and children) in revenge for Russian “aggression” in Chechnya. No details of this were given in the media - who cared? The "human rights" brigade were too busy making a fuss about a Russian missile explosion in Grozny which left 46 Chechens dead.
Our experience of 200 years demonstrates that hopes for the integration of Chechens and Ingushes are utopian. On the other hand, the idea of separation would not work out for the simple reason that these peoples could not live separately from the civilisation on which they feed. The best solution would take a long time, but it is possible. It is: -
1. Individual Chechens and Ingushes who prove to be loyal to Russia should obtain Russian citizenship.
2. Those who fought in the war against Russia - that is to say took part in military actions or were engaged in violence against the Russian civilian population - should be liquidated.
3. Others should be placed in concentration camps under strict police supervision pending their future deportation from Russia.
A law on crimes against Russian people is highly desirable. A tribunal should be established to punish Chechens bandits with no statue of limitation with regard to the time of their crimes. Under the same law, many of the "human rights" activists, democrats, reformers, "intelligentsia" and other bastards should be brought to quick and effective court-martial justice.
Nicolo Machiavelli: “What must be done with the population of the rebellious Valdekiana?”
“… That is how Rome dealt with rebellions; they thought that loyalty must be bought with goods or they must be treated in such a way that they will never be feared in future. Any middle way was dangerous for Rome. When they act, they act one way or another, making peace with those with whom peace was possible; when peace was not possible, they treated those people in such way that they would never be dangerous again.
Hence, if history teaches us anything, we must follow the example of those people who ruled the world and treat Valdekiana accordingly. Romans taught us exactly how to rule, and as they rule differentially according to guilt, we must act accordingly, judging the guilt of the rebellious…
Rome found out that we must either give benefits to the rebellious nation or destroy it completely; any third way is very dangerous.”
References
1. In February 1997, just before the democratic election to the new Chechen presidency praised by "human rights" activists all over the world, Shamil Basaev told the media that Chechens would not allow child hostages go back to Russia for fear that they would grow up as the Chechens' enemies. However, the media did not treat this as “news”.
2. For example, four British engineers, beheaded by Chechens (and tortured beforehand in order to get them to confess in front of cameras to espionage). The engineers had been building radio telephone connections in the new republic - part of a vast foreign investment programme. British business probably considered the slave drug trades respectable and profitable enough, and its investment had to give a good return. By the way, the Chechen representative in London is 100 per sent British, having been converted to Islam.
3. The Civil War in Tajikistan was very cruel indeed. Whole villages were slaughtered mercilessly. One side proclaimed extreme Islamist, anti-Russian ideas. Mullah, the head of the Tajik opposition, announced that in order to get rid of the Soviet legacy it was highly desirable to eliminate all Tajiks over three years old!
6.The well-known human rights activist Valeria Novodvorskaya always expressed the typical opinions of the liberal "intelligentsia". During the first Chechen War she raised money on the streets of Moscow to buy weapons for the Chechen guerrillas. Below is quoted the official resolution of the Democratic Party of Russia upon the death of Chechen leader Djohar Dudaev:-
Death of the Hero
Djohar Dudaev has been killed. Mean and dishonest people killed him. This people are trying to enslave the Chechens. They are members of the Soviet zondercommandos, whose only profession since 1917 has been to suppress other people's freedom as well as that of their own people. KGB agents, who still have dirty hands, mean hearts and empty heads, killed him.
Djohar Dudaev died unconquered, defending his country's freedom. He died on his own land. He can be envied. He stands together with the Spartan king Leonidas, Vercingetorix, Joan of Arc and Mahatma Gandhi. Humanity has suffered a great loss. We feel together with the Chechen people and we share their grief and their aim: independence. We grieve for Djohar Dudaev. We grieve for him as a human rights activist, as our partner, as a martyr for freedom, as our relative. We consider ourselves to be a part of Chechen resistance. Together with the Chechens we call for the army withdrawal from Chechnya and for independent and free Chechnya.
7. Human rights activists always closely followed the progress of "human rights" in Chechnya. For example, when the relatives of a hostage of the Chechens received a video of the torture of their loved one, these human rights activists pointed to "progress". "Look", they said, "now the Chechens have cut off only half of the hostage's finger - unlike last time, when they cut off the whole finger. And this month they beheaded far fewer people then in the previous month! This is a progress, and only the unjust use of Russian force can stop it. Chechens have to support their families! They have children!"
Certainly, hundreds of thousands of refugees from Chechnya and victims of the Chechens were of no interest at all to the human rights activists.
Sergei Kovalyov, follower of the well-known human rights activist Andrei Sakharov, demonstrated a similar attitude towards the Chechen rebellion. When Basayev took as hostages the staff and mothers-to-be of a maternity home in Russia, Kovalyov remarked that Basayev was a "Robin Hood", who does not realise the harmful consequences of his actions. We must only hope that one day good old Kovalyov (and those like him) would be hanged in the central square of the Russian city of Grozny.
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March 24 2004, 10:26 AM
U.S. helped Qatar link Russians to killing.
By Vladimir Isachenkov
The Associated Press
MOSCOW — The United States assisted Qatar's special services in the investigation that led to two Russian secret agents being charged with killing a Chechen separatist leader, a top U.S. diplomat said in an interview published yesterday.
The United Nations considered Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev a terrorist. Helping find his killers could roil relations with a U.S. ally in the war on terror.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Steven Pifer, who was in Moscow for talks with Russian officials, told the daily Vremya Novostei newspaper that the United States provided "very insignificant technical assistance" to the Qataris.
A U.S. Embassy spokesman said the United States sent a small team of explosives experts to Doha, the Qatari capital, at Qatar's request.
"We send many such teams in response to requests from governments," the embassy official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "The experts played no role in the arrest or investigation of any suspects."
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher declined to comment.
Three Russian intelligence agents were arrested in Doha in February after the killing of Yandarbiyev, the former separatist president of Chechnya. Yandarbiyev died Feb. 13 when a bomb went off in his car.
One of the agents, whom Moscow calls "embassy employees," has been released, but the two others remain in custody. The Russian Foreign Ministry has denied that the intelligence agents had anything to do with Yandarbiyev's killing and has demanded their release.
Moscow warned that a refusal to free the Russian agents would badly hurt relations with the Persian Gulf nation.
Yandarbiyev had lived in Qatar since 2000, and Moscow had sought his extradition on charges of terrorism and links to al-Qaida. President Vladimir Putin claimed last fall that U.S. representatives had met with Yandarbiyev.
Pifer denied that claim in the interview published yesterday, saying that U.S. officials had no contacts with Yandarbiyev last year.
The United Nations put Yandarbiyev last year on a list of people with alleged links to al-Qaida. The United States also put him on a list of international terrorists subject to financial sanctions.
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March 25 2004, 3:05 PM
Wednesday, Mar. 24, 2004. Page 4
Tverskaya Bomb Trial Opens.
MoscowTimes.Ru
By Anatoly Medetsky
Mazhikhoyeva sitting in the defendant's cage at the Moscow City Court on Tuesday. Reuters
The Moscow City Court on Tuesday began the closed-doors trial of 24-year-old Zarema Mazhikhoyeva, who is charged with attempting to carry out a suicide bombing in central Moscow last July.
After a jury was selected at the defense's request, prosecutor Alexander Kublyakov read a three-count indictment, defense lawyer Natalya Yevlapova said.
Mazhikhoyeva is accused of terrorism, attempted murder and illegal possession of explosives, charges that could put her in prison for up to 25 years, Yevlapova said by telephone late Tuesday.
Yevlapova insisted that Mazhikhoyeva was guilty only of illegal possession of explosives, a charge that carries a maximum penalty of eight years in prison.
The other charges should be dropped, the lawyer said, because Mazhikhoyeva did not detonate the bomb, instead turning herself in to police.
Mazhikhoyeva, a widow from Ingushetia, was arrested as she walked along 1st Tverskaya Yamskaya Ulitsa on July 10, 2003, carrying a homemade bomb.
In an interview published in Izvestia last month, Mazhikhoyeva said she agreed to be recruited by Chechen rebels as a suicide bomber, in exchange for $1,000 in compensation to her relatives to repay for jewelry she had stolen from them.
When sent to Moscow to carry out her mission, she changed her mind and was trying to get herself arrested by police, she said.
An FSB bomb disposal expert was killed trying to defuse the bomb.
Yevlapova also said that Mazhikhoyeva deserved leniency because she had aided the investigation of her case and provided information about a safe house in the Moscow region village of Tolstopaltsevo, where she and two other would-be suicide bombers stayed. The other women blew themselves up five days before Mazhikhoyeva's arrest, killing 14 bystanders during a rock concert at the Tushino airfield.
Police found six homemade bombs in Tolstopaltsevo, Yevlapova said, adding that tips from Mazhikhoyeva led police to arrest several rebels suspected of organizing suicide bombings.
Some of the suspects were killed in shootouts with the police, she said.
"The investigation team said thank you to [Mazhikhoyeva] when they returned from the North Caucasus" where they ordered the arrests, Yevlapova said.
Before the trial was closed to observers, Mazhikhoyeva spoke with her lawyer from the defendant's cage, and flashed a smile at her.
For the Prosecutor General's Office, Kublyakov said he asked for the trial to be held behind closed doors because media coverage could influence the case.
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March 26 2004, 11:18 AM
13:04 2004-03-26
Probe into deaths of 8 servicemen in Chechnya.
The military prosecutor's office of the joint grouping of forces in the North Caucasus is conducting a probe into the deaths of eight servicemen in the Chechen district centre of Shali, 50 kilometres south-east of the capital of Chechnya, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office said on Friday.
"An operational investigative group has arrived at the scene of the deaths. All evidence is being collected on the site, and criminological measures are being carried out," the spokesman said.
"Investigators have started questioning witnesses from among servicemen," he added.
On the day before, at about 6:30 p.m. Moscow time, in the district centre of Shali, a serviceman of the 70th motorized rifle regiment of Russia's Defense Ministry, while driving a KamAZ vehicle, veered into a minefield. Several mines exploded, killing the driver and seven servicemen who accompanied him and leaving two soldiers injured. They are now in hospital.
According to one of the versions, the accident happened as a result of a spat between servicemen, occasioned by the unauthorized action of one of the commanders.
According to the source in the joint grouping of forces, any movement of army vehicles on the territory of Chechnya is prohibited in the nighttime. But a group of military, ignoring that order, tried in the evening to drive to Khankala - the eastern suburb of Grozny - where the headquarters of the joint grouping is located.
"Not knowing the operational situation, the army men hit a mine obstacle, which led to grave consequences," the source told the agency.
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March 26 2004, 12:15 PM
Putin points to fundamental change in N. Caucasus.
Interfax. Friday, Mar. 26, 2004, 1:24 PM Moscow Time
SOCHI. March 26 (Interfax) - President Vladimir Putin said the situation in the North Caucasus has now "cardinally changed," where "all the contradictions of the post-Soviet period have been especially dramatic."
"Armed confrontation and conflict are becoming a thing of the past. The peaceful situation is becoming irreversible even in the most difficult territory - the Chechen republic," he told a public forum of the peoples of the Caucasus and South Russia on Friday.
This means that the territorial integrity of the state has been preserved, constitutional rights are guaranteed and possibilities for economic growth have been created.
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March 31 2004, 11:06 AM
Wednesday, Mar. 31, 2004. Page 3
Basayev Threatens New Attacks.
MoscowTimes.Ru
By Simon Saradzhyan
Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev threatened Tuesday to stage chemical attacks across Russia in retaliation the killing of former rebel leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev in Qatar and abuses against Chechen civilians.
"We will bomb, blow up, poison, sent on fire, stage gas explosions and fires whenever possible on everything else on the territory of [Russia]," Basayev said in a statement posted on the rebel web site Kavkaz Center. "Combat chemical agents, toxins and different poisons are being used against us. Therefore we reserve the right to use chemical and poisonous substances this year."
Basayev said his Riyadus-Salikhin martyrs' brigade would not use biological or nuclear materials in attacks in Russian cities and would not target mosques, synagogues, children's facilities and mental hospitals.
He said his fighters would attack Russians abroad to avenge the death of Yandarbiyev in a car bomb explosion in February -- an attack he blamed on Russian security services.
Qatar has detained two Russian officials on suspicion of involvement in the attack. Moscow says they are innocent and should be freed.
Basayev offered in his statement to suspend attacks against civilians if federal troops in Chechnya stopped abusing the local population.
Basayev has repeatedly threatened to attack Russian cities and strategic facilities, including nuclear power plants, in the past. Among the attacks he has claimed responsibility for in Moscow are the Dubrovka theater siege in October 2002, which left 129 dead, and the metro bombing in February, which killed 40.
Lev Fyodorov, head of the Union for Chemical Security and a renowned expert on chemical arms, said Basayev would not be able to seize chemical weapons from Russia's two, well-guarded storage facilities.
However, Fyodorov said, there are some 300 sites across the country where chemical arms have been buried, burned or otherwise disposed of between the 1920s and 1990s. Some arms were buried as recently as 1989 and could pose a "serious threat" if retrieved by Basayev, he said.
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March 31 2004, 11:16 AM
14:43 2004-03-31
Man suspected of organizing government house explosion detained in Chechnya.
A man was detained in Chechnya who is suspected of organizing the explosion of a complex of government buildings in Grozny in December 2002, a source in the headquarters of the Joint Group of Forces has reported.
According to the data of the Joint Group of Forces, a certain Adamov was apprehended the day before in the Leninsky district of Grozny. "He is suspected of organizing and staging the explosion on the territory of the complex of government buildings of the republic," the source said.
As a result of the explosion of the complex of the government buildings in the republic on December 27, 2002, 55 people died and 119 were wounded.
A Qatari newspaper reported Monday that Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov personally ordered the assassination of former Chechen President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev in Qatar.
Ivanov's spokesman denied the allegation. "Such reports cannot be called anything but absurd. That is why I don't consider it possible to comment on this nonsense," said the spokesman, Colonel Vyacheslav Sedov, according to Interfax.
The newspaper Al-Rayah reported that Ivanov ordered a Russian security services officer in the Qatari capital, Doha, to prepare the attack together with the two Russian security services officers who are now on trial for the killing. Al-Rayah cited files from the case that have not been officially released.
Qatar last month expelled the first secretary of the Russian Embassy in Doha, Alexander Fetisov, who Moscow has acknowledged is a secret agent.
A link might be made between Ivanov and killing if the suspects on trial are agents of the GRU, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the armed forces' General Staff, said Andrei Piontkovsky, an independent political analyst.
The Foreign Ministry, which has acknowledged that the suspects are from the security services, might have told Qatari investigators which agency they work for in negotiations to secure their release, Piontkovsky said. "That could be the GRU, and Ivanov is officially in charge of the GRU," he said.
Novaya Gazeta, citing sources close to Qatari security services, said last week the suspects might be GRU agents.
A Defense Ministry spokesman refused to comment on the case Monday. "There will be no comments until after the trial is over," he said.
Al-Rayah also reported that Russia used a satellite to spy on Yandarbiyev. But Ruslan Pukhov, director of the Center for the Analysis of Strategies and Technology, told Ekho Moskvy radio on Monday that the intelligence satellites that Russia has in orbit cannot trace a person or a vehicle in other countries.
At the start of the trial Sunday, Qatari authorities revealed the names of the defendants, which, converted from Arabic into Russian, sound roughly like Vladimir Belachyov and Vasily Bukchev.
A Foreign Ministry spokesman could not confirm the names Monday.
Yandarbiyev died when a bomb went off under his car as he was leaving a Doha mosque on Feb. 13. Yandarbiyev's 13-year-old son, Daud, was injured.
The suspects are each charged on 10 counts, including murder, attempted murder, arms-smuggling, illegally entering Qatar and fraud, Russian media reported. The fraud charges stem from an allegation that the suspects rented a car using false ID papers. If found guilty, the suspects could be executed. They have maintained their innocence.
After the hearing Sunday, the Qatari court adjourned the trial until May 9, according to a spokesman for the law firm Yegorov, Puginsky, Afanasiev and Partners, which is advising the suspects' Qatari lawyer.
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April 14 2004, 1:45 PM
Kidnapped Dutch aid worker freed in Dagestan.
MosNews
Arjan Erkel, a Dutch aid worker who was kidnapped in Russia 20 months ago, was freed Sunday and returned to his homeland in the Netherlands, media report. His plane landed late Sunday night at the airport in Rotterdam, RIA Novosti reported.
Erkel, who works for Medecins Sans Frontieres, was released after a police operation in the southern Russian province of Dagestan, a spokesman for the local branch of Russia’s Interior Ministry told The Idependent. He was first brought to Dagestan’s capital, Makhachkala, and later flown to Moscow.
Among those greeting him in Rotterdam were his family and Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot, RIA Novosti reported.
Erkel, the regional head of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), was kidnapped on August 12, 2002 and his location had been unknown all that time, although there were anonymous reports that he was alive. The rescue operation was conducted by Dagestani police and FSB agents.
The authorities in Dagestan and the federal government in Moscow blamed the kidnapping on gangsters, but MSF has repeatedly suggested the Russians were behind the kidnapping to silence critics of Russia’s war in Chechnya.
“I want to thank the Lord who brought me back to life today,” The Independent quoted Erkel as saying. “I want to thank the Easter bunny, who brought me back to Makhachkala in a big chocolate egg.”
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April 14 2004, 1:53 PM
POLICE IN DAGHESTAN ARREST MASTERMIND OF 1999 CHECHEN INCURSION.
MOSCOW, April 9 (RIA Novosti) - Police in Daghestan have arrested Magomed Tagayev, suspected of masterminding the Chechen incursion in April 1999.
According to a Federal Interior Ministry officer, Tagayev's detention was the result of a complicated and meticulously planned operation.
After federal forces fought Chechen rebels out of Daghestan, Tagayev fled to Turkey and spent a lot of time hiding there under the protection of Turkish authorities, who refused to extradite him to Russia.
Tagayev has written a number of extremist propaganda books. He used to sit on Chechnya's Shurah military council alongside the warlords Shamil Basayev and Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev.
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April 19 2004, 2:54 PM
Russia kills key Chechen rebels.
MOSCOW, Russia (Reuters) -- Russian troops have killed four Chechen rebels linked to guerrilla leader Shamil Basayev near Chechnya this weekend, capping a week-long crackdown on separatists in the turbulent Caucasus region.
The leader of Arab fighters in Muslim Chechnya, Saudi-born Abu al-Waleed al-Ghamdi with close links to Basayev, was among those killed there in recent days, his brother said on Sunday.
More than 10 rebels, including Wahhabi militants, were killed in planned "special operations" by Russian troops in the mountainous region last week, news agencies reported.
Wahhabism is a strict Islamic sect dominant in Saudi Arabia.
Heavy gunfire in the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya -- just over the border from Chechnya in mainly Muslim Ingushetia -- started on Saturday and ended early Sunday after troops sealed off a house where they said important rebels were holed up.
"These people, acting on Basayev's orders ... were involved in recruiting and training young women from various regions in the North Caucasus with an aim to turn them into suicide bombers," Ilya Shabalkin, spokesman for the Russian military in the Caucasus, told Itar-Tass news agency.
Among those reported killed was 27-year-old Magomed Khazhiyev, a religious leader of an ultra-radical Islamic Wahhabi community in Ingushetia's Sunzhensky region.
Russia says it bringing Chechnya, where it has fought separatist guerrillas for nine years, under control and says it is reducing its troop levels and heavy weaponry. But servicemen and police are killed daily.
The Kremlin blames Chechen rebels for a spate of attacks across Russia, including those by so-called "black widow" female suicide bombers.
Chechnya's pro-Kremlin leader Akhmad Kadyrov told Interfax news agency more than 10 Chechen rebels were killed in various operations across the North Caucasus in the past week.
In a separate operation early on Sunday, Russian troops killed a Wahhabi militant in the Chechen capital Grozny who Russian security services said could be linked to a suicide bomb attack on Ingush President Murat Zyazikov on April 6, Tass said.
Zyazikov was not killed in that attack.
Late on Sunday, a train carrying oil products came under fire in Chechnya and immediately caught fire, Interfax news agency reported. It was unclear who was behind the attack.
arab swine
This message has been edited by TsarSamuil from IP address 212.181.9.227 on Apr 20, 2004 1:54 PM
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April 20 2004, 1:57 PM
Tuesday, Apr. 20, 2004. Page 2
Russia, Qatar May Have a Deal.
MoscowTimes.Ru
By Oksana Yablokova
In a sign that Russia and Qatar may have reached a compromise, Security Council chief Igor Ivanov said Moscow will respect whatever verdict is handed down in the trial of two Russian agents charged with killing former Chechen President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev.
"Now the case has been transferred to the Qatari court. We respect the Qatari court and expect that it will make a decision in the view of friendly relations between our countries," Ivanov said Sunday after talks in Doha with Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, Interfax reported.
Ivanov was the highest-ranking official to visit the Persian Gulf state since the arrest of the two intelligence officers in February, and his statement suggests that the duo will probably be convicted in an open trial, which is to resume April 25, and then pardoned, analysts said Monday.
Ivanov's trip, which continued this week with stops in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, was most likely aimed at sealing an agreement over the two officers, analysts said. President Vladimir Putin discussed the issue with the Qatari leader, Emir Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, by telephone on March 24.
"The aim of his mission is obvious: to show that we are aware of our intelligence and diplomatic failures and to try by all means possible to pull out our citizens," independent analyst Andrei Piontkovsky said.
He gave Moscow high marks for its diplomatic efforts in the rather sensitive matter.
"It is a reflection of a different style in diplomacy. Rather than taking the usual path of imperialistic roaring, our diplomacy has taken the correct path of showing that we admit responsibility for our citizens," Piontkovsky said.
"It is quite obvious to both Qatar and Russia that the situation must be somehow resolved, and both sides are seeking the best possible outcome," said Ivan Safranchuk, director of the Moscow office of the Washington-based Center for Defense Information.
"The less media coverage the incident gets, the easier it will be for the sides to reach a confidential agreement," he said.
However, if the officers are convicted and pardoned, that means Russia has consented to the conviction and "silently" admitted responsibility for ordering its security services to carry out an assassination on the soil of a foreign country, Piontkovsky said.
A Security Council spokesman on Monday would not comment on the details of Ivanov's meeting. He also would he say whether any agreements has been struck.
The Qatari Foreign Ministry could not be reached for comment.
Russia has fiercely denied any involvement in Yandarbiyev's killing. It also has urged Qatar to quickly release the two suspects, warning that their continued detention will badly hurt ties between their nations.
Ivanov said Sunday that Russia's stance has not changed.
Yandarbiyev died when a bomb went off under his car as he was leaving a Doha mosque on Feb. 13. Yandarbiyev's 13-year-old son, Daoud, was injured in the attack.
Last week, the two defendants, identified in court as Anatoly Belashkov and Vasily Bokchov, pleaded not guilty to 10 counts, including charges of murdering Yandarbiyev, attempting to murder his son and attempting to destabilize security in Qatar.
Yandarbiyev, Chechnya's acting president in 1996 and 1997, had lived in Qatar since 2000.
Moscow had sought his extradition on charges of terrorism and having links to al-Qaida.
The United Nations last year put him on a list of people with alleged links to al-Qaida.
Washington also listed him as an international terrorist subject to financial sanctions.
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April 22 2004, 4:30 PM
Chechens are promised Heaven for killing Russians.
Pravda.Ru
04/22/2004 14:55
Islamic philosopher Yusuf Kardavi has published Fatwa (also spelled as Fatawah or Fatawa, a set of rulings and decisions of Islamic doctrine; affirmed under a recognized authority such as True Mufti), in which he calls Chechen insurgents to continue military actions against Russian troops and promises Heaven in return.
"To support oppressed Muslims anywhere on the planet is a duty of every true believer. There is no doubt that Chechens lead a just fight in an attempt to protect their country, their religion and their dignity. By doing so, they demonstrate the best type of Jihad in the eyes of Allah."
"The amazing fight that our brothers are fighting in Chechnya can be regarded as one of the best kinds of Jihad on the way to Allah. They are fighting for their country, dignity and religion, against the tyrannical oppressive power, which is not afraid of Allah and does not pity any living creatures."
Vice Chairman of the Duma Committee of religious organizations Alexander Chuev considers that this Fatwa can in fact "become the basis for stirring up major international dissentions in order to justify multiple terrorist acts in Chechnya." Chuev has stated this in his interview to "Echo of Moscow."
According to him, "today, the worst problem of Islam is a problem dealing with the fact that while this is one of the youngest religions, it is going through a certain stage of development and demarcation with radical teachings."
"Only time will show where this religion will survive or turn into some sort of a political teaching," noted Chuev. "Unfortunately, the situation appears to be similar to what was happening to Christianity in Middle Ages but with a different edge. For Christianity has never advocated violence. In Islam, unfortunately, certain types of fighting are considered to be an integral part of the teaching itself."
"Today, Islam faces demarcation; it will either choose a peaceful way, the way of normal civilized religion, which will find its proper place in history, or it will simply be divided into religion and something that we call politics or extreme ideology," concluded Chuev.
In the meantime, head of the Muslim fund Gayar Iskandyarov expresses a totally different opinion. "This is just an opinion of the famous Muslim philosopher of modern days. He makes it public and wants to inform all Muslims," noted Iskandyarov to "Echo of Moscow."
"Personally, I agree on some of the issues with Yusuf Kardavi. Chechens have been fighting for their independence; such fight is sacred for any nation," remarked he. "However, this war in Chechnya has undergone major changes and nowadays all of its best people are dead. Only criminal foam remains on the surface these days."
"That is why I do not know how to abide by Yusuf Kardavi's Fatwa. This is a very serous question," added Iskandyarov. "If I were to decide, I would have simply suggested Russia to step away from Chechnya just a bit and let it become conscious again and decide for it self which way to go."
According to Iskandyarov, the Fatwa "will only be read in those mosques, which acknowledge both Kardavi and his Fatwa." "Muslim world does not have ultimate authoritative figures. Kardavi is a well-known theologian. I do not know however what kind of a politician he is," concluded he.
Co-chairman of the Russian Mufti Counsel Nafigulla Ashirov in turn, does not think that the Fatwa can somehow affect current situation in Chechnya.
As far as Russian Muslims are concerned, Ashirov said that it is least likely that "Russian mosques will officially adopt the Fatwa."
Federal forces have killed 12 rebels, including one foreign mercenary in southern Chechnya, the Itar-Tass news agency reported on Wednesday, citing the official spokesman of the local headquarters for countering terrorism, Colonel Ilya Shabalkin.
The bandits were eliminated by units of the Russian Defense Ministry as a result of search-and-destroy operations and ambushes in the Vedeno, Itum-Kale, Sharoy, Shatoy and Itum-Kale districts of the republic, the spokesman said.
He said that the body of a foreign mercenary was found after an operation in the Vedeno district, two kilometers from the village of Kirov-Yurt. “On the body we found a Turkish passport in the name of Semek Yusif with a valid Georgian visa, documents of a legal attorney and a card of the Turkish Tae-kwon-do Federation as well as other documents in Turkish,” Shabalkin said.
An assault rifle with ammunition was also found at the scene. The spokesman said that the operations also resulted in the elimination of 17 rebel bases and 8 caches containing weapons, ammunition, food supplies and drugs.
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April 23 2004, 11:08 AM
Chechen warlord says his subordinates have surrendered.
GROZNY. April 22 (Interfax) - Magomed Khambiyev, a Chechen separatist leader and former "interior minister of Ichkeria," who surrendered in early March, said all his subordinates have surrendered their arms and have turned themselves in to the law enforcement agencies.
"I can say confidently that all the rebels who were with me or reported to me have voluntarily refused to continue armed resistance and have applied for amnesty," Khambiyev told reporters in Gudermes on Thursday.
Khambiyev refused to give the exact number of rebels who have surrendered, saying he was not authorized to release such information.
At the same time, Ramzan Khadyrov, the head of the Chechen president's security service, has confirmed that "practically all the rebels who reported to Khambiyev have come out of the woods and have turned themselves in to the law enforcement agencies."
"After Khambiyev turned himself in and made a public address to the rebels, calling on them to surrender their arms, 27 people who reported directly to him, not including members of other groups operating in the Urus-Martan, Achkhoi-Martan, and Vedeno regions, surrounded their weapons," Kadyrov said.
Khambiyev repeated that he does not know anything about the fate of Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev.
"Everybody in Chechnya knows that we have never liked each other, and after the military action began we became enemies because I realized that the path chosen by him and people close to him would lead to tragedy," Khambiyev said.
Speaking about Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov, Khambiyev said that "up to ten people could be with him" at this time.
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April 28 2004, 1:43 PM
Tuesday, Apr. 27, 2004. Page 3
Lawyer: 2 Suspects Tortured in Qatar.
MoscowTimes.Ru
By Anatoly Medetsky
One of the defendants leaning against a table at the trial in Qatar on Sunday. Ren-TV said the two Russians looked exhausted. AP
Two Russian security officers on trial in the killing of former Chechen President Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev said they were tortured after their arrest by Qatari authorities, their lawyer said Monday.
"They were subjected to torture in the first several days in order to extract a confession. Subsequently, they were denied medical access and evaluation, apparently to cover up the signs of torture," defense lawyer Dmitry Afanasyev said by e-mail from Doha.
The defendants, identified by the Qatari court as Vladimir Belachyov and Vasily Bukchev, were beaten, deprived of sleep and attacked by dogs, Afanasyev told Ren-TV on Sunday.
Under international and Qatari law, any statements given under torture should be rejected by the court, he said.
The trial resumed Sunday after a two-week break requested by defense lawyers to translate and read 1,000 handwritten pages of the case.
Moscow, which initially demanded that the defendants be let go, softened its stance during the break -- in a turnabout that analysts said suggests Russia and Qatar have reached a deal under which the suspects will be convicted and then pardoned.
Afanasyev, however, said he will demand their release because they had effectively been arrested on Russian soil, Kommersant reported. The suspects were arrested at a Moscow-owned villa.
Ren-TV said one of the defendants looked exhausted Sunday, and Afanasyev said in the e-mail that the court agreed to let a European doctor examine the two men.
"We would prefer a Russian doctor, but the Qataris are not agreeing to this. An independent doctor, i.e. a European doctor, is the next best option," he said.
The court rejected a request to use a Russian translator in meetings between the Russians and their Qatari lawyer, ordering them instead to use a translator from the prosecutor's office, he said. The trial should last six weeks, he said.
The Russians are accused of planting a bomb under Yandarbiyev's car. Yandarbiyev was killed and his 13-year-old son was wounded in the Feb. 13 blast.
The Russian Foreign Ministry has said the suspects, who were arrested six days later, were security agents sent to the Russian Embassy in Doha to collect information about global terrorism.
The first of at least 13 witnesses for the prosecution testified Sunday, and two more were to testify Monday.
The court decided Sunday to conduct a closed trial due to concerns about the safety of the witnesses and the defendants' families, Afanasyev said. The judges spotted representatives of militant groups in the courtroom before the trial started, he said.
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April 28 2004, 2:08 PM
"Assassination of Yandarbiev is not in the style of Russian special services".
Pravda.Ru
04/27/2004 14:11
In Qatar capital Doha the legal hearing is in progress on accusations of the two Russians of assassinating former Chechen leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiev.
The court building is encircled by the policemen, all the entries to the building are blocked, 50 soldiers with machine-guns are standing along the fence.
The to defendants were brought to the hearing room handcuffed to the policemen.
"One of the defendants does not look well", said a reporter of Russian REN-TV Channel. "He looks exhausted. The second man looks better".
Lawyer of the Russian defendants said that he had found no evidence of their involvement in the assassination of Yandarbiev in the criminal case materials.
According to the lawyer, Qatar authorities violated the law: "they beat the defendants, did not allow them to sleep, set dogs on them several times". The lawyer said that torturing people during the investigation is against the law. Earlier the Washington Post and the Times wrote that the Russians had admitted their guilt and gave the names of their bosses who had sent them to the assignment.
The lawyers are protesting against the circumstances of the arrest of Russians as well. The two Russians were arrested at the diplomatic villa which is ex-territorial zone, and therefore the police arrested the two men against the law.
One of the former Mossad servicemen said in a Novye Izvestia interview that the liquidation of Yandarbiev does not look like the style of work of Russian special services.
"One of two", said the man who asked to call him Leo. "Either Russian special services absolutely lost their qualification or this was not their deed".
Re: Photos support Basayev's part in Grozny blast.
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April 28 2004, 2:09 PM
No cameras for terrorists!
04/27/2004 13:11
Deputy Secretary of Russian Defense Council Valnetin Sobolev urges journalists to follow certain regulations when reporting terrorist acts.
"One of the counterparts of terrorism is media attention. Terrorists use television as just another battle ground," stated Sobolev during his speech at an International anti-terrorist media forum "Media against terrorism and narcotics."
First of all, terrorists demand media attention, cameras, not money, remarked Sobolev. "Their main goal is to have certain impact on society at large, to make people pose an ultimatum to their leaders in the end. "Nord-Ost" is a typical example of this," said Sobolev. "Today, violence against peaceful, defenseless people on air appears to be the most effective method of terror," noted the deputy secretary.
Sobolev mentioned the following rules that journalists should abide by. He said that a journalist's main responsibility is simply to inform the public, and not make people fearful; a journalist has to take into account the fact that the entire world community rejects any connection between terrorism and religion, race and nationality; reports should not contain any information that could in any way strengthen terrorists' position. Such rules are of utmost importance to prevent mass media from turning into a "data transferring relay mechanism" for terrorists.
Valentin Sobolev named terrorism as one of the elements of information war. "Destructive effect of the informational attack can only be compared to the effect of weapons of mass destruction," stated the deputy secretary (RIA "Novosti")
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April 28 2004, 2:23 PM
Monday, Apr. 26, 2004. Page 3
Chechen Warlord Dies in Hospital.
The Moscow Times
Chechen rebel warlord Lecha Islamov has died in a Volgograd prison hospital in what his relatives say is a case of deliberate food poisoning. He was 42 or 43.
Islamov, who died Wednesday, was sentenced last June to nine years in prison on charges of hostage-taking and organizing an illegal armed formation, and was being transferred to a new prison when he fell ill.
Deputy Justice Minister Yury Kalinin denied Friday that Islamov had been poisoned, saying he had suffered heart and kidney diseases. He acknowledged that when Islamov died he was suffering a severe skin allergy that is commonly a reaction to food poisoning or medicine.
Islamov's relatives told Kommersant that law enforcement officials gave Islamov some sandwiches in his cell in Krasnodar several hours before he boarded the train for a prison in Mordovia. He fell ill almost immediately but was only hospitalized in Volgograd on March 23, they said.
Islamov's lawyer told Kommersant that Islamov could not speak or move and that his hair began falling out and his skin began peeling. In the end, his heart and kidneys failed, the lawyer said.
Islamov, nicknamed "Boroda," or "Beard," was arrested in 2000 and spent three years in the Krasnodar detention center before being convicted last year.
At least three other senior rebels have died in custody since 2000, Kommersant said. Salman Raduyev and Turpal-Ali Atgeriyev died from internal bleeding, while Ruslan Alikhadzhiyev died of a heart attack, according to official autopsies.
Russian lawyers have not, thus far, adopted a final decision whether to file counter lawsuit against the Qatari authorities for torturing two Russian nationals accused of assassinating Chechen separatist leader Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev, said Ilya Levitov, press secretary of the Yegorov, Puginsky, Afanasyev and Partners law firm, whose lawyers act for the Russian prisoners.
The Russians said at a Sharia court session in Doha that the authorities had beaten them, had not let them sleep and even hounded dogs on them.
Mr. Levitov said the court would continue questioning witnesses on Wednesday.
Eight witnesses for the prosecution have been questioned throughout the trial. "They are Qatari law enforcers, who repeated what they themselves had written in the search and interrogation protocols," said Mr. Levitov.
There are a total of 13 witnesses for the prosecution. They were examined both by the defence lawyers led by Qatari lawyer Mohsen al-Suwaidi (only Qatari citizens are allowed to defend foreigners in the court of law in Qatar) and by prosecutors. Three Russian nationals were arrested in Qatar in the early hours of February 19 on suspicion of being part in assassinating Zelimkhan Yandarbiev, who was the president of Chechnya after the assassination of president Dzhokhar Dudayev and the election of Aslan Maskhadov. Mr. Yandarbiev's car was blown up in Doha on February 13. (Mr. Yandarbiyev and his family had lived in Qatar in the last few years as refugees without the right to engage in political activities, whereas his name was on the United Nations list of international terrorists, the fact that was totally ignored by the Qatar authorities).
Alexander Fetisov, first secretary of the Russian embassy in Doha who was also arrested on February 19, was released on March 24 and has already returned to Russia.
Russia's foreign ministry has continuously insisted on the Russian nationals' innocence and demanded their release.
On February 26, the two prisoners were charged with intended killing.
The Russians denied the charge and pleaded innocent at the preliminary court hearing on April 11.
International observers agree that the two Russian security officers will be found guilty (on the charge, which envisages death penalty), but will be pardoned by Emir Sheikh Hamad al-Thani.
Re: Photos support Basayev's part in Grozny blast.
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May 7 2004, 11:13 AM
BASAYEV GIVES ORDER TO PREVENT MASKHADOV'S SURRENDER TO LAW-ENFORCEMENT BODIES.
GROZNY, May 5 (RIA Novosti) - Shamil Basayev, one of the Chechen terrorist leaders, has issued an order to prevent the voluntary surrender of another terrorist, former Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov, to the law-enforcement bodies, the regional operational headquarters for control of the anti-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus has reported this Wednesday.
"Almost every day, the power structures are finding and detaining the militants who tried to hide and who begin to give evidence against their accomplices as soon as they are caught by the law-enforcement bodies. Information has been received that due to the discord among the senior leaders of the illegal armed formations resulting from the refusal by a larger part of militants subordinate to Maskhadov to continue unlawful activities, Basayev has ordered his accomplices to prevent the possible surrender of Maskhadov to the law-enforcement bodies," the headquarters' representative said.
According to him, the information, which the law-enforcement bodies are receiving, suggests that the leaders of illegal armed formations constrained by the actions of the federal troops and the Chechen power structures are experiencing considerable difficulties in their efforts to keep rank-and-file militants within militant groups subordinate to them.
"The militants who have been detained say that many members of illegal armed formations are under stress due to the constant fear of their arrest. Terrorist leaders are extremely hot-tempered in relation to rank-and-file militants. On the whole, the atmosphere of fear and distrust reigns in militant groups," the headquarters' representative told RIA Novosti
Akhmad Kadyrov, the President of the Chechen Republic, was killed in the Chechen capital of Grozny on Sunday, MosNews web-site reports. Kadyrov was killed as a bomb exploded at the stadium where celebrations were held to mark the anniversary of Soviet Union's victory in the Great Patriotic War.
The explosion took place at the Dinamo stadium, at 10.35 Moscow time (13.35 GMT). Reports on casualties vary from 4 people killed and 53 injured to as much as 13 killed and dozens wounded.
The official information given by deputy emergency minister of Chechnya, Akhmed Zelimkhanov to the ITAR-TASS news agency reads that 4 people were killed in the attack.
One of those killed was Adlan Khassanov, a photographer and cameraman working for the Reuters news agency. He was born in Chechnya and worked at the agency since 1990s.
The chairman of the State Council of Chechnya, Hussein Isayev, was also killed in the attack.
Another victim of the attack was an 8-year old girl.
Top Russian military commander in the North Caucasus, Colonel-General Valery Baranov was seriously wounded by the blast. He is currently in hospital in grave condition , one of his legs has been amputated. Chechen interior minister, Alu Alkhanov and the military commandant of Chechnya, Grigory Fomenko, were also injured.
The bomb went off at the time when the stadium hosted a concert dedicated to the Victory Day. The explosive was put under a stand where the top Chechen officials and Russian military were sitting. The blast took place after the parade of Chechen interior ministry and Kadyrov's speech devoted to the holiday.
Khamid Kadayev, Chechnya's deputy interior minister told the Rossiya TV channel that the bomb had been planted into the concrete structures of the stadium. He said that construction works at the stadium were completed only one day before the attack. Before the parade, law enforcers checked the site for explosives, but found nothing. Experts consider this a clear sign that the bomb had been planted inside concrete. Experts also said that the power of the bomb was estimated as over one kilogram of TNT.
One more explosive was found under another stand at the stadium after the attack. It was destroyed at the scene.
On the other hand, the Chechen separatist web-site Kavkazcenter.org reported that the attack had been performed by a female suicide bomber. On May 9, 2003, another terrorist attack took place at the same stadium. The bomb was blown up at its entrance, one person was killed, two injured.
In accordance with the Constitution of the Chechen Republic, Chechen Prime Minister Sergei Abramov becomes acting president of the republic after Kadyrov's death.
The fact of Kadyrov's murder was not confirmed immediately by the authorities. soon after the attack the Itar-Tass news agency quoted the head of Kadyrov's his administration Ziyad Sabsabi as saying that Kadyrov had been alive.
Criminal proceedings have been instigated in connection with the blast on articles of terrorism and murder, deputy prosecutor general Sergei Fridinsky was quoted by ITAR-TASS as saying.
Five suspects were detained in connection with the attack, the Interfax news agency reported citing Ruslan Atsayev, the chief spokesman of the Chechen Interior Ministry.
Kadyrov was born in 1950. From 1994 till 1996 he was a member of separatist forces in Chechnya. In 1995, the president of the Republic of Ichkeria, Dzhokhar Dudayev, appointed him the supreme mufti (top religious leader) of Chechnya. Upon this appointment, Kadyrov declared the holy war (jihad) on Russia. In 1996, he participated in the peace talks with Russia and later refused to take part in the second campaign on the side of rebels.
On June 12, 2000, Russian president Vladimir Putin appointed Kadyrov the head of provisional administration of Chechnya. On October 5, 2003, he was elected president of the republic. According to the official information, he received 80 percent of the vote.
Akhmad Kadyrov will be buried in his native village of Tsentoroy, Chechnya, on May 10.
Sergei Abramov was appointed Chechen prime minister on March 16, 2004. He worked as finance minister in the Chechen government from 2001 till 2003. Later, he was responsible for issues related to Chechnya in the Audit Chamber.
Early presidential elections will be held before September 9, Itar-Tass reports citing a source in the republic's presidential administration.
Russian President Vladimir Putin was unequivocal in his response to the Chechen leader’s murder: the killers of the Chechen president would meet justice, he vowed. The assassination would not stop Chechnya ''returning to normal''.
“There can be no doubt that retribution is unavoidable for those whom we are fighting today,” Putin added.
But Putin will have a difficult task finding a successor to Kadyrov who has been central to the Kremlin’s strategy of using local rule to subdue the conflict.
“Kadyrov’s death has left a political vacuum in Chechnya,” Russian parliamentary deputy Ramazan Abdulatipov, who in 1999 negotiated the defection of Kadyrov to the Kremlin camp, told Ekho Moskvy radio.
“It turns out that there is no one to pick up his banner.”
“There was a need for a new Chechen leader,” Abdulatipov said in reference to Prime Minister Putin’s move to send Russian troops back into Chechnya in October 1999. “It was clear the region would not accept a leader fully loyal to Moscow from the start and Kadyrov was the ideal choice.”
During the first Chechnya war Kadyrov rose to a position of mufti, the spiritual head of the Muslim community, and announced a holy war Jihad against Russia. But later he broke with other rebel leaders, blaming them for over-reliance on foreign help.
He openly sided with the Kremlin and was soon appointed head of the Moscow-installed administration by Putin, who strived to minimise Russia’s military involvement in Chechnya and encourage Chechens to solve Chechen problems.
Kadyrov proved to be an ideal instrument. He stayed loyal without seeming slavish and managed to persuade many rebel commanders and rank-and-file fighters to lay down their arms. His son Ramzan created a powerful military force which dealt with unrepentant rebels, in many cases replacing Russian forces.
Initial reaction from Putin’s camp to Kadyrov’s death showed that he would find it hard to continue attempts to let Chechens run Chechnya.
Lyubov Sliska, first deputy parliamentary speaker from the pro-Kremlin United Russia party, told Interfax she favored introducing direct presidential rule in Chechnya. Nationalists from the Rodina (Motherland) bloc echoed this view.
“I would advise the federal leadership to introduce direct presidential rule in Chechnya and appoint a plenipotentiary envoy there,” Rodina leader Dmitry Rogozin said.
Thousands of people gathered in the home village of Chechnya's assassinated president on Monday for funeral rites.
Security was tight for the funeral after Sunday's blast in the capital Grozny. Three days of mourning have been declared for the victims.
Akhmad Kadyrov, 53, who had once led Chechen separatists, died some six months after winning Moscow-backed presidential elections. But he had also accumulated many enemies.
Mr Kadyrov's death deprives Russia President Vladimir Putin of his main ally in Chechnya. It is also the most significant blow dealt by Chechen rebels in almost five years of fighting.
A number of other people, including other two top officials, were killed in the blast.
Just before the explosion, President Kadyrov had addressed crowds at Grozny's Dinamo stadium.
President Putin has appeared with Kadyrov's son Ramzan.
Mr Kadyrov's son Ramzan, who helped carry his father's bier, has now been promoted to be deputy head of the pro-Russian government
Re: Photos support Basayev's part in Grozny blast.
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May 10 2004, 3:17 PM
Chechen president will be elected in keeping with law.
Interfax. Monday, May. 10, 2004, 12:00 PM Moscow Time
GROZNY. May 10 (Interfax) - Chechen presidential elections will be held in strict compliance with Chechnya's constitution, Chechen Security Council secretary Rudnik Dudayev told Interfax.
"All members of the government and State Council of Chechnya have a defined opinion on this," he said.
The situation in Chechnya is under full control of the government and State Council, while "federal forces and law enforcers are in charge of the military component, as they should," he said.
"The situation in the Chechen republic won't be undermined," Dudayev said, adding that Prime Minister Sergei Abramov arrived in Grozny from Moscow Sunday evening and has assumed the duties of president. Sunday evening, Abramov met with several Cabinet members and deputies of the State Council.
Dudayev said that the first results of the investigation into the Sunday act of terrorism in Grozny indicate that it had been planned in advance. An examination of the scene showed that "the bomb had been installed in advance and the terrorists were waiting for the day when the president of Chechnya would visit the stadium for one reason or another," he said.
Law enforcers are now trying to track people who might have been involved in planting the bomb, Dudayev said
Chechen State Council calls for unity in fighting terrorism
Interfax. Monday, May. 10, 2004, 11:10 AM Moscow Time
GROZNY. May 10 (Interfax) - The Chechen State Council has issued an address to the people of Chechnya, an Interfax correspondent reports.
"On May 9 we suffered an irreparable loss. The recognized leaders of our people - Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov and Chairman of the State Council Khusain Isayev - died in a monstrous act of terrorism. Opponents to order and stability are trying to stop the peaceful revival of our republic, to bring fear and terror to our homes and set people against each other. Those who planned and committed this horrible crime made a mistake. They have not intimidated and will never intimidate the Chechen people. The grief we share has further united people," the message says.
State Council members representing all districts of the republic urged the people of Chechnya to further unite and "become a monolith of resistance to the common evil of terrorism," the message says.
The message also expresses determination to continue the policy mapped out by Kadyrov and Isayev, "outstanding sons of our long-suffering homeland."
"These wonderful people took a blow delivered on the entire nation. Our people cannot be intimidated or brought to their knees. We will come out of these misfortunes strong, confident and hardened," the message says.
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May 10 2004, 3:37 PM
Traitors responsible for Akhmad Kadyrov's assassination.
Pravda.Ru
05/10/2004 12:28
Head of the State Duma Committee of Veteran Affairs and a former chief of Federal Security (FSB) Nikolai Kovalev presumes there were traitors among the Chechen president Akhmad Kadyrov's closest circle of people, reports "Echo of Moscow."
According to him, "special services are always ready for terrorist acts during such celebrations with so many people present; they always take all the necessary precautions and strengthen security. They also use dogs to detect any suspicious objects and substances as well as provide round the clock security of the place before the big concert."
"That is why, judging by the fact that the explosion occurred at that particular time and at that particular place lead us to believe that there were traitors among the president"s closest people. Those people had to conduct thorough check. However, due to their negligence, they failed to do so. Perhaps, they teamed up with terrorists," stated Kovalev.
Army General Vyacheslav Tikhomirov has been appointed by an official order of the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to lead the investigation of the blast in Grozny. Tikhomirov has already left for the capital of Chechnya.
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May 10 2004, 3:39 PM
Religious leaders of Egypt denounce terrorist act in Chechnya.
Pravda.Ru
01:15 2004-05-10
Religious leaders of Egypt have condemned today's terrorist act in Chechnya, which killed four people, including Chechen President Ahmad Kadyrov.
Kadyrov visited Egypt both as Mufti of Chechnya and the head of the republican administration. He paid his last visit to the country in September 2001. During that trip, he met with the Mufti of the Islamic University, Sheik Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, and with the Minister of Awqaf (Religious Affairs), Mahmoud Zaqzouq.
Both Egyptian officials have reportedly condemned today's terrorist attack in Grozny and sent condolences to the families of those killed and wounded.
Ahmad Hamroush, Chairman of the Egyptian Committee in the Afro-Asian Peoples Solidarity Commission, joined Messrs. Tantawi and Zaqzouq in expressing his commiseration to those who lost their loved ones to Sunday's terror attack in the Chechen capital.
A bomb went off this morning at Grozny's Dynamo stadium, the venue of an official ceremony to mark Victory Day. Four people were killed and another fifty-three wounded, according to the latest counts.
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May 12 2004, 10:29 AM
Chechnya - Wolf at the door.
By Peter Lavelle :: Recent publications
Published on May 11, 2004
This article was written for UPI - United Press International
MOSCOW, May 11 (UPI) -- Robert Bruce Ware, noted expert on the North Caucasus and Chechnya, recently spoke with UPI's Peter Lavelle on the assassination of Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov and what the future might hold for the troubled Russian republic. Ware is an associate professor of philosophy at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, Ill.
UPI: First a question on the latest news reported by the Russian media. Evidence is pointing to the possibility that Kadyrov's assassination was an inside job. Having firsthand experience with Kadyrov's security apparatus, this would seem to make some sense. What are some of the other possibilities?
RBW: The difficulty with contemporary Chechen politics is that a term such as "inside" has no clear meaning. Chechnya is currently engulfed in civil war, in which there are not two sides, and not three sides, but rather a fluctuating multiplicity of conflicting groups. Moreover, all sides in the conflict are amalgamations of sometimes-contentious subgroups.
For example, there are rivalries and recurrent antagonisms among groups constituting the federal forces. For their part, the militants have always fielded a highly fragmented force, which has augmented their resilience during periods of pressure by federal forces, and which has not greatly undermined their offensive capacity. Militant forces are arrayed along a motivational continuum with implacable ideologues such as Shamil Basayev at one end, and, at the other end people who are fighting on a mercenary basis or because fighting enhances opportunities for criminal enterprise. In between are fighters whose motives are essentially nationalist, and those whose military interests are primarily personal or retributive. This militant motivational continuum is highly fluid, with most fighters experiencing interests that overlap and fluctuate over time, and which lead some fighters into, and back out of, militant circles.
It seems most likely that President Kadyrov's assassination resulted either from antagonisms within his own organization or from the infiltration of his security apparatus by militant forces.
Therefore the most likely explanation is that (Shamil) Basayev and (Rapini)Khalilov appreciate the symbolic effect of a string of spectacular terrorist acts on consecutive Victory Days and that one or more of their supporters were operating within Kadyrov's security organization. Since Kadyrov was aware of this history and of his own vulnerabilities, one might expect that he would be apprehensive about a Victory Day appearance.
As for other possibilities, militants have claimed that the assassins were Russian security forces. In fact, this is remotely conceivable. Kadyrov was mistrusted by some Kremlin circles, particularly those associated with the Defense and Finance Ministries, and some Kremlin officials indicated ambivalence about Kadyrov's presidential candidacy during June and July of 2003. Moreover, Kadyrov had recognized the Kremlin's dependence upon him and was beginning to apply pressures of his own. However, claims of Kremlin responsibility are unlikely since Kadyrov's demise has left the Kremlin in a difficult position. Finally, there is always the possibility that the motive was personal, not political. In Chechnya, it is often difficult to distinguish between the two.
Q.: Is retribution likely?
Yes, but here again, it will be difficult to distinguish the personal from the political, at least from any distance. Treachery will be suspected in Kadyrov's inner circles. There will be flux, and possibly violence, among Kadyrov supporters. But, for the most part, retributive motives will target the militants. Since the militants were already the primary targets of Kadyrov's supporters, this will hardly be a strategic shift. The demise of those such as Basayev and Khallilov may be that much closer to hand, but Kadyrov's avengers may also be thwarted by the periodic absence of these two from Chechnya.
Q: Do you think the Kremlin has little choice but to find another Chechen leader who will be as committed to Putin's "road map" for the republic as Kadyrov was? Or has the Kadyrov assassination taken that option off the table? Asked differently, has recent Kremlin policy toward Chechnya catered too much toward the personality and ability of one man - Akhmad Kadyrov?
A: The drama of Victory Day 2004 is a consequence of the Chechnya's managed election in October 2003, and its climax has been least fortunate for those with greatest responsibility for the electoral result: high-ranking Kremlin officials and Akhmad Kadyrov himself.
The Kremlin painted itself into a dangerous corner when it failed to recognize the presidential election as an opportunity to balance Kadyrov's power. The victory of a challenger such as Malik Saidullayev, would not have removed Kadyrov from effective power, since Kadyrov had thousands of armed supporters and Saidullayev had none, but it would have provided the Kremlin with an opportunity to push Kadyrov toward a power-sharing arrangement. Such an arrangement might have forestalled or prevented Kadyrov's assassination, and would certainly have left both Moscow and Chechnya with clear alternative to their present dilemma.
Sooner or later the Kremlin will have no alternative but to allow the Chechen people a genuine opportunity peacefully to determine their future, for there will not be peace until the Chechen people have been given that chance. One simply cannot force the people of this region to do anything that they do not wish to do. The trick is in finding a way to offer them what they want. This has been an especially difficult trick for Moscow, given the horrific economic, social, political, and moral failures of Chechnya's de facto independence from 1996 to 1999, not to mention similar failures in Chechnya's earlier period of autonomy from 1992 to 1994. Yet most people in Chechnya are now prepared to recognize the difficulties involved in Chechen independence. For this reason, they will no longer support leaders such as Basayev, Khallilov, and (Aslan) Maskhadov. But neither will they support any other leader who lacks demonstrably broad-based, popular support.
Unfortunately, it seems unlikely that Kremlin leaders have finally grasped this point. It is more likely that they will repeat their mistake by attempting to choose a Chechen leader whom they regard as being able to impose order upon Chechnya, and with whom they believe they will be able to work.
Q: Whom might that be?
The Kremlin will have to strike an immediate deal with Kadyrov's son, Ramzan, who currently heads the security forces that his father assembled. At the same time, Ramzan will have recognized that his own position is now precarious and that he needs an accommodation with the Kremlin. Ramzan will probably be given some degree of interim power, which will allow the Kremlin to watch him and to consider its other options. According to the Chechen constitution, Ramzan, at 27, is three years too young for the presidency. This is not an insurmountable obstacle, but Ramzan's real challenge will be the retention of his personal control over his father's forces. So long as he has this, the Kremlin and anyone else with a claim to authority in Chechnya will have to work with him. If he loses his paramilitary power, then he will also lose his political power, and probably his life.
During the Chechen presidential campaign of 2003, the Kremlin appeared to shelve Aslambek Aslakhanov in a nominal executive position for just this sort of contingency. At this point, Aslakhanov has little real power in Chechnya, but it is possible that there will be a power-sharing relationship between Aslakhanov and Ramzan. In some respects, the two could compliment each other, though Ramzan's penchant for brutality will present grave, and possibly insurmountable, challenges to anyone with whom he might work.
Malik Saidullayev would be among the better choices, and it is possible that he could win a free and fair election. Yet he would find it difficult to translate electoral authority into raw power for lack of a personal militia. Otherwise Chechnya is full of possibilities, and it is inevitable that some of these will now be pulled in from the sidelines.
A particularly bad choice would be Sergey Abramov, Chechnya's current prime minister. Abramov was evidently co-opted by Kadyrov after he was sent by the Russian Audit Chamber to check Kadyrov's books. Little will be lost when he is elbowed aside, for Chechnya must be led by a Chechen. For this reason direct presidential rule is also a bad option, though it will be tempting as an interim measure, for example, while Ramzan grows into his father's shoes.
Q: Would direct presidential rule mean a greater role for the Russian military, and would it mean the complete failure of Putin's Chechnya policy?
A: President Putin had been hoping that Chechnya would be Kadyrov's problem and that Kadyrov would be Chechnya's problem. Along the way, his Chechnya policy had grown so heavily dependent upon Kadyrov that the assassination of the latter could topple the former. Hence, direct presidential rule is a distinct possibility, though the Kremlin will try to avoid it, or to foreshorten it in the event that it should occur. If direct presidential rule occurs, it will be temporary and will be less likely to increase troop strength than to delay troop reductions. The irony is that Putin's Chechnya policy would not have been successful in any case, since Kadyrov, had he lived, would have put increasing pressure upon the Kremlin, and would have become a thorn in Putin's side. In the long run, the only Chechen policy that will work is one that extends the Chechen people maximum opportunities for self-determination within the federal structure.
Q: Even with strong evidence that Kadyrov's regime was very cavalier in the area of human rights, many observers reluctantly agreed that Kadyrov's rule saw Chechnya start to stabilize. Has this been lost? Will terrorist fighters feel emboldened to strike Chechen central authorities during this time of transition?
A: Certainly illusions of political stability have been lost; fighters will feel emboldened to strike, and there will be more terrorist attacks. But militant strength is also an illusion. Militant attacks have been increasingly sporadic, and terrorists previously have failed to build momentum by capitalizing upon their successes. What is not illusory is a consensus building among most Chechens, first, that they must find the means to stabilize their personal lives, second, that they will not achieve stabilization through the auspices of militants, terrorists, and Wahhabis, and third, that some form of federal reintegration is therefore inevitable. If Chechnya can find a leader who can build upon this consensus then stabilization will be possible. If not, then Chechnya will descend, once again, along a trajectory of chaos and self-destruction. In any case, chaos is likely to increase in the short term. But the desire for stability on the part of most individuals is now so great that they will follow almost anyone who seems capable of providing it, and they will continue to turn away from those who clearly cannot do so.
When people want peace badly enough, they get it. Unfortunately, they do not always get it on terms that are consistent with democracy and self-determination. The challenge of Chechen history is the combination of democracy and peace.
Q: Kadyrov's legacy will probably be debated for a long time. What do you think his legacy will be?
Akhmad Kadyrov played a critical, and partially constructive, transitional role. Chechnya needed a way out of the catastrophe in which it was mired in 2000. Soon after his appointment that June, Kadyrov pointed it in the only realistic direction. Kadyrov's personal history was emblematic of Chechnya's rejection of Islamist and nationalist radicalism in favor of pragmatic realism. Yet he was also a particularly unfortunate combination of great personal courage with limited political vision. Having willed Chechnya to the threshold of stability and the rule of law, he proved incapable of passing through the door. Along with Kremlin officials, he manipulated the presidential election and sacrificed the rule of law to the expansion of his personal control. If monsters make monstrosities, and monstrosities make monsters, then Kadyrov was a product of his time and place who proved incapable of producing anyplace very different, and thereby revealed himself as an anachronism. Chechnya is changing, and it will be the task of others to carry it across that threshold. Kadyrov was the wolf who opened the door but could not bear to enter. His death will be remembered as an expression of his own inner antagonisms.
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May 13 2004, 10:40 AM
Sweden: Kadyrov’s Assassination Is Not Terrorism; Moscow Appalled.
MosNews
Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds has commented on Chechen President Akhmad Kadyrov’s assassination on May 9 by saying that Stockholm denounces violence but does not consider the organizers of the Grozny Victory Day blast terrorists, RIA Novosti reports. Five other people had perished in the Sunday blast and thirteen were injured, some children.
Moscow has commented on Freivalds’ statement by saying that real partnership and double standards don’t mix. Stockholm does not question the necessity of a firm rebuff to the threat of terrorism when the U.S. or the E.U. are concerned, read the comment from the Russian Foreign Ministry, but it ignores the international terrorism Russia and Chechnya have to deal with.
The Foreign Ministry went on to say that the approach shown by Sweden does not serve to strengthen the trust between Russia and Sweden.
MOSKVA. Det ryska utrikesministeriet riktade på onsdagen ett rasande angrepp mot Sveriges utrikesledning som anklagas för "dubbelmoral" i kampen mot den internationella terrorismen.
I synnerhet riktas åter Moskvas ilska mot utrikesminister Laila Freivalds, för andra gången på några månader. Senast i mars blev Laila Freivalds hårt kritiserad för att hon kallat Rysslands kritik mot diskriminering av den ryska minoriteten i Lettland för obefogad.
I ett uttalande efter bombattentatet i Groznyj i söndags, då bland annat den Moskvastödde tjetjenske presidenten Ahmad Kadyrov dödades, påstås hon ha sagt att Sverige inte betraktar förövarna som terrorister.
I det ryska utrikesministeriets uttalande sägs att den svenska regeringens "dubbelmoral är oförenlig med ett verkligt partnerskap med Ryssland".
"Tyvärr finns det inget nytt i denna inställning. Åter har den svenska utrikesledningen demonstrerat sin benägenhet till dubbelmoral inför världshändelser. När det handlar om USA eller EU tvekar inte Stockholm att inta en hård inställning mot terrorhot, men den svenska sidan föredrar att inte ta någon notis om den internationella terrorismen hotar Ryssland eller Tjetjenien", heter det.
I sitt uttalanden till journalister den 9 maj sade Laila Freivalds att allt bruk av våld är oacceptabelt och hon uppmanade den ryska regeringen att agera med sans och måtta och söka en politisk lösning på konflikten. På en direkt fråga, om hon betecknar de ansvariga för sprängdådet som terrorister, svarade hon enligt TT: "Vi betecknar inte, utan vi bara kritiserar och är emot det våld människor använder sig av från olika håll".
Ryssland anklagar Sveriges utrikesminister Laila Freivalds för dubbelmoral. Utspelet kom efter hennes kommentar om att Sverige inte betecknar de skyldiga till bombdådet mot Tjetjeniens president Achmad Kadyrov som terrorister.
Kritiken tycks syfta på Freivalds TT-intervju i söndags, några timmar efter bombdådet i Tjetjenien där minst sju personer dödades.
TT frågade då om regeringen betecknar de ansvariga som terrorister.
- Vi betecknar inte, utan vi bara kritiserar och är emot det våld människor använder sig av från olika håll, svarade Freivalds och underströk att allt bruk av våld är "oacceptabelt".
Interfax formulerar det som så att Freivalds, då hon besvarade journalisters frågor, sade att den svenska regeringen fördömer allt användande av våld, men inte ser organisatörerna till dådet i den tjetjenska huvudstaden Groznyj som terrorister.
"Tyvärr finns det inget nytt i den hållningen. Ännu en gång har ledningen för det svenska utrikesdepartementet visat sin kända tendens till dubbelmoral i hur den uppfattar händelser i världen", heter det i ryska UD:s reaktion.
Enligt utlåtandet ifrågasätter Göran Perssons regering inte behovet av tuffa antiterror-åtgärder när USA och EU är i fara.
"Men den svenska sidan föredrar att inte se hotet från internationell terrorism som Ryssland och det tjetjenska folket inne i Tjetjenien har konfronterats med . . . En sådan attityd bidrar inte till en atmosfär av förtroende i relationerna mellan Ryssland och Sverige", fortsätter UD i Moskva.
Russian MFA Information and Press Department Commentary Regarding a Media Question About Certain Remarks Made by Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs Laila Freivalds.
2696-21-11-2003
Question: As has become known from media reports, Sweden's new Minister of Foreign Affairs, Laila Freivalds, during her recent visit to Riga came up with a criticism of Russia's approach to the question of the situation of the Russian- speaking population in Latvia and the stand of our country regarding the procedure for extending to the Baltic states the Russia-EU Partnership and Cooperation Agreement. How does the Russian
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The terrorists, instead of ending up in the shitter, ended up in the metro, and the war in Chechnya still goes on. However, at some point the Kremlin decided to say that there was no war in Chechnya and then had Akhmad Kadyrov elected as president last year.
but an EU official said last week the bloc was frustrated that the two sides were making slow progress in relations in other areas. 
