<nettime> Putin's Ryazan-gate

["Ivo Skoric" <ivo@reporters.net>]

------- Forwarded Message Follows -------
In face of Blair's praise for Putin's methods:

#1
The Observer (UK)
March 12, 2000
[for personal use only]
Take care Tony, that man has blood on his hands 
Evidence shows secret police were behind 'terrorist' bomb 
By John Sweeney 

The photograph below of a detonator pre-set to explode a bomb calls into 
question Russian leader Vladimir Putin's line - endorsed by Tony Blair during 
his visit to Russia yesterday - that Chechen terrorists were responsible for 
the explosions that killed more than 200 Russians last year. 

Two bombs went off in Moscow, but a third bomb planted in Ryazan, 100 miles 
south, was defused by bomb squad officer Yuri Tkachenko who said: 'It was a 
live bomb.' It was made of the same explosive, Hexagen, and planted in a 
similar target - a working-class block of flats. 

The third bomb did not go off because the bombers were caught red-handed. 
They were Russian, not Chechen, and when they were arrested by local police 
they flashed identity cards from the FSB - the new styling for the KGB, the 
secret police Putin headed before he became Russia's acting President. Two 
days later the FSB announced that the third bomb had only been 'a training 
exercise'. 

The Kremlin's evidence that Chechen terrorists bombed Moscow is extremely 
thin. After the bomb outrages, secret police in the FSB handed out Photofit 
pictures of unnamed Chechens. No suspects were arrested and no convincing 
explanation was given to the public. 

The third bomb was found in the basement of the flats on the night of 22 
September at around 9pm. Tkachenko said: 'It was a live bomb. I was in a 
combat situation.' He tested the three sugar sacks in the basement with his 
MO-2 portable gas analyser, and got a positive reading for Hexagen, the 
explosive used in the Moscow bombs. 

The timer of the detonator was set for 5.30am, which would have killed many 
of the 250 tenants of the 13-storey block of flats. The sacks were taken out 
of the basement at around 1.30 am and driven away by the FSB. But the secret 
police forgot to take away the detonator, which was left in the hands of the 
bomb squad. They photographed it the next day. 

The bombers were discovered by the people they meant to kill. Vladimir 
Vasiliev, an engineer com ing home for the night, noticed three strangers 
acting suspiciously by the basement of his block of flats at 14/16 Novosyolov 
Street, literally New Settlers Street. 

Vasiliev noticed that the number plate at the front of the car had been 
covered up with a piece of paper, on it '62', the Ryazan regional code. At 
the back of the car the plate had the Moscow regional code. 

Vasiliev, puzzled, decided to call the police. 'As we were waiting for the 
lift, one of the young guys got out of the car and the girl asked: "Have you 
done everything?" ' 

Vasiliev observed the three in the car: 'They were Russian, absolutely, not 
Asiatic. The girl was a blonde.' 

The local police arrested two men that night, according to Boris Kagarlitsky, 
a member of the Russian Institute of Comparative Politics. 'FSB officers were 
caught red-handed while planting the bomb. They were arrested by the police 
and they tried to save themselves by showing FSB identity cards.' 

Then, when the headquarters of the FSB in Moscow intervened, the two men were 
quietly let go. 

Police Inspector Andrei Chernyshev was the first to enter the basement. He 
said: 'It was about 10 in the evening. There were some strangers who were 
seen leaving the basement. We were told about the men who came out from the 
basement and left with the car with a licence number which was covered with 
paper. I went down to the basement. 

'This block of flats had a very deep basement which was completely covered 
with water. We could see sacks of sugar and in them some electronic device, a 
few wires and a clock. We were shocked. 

'We ran out of the basement and I stayed on watch by the entrance and my 
officers went to evacuate the people.' 

The following day, on 24 September, the FSB in Moscow announced that there 
had never been a bomb, only a training exercise. Vasiliev said: 'I heard the 
official version on the radio, when the press secretary of the FSB announced 
it was a training exercise. It felt extremely unpleasant.'

******

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