View source for 9-99/Ryazan incident

{{event
|wikipedia=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ryazan_Incident#Ryazan_incident
|image=Ryazan incident.jpg
|image_caption=The Ryazan bomb detonator
|constitutes=False flag attack
|ON_constitutes=Terror drill
|locations=Ryazan, Russia
|perpetrators=FSB
|historycommons=http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a092299ryazanbomb#a092299ryazanbomb
|start=22 September 1999
|end=23 September 1999
|type=Time bombings
|fatalities=293
|injuries=1000
}}
'''The Ryazan incident''' marked the end of the [[Russian apartment bombings‎]]. On 22 September 1999 a time bomb was found in the basement of an apartment building in the Russian city of Ryazan. It was planted by 3 people who drove a car with a [[Moscow]] licence plate. After some confusion the Moscow FSB declared that it had been a "[[terror drill]]", but the local [[FSB]] denied all knowledge (echoing the French authorities' response to the [[Saumur Daesh Cell]] 20 years later). This incident has been cited by commentators such as [[Alexander Litvinenko]] as strong evidence that the [[9/99 bombings]] were a [[false flag]] attack. In spite of moves to launch an inquiry, the Russian parliament sealed all evidence about the case. The independent [[Kovalev commission]] was unable to conclude due to official stonewalling and the [[sudden deaths]] of some of its members.

==Detection==
At 8:30 P.M. on 22 September, 1999, a resident of an apartment building in the city of [[Ryazan]] noticed two suspicious men who carried sacks into the basement from a car with a Moscow license plate.<ref name="reynolds">[http://articles.latimes.com/2000/jan/15/news/mn-54302 Fears of Bombing Turn to Doubts for Some in Russia], Maura Reynolds, ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', 15 January 2000</ref><ref
name="womack">[http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/did-alexei-stumble-across-russian-agents-planting-a-bomb-to-justify-chechen-war-727330.html Did Alexei stumble across Russian agents planting a bomb to justify Chechen war?], Helen Womack, [[The Independent]], 27 January 2000</ref><ref name="sweeney">[http://cryptome.info/putin-bomb5.htm The Fifth Bomb: Did Putin's Secret Police Bomb Moscow in a Deadly Black Operation?], [[John Sweeney (journalist)|John Sweeney]], [[Cryptome]], 24 November 2000</ref> He alerted the police, but by the time they arrived the car and the men were gone. The policemen found three 50&nbsp;kg sacks of white powder in the basement. A [[detonator]] and a [[timer|timing device]] were attached and armed. The timer was set to 5:30 AM.<ref name="Dissident">{{harvnb|Goldfarb|Litvinenko|2007}}</ref> 

==Phonecall evidence==
Later, the same evening, a telephone service employee in Ryazan tapped into long distance phone conversations and managed to detect a talk in which an out-of-town person suggested to others that they "split up" and "make your own way out". That person's number was traced to a telephone exchange unit serving FSB offices.<ref>[http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=19795 Russia's terrorist bombings], [[WorldNetDaily]], 27 January 2000</ref> When arrested, the detainees produced FSB identification cards. They were soon released on orders from Moscow.<ref name="shadow">[http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-satter043002.asp The Shadow of Ryazan: Is Putin’s government legitimate?], [[National Review Online]], 30 April 2002</ref><ref name="bbc_ryazan">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/456848.stm |title=Ryazan 'bomb' was security service exercise |publisher=BBC News |date=24 September 1999 |accessdate=29 January 2012}}</ref>

==Defusing==
Yuri Tkachenko, the head of the local bomb squad, disconnected the detonator and the timer and tested the three sacks of white substance with a "MO-2" gas analyser. The device detected traces of [[RDX]], the military [[explosive]] used in all previous bombings.<ref>{{harvnb|Satter|2003|p=65}}</ref> At 1:30 A.M. on 23 September, the explosive engineers took a bit of substance from the suspicious-looking sacks to a firing ground located some kilometres away from Ryazan for testing.<ref name="ReferenceA">[http://kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?DocsID=226161 Таймер остановили за семь часов до взрыва: Теракт предотвратил водитель автобуса], Sergey Topol, Nadezhda Kurbacheva, ''Kommersant'', 24 September 1999</ref> During the substance tests at that area they tried to explode it by means of a detonator, but their efforts failed, the substance was not detonated, and the explosion did not occur.<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref name="ReferenceB">terror1999.narod.ru/ryazan/press/ort230999.html</ref><ref name="ReferenceC">old.russ.ru/politics/news/1999/09/23.htm</ref><ref name="chas-daily.com">http://www.chas-daily.com/win/1999/09/24/v_42.html</ref> 

==Failed seige==
Police and rescue vehicles converged from different parts of the city, and 30,000 residents were evacuated from the area. 1,200 local police officers armed with automatic weapons set up [[roadblock]]s on highways around the city and started patrolling railroad stations and airports to catch whoever had planted the device.

==Reporting==
At 5am ''Radio Rossiya'' reported about the attempted bombing noting that the bomb was set up to go off at 5:30am. In the morning, "Ryazan resembled a city under siege". [[Composite sketch]]es of three suspected terrorists, two men and a woman, were posted everywhere in the city and shown on TV. At 8:00am. Russian television reported the attempt to blow out the building in Ryzan and identified the [[explosive]] used in the bomb as [[RDX]].<ref name="ort">{{ru icon}} [http://terror1999.narod.ru/ryazan/press/ort230999.html [[Channel One (Russia)|ORT]] newscast on 23.09.99, at 09:00]</ref> [[Vladimir Rushailo]] announced later that police prevented a [[terrorist]] act. A news block at 4 p.m. reported that the explosives failed to detonate during their testing outside the city<ref name="ReferenceA">kommersant.ru/doc.aspx?DocsID=226161</ref><ref name="ReferenceB"/><ref name="ReferenceC"/><ref name="chas-daily.com"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lenta.ru/russia/1999/09/23/ryazan/ |title=Б Пняяхх: Пъгюмяйхи Яюуюп Цейянцемю Ме Яндепфхр |publisher=Lenta.ru |accessdate=29 January 2012}}</ref><ref name="politcom.ru/2002/aaa_skandal20.php">politcom.ru/2002/aaa_skandal20.php</ref>

==Responses==
FSB defector [[Alexander Litvinenko]] and [[Boris Berezovsky]] blame the apartment bombings on the [[FSB]]. Berezovsky made a film to support this counter narrative. Litvinenko was [[poisoned]] probably by [[polonium]], while Berezovsky was found hanged in UK in March 2013.

===FSB===
In [[Moscow]] on September 23rd the FSB announced that a "terrorist action" in Ryazan had been narrowly averted, and the next day Acting President ordered the [[Russian Army]] to [[invade Chechenya]] and eliminate the terrorists' bases.<ref name=eje>http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/question_putin.htm</ref>

===Official denial===
On 24 September, [[FSB director]] [[Nikolai Patrushev]] announced that the exercise was carried out as a [[terror drill]] to test responses after the earlier blasts<ref name="nyt_ber">{{cite news|url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E00EFD8163DF932A35751C0A9649C8B63 |title=Russian Says Kremlin Faked 'Terror Attacks' |work=The New York Times |date=1 February 2002 |accessdate=29 January 2012 |first=Patrick E. |last=Tyler}}</ref>, that the white powder was not an explosive, but merely sugar.<ref name=eje/> 

====Official counter-denial====
The Ryazan FSB "reacted with fury" and issued a statement saying:<ref name="Lucas">[[Edward Lucas (journalist)|Edward Lucas]], ''The New Cold War: Putin's Russia and the Threat to the West '', Palgrave Macmillan (19 February 2008), ISBN 0-230-60612-1, page 25</ref>
{{QB|This announcement came as a surprise to us and appeared at the moment when the ...FSB had identified the places of residence in Ryazan of those involved in planting the explosive device and was prepared to detain them.}}

===Sealing of evidence===
The evidence from the case, including the bags and detonator, was sealed and further investigation curtailed{{when}} after pro-Putin MPs blocked the efforts of Duma MPs to secure an inquiry.<ref>https://www.theguardian.com/world/2000/mar/24/russia.comment</ref>
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==References==
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