Difference between revisions of "Russian apartment bombings"

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{{event
 
{{event
 
|image=Apartment bombing.jpg
 
|image=Apartment bombing.jpg
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|caption=
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|image_caption=
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|location=Russia
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|image_width=440px
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|locations=Russia
 
|start= 4 September 1999
 
|start= 4 September 1999
 
|end=16 September 1999
 
|end=16 September 1999
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|type=Time bombings
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|type=time bombings
 
|fatalities=293
 
|fatalities=293
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|injuries=More than 1,000
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|injuries=1000
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|wikipedia=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_apartment_bombings
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|ON_constitutes=Islamic Terrorism
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|description=A 'Russian 9/11' which boosted supported for the war that was launched in Chchnya (on whom the attacks were blamed)
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|wikipedia=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_apartment_bombings
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|constitutes=False flag attack
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|description=A 'Russian 9/11' which boosted support for the second war that was launched in Chechnya
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|ON_cause=Chechnya separatists
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|constitutes=third rail topic, false flag attack, structural deep event, murder, casus belli?
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|cause=FSB
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|ON_perpetrators=Ibn al-Khattab, Chechnya, Adam Dekkushev, Yusuf Krymshakhalov
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|perpetrators=FSB
 
}}
 
}}
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The Russian apartment bombings were a series of explosions that hit four apartment blocks in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk in September 1999, killing 293 people and injuring 651. The explosions occurred in Buynaksk on 4 September, Moscow on 9 and 13 September, and Volgodonsk on 16 September. Several other bombs were defused in Moscow at the time.
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The '''Russian apartment bombings''' (also called the '''9/99 bombings'''<ref>http://www.oilempire.us/999.html</ref>) were a series of [[bombing]]s that demolished 4 apartment blocks in the [[Russia]]n cities of Buynaksk, [[Moscow]] and Volgodonsk in September [[1999]], killing 293 and injuring over 650. They occurred in Buynaksk on 4 September, Moscow on 9 and 13 September, and Volgodonsk on 16 September, during which time several other bombs were defused in Moscow.
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The bombings ceased after the [[Ryazan incident]] in which suspected [[FSB]] agents were seen with a sack of white powder and timing device in the basement of an apartment block. The Russian Dumas forbade an investigation into the incident, and sealed relevant records for 75 years. The Russian government blamed them on [[Chechnya]]n separatists, providing a [[casus belli]] for the invasion of Chechnya. Others such as [[Alexander Litvinenko]] have claimed that they were a [[false flag]] attack by a deep state FSB cell. [[Sergei Kovalev]] headed a [[Kovalev Commission|commission]] to investigate this but was abandoned after [[Russian apartment bombings/Premature death|sudden deaths among its staff]]. Some [[journalists]] have also suffered a similar fate.<ref>[[Russian apartment bombings/Premature death]]</ref>
  
 
==Official Narrative==
 
==Official Narrative==
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The Russian government blamed the bombings on Chechnyan separatists, and initially this was widely believed; public support for a full scale war on Chechnya grew. Echoing the effect of the later [[9-11]] event, domestic support for former FSB Director [[Vladimir Putin]] grew and he was made acting president on December 31, 1999.
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{{YouTubeVideo
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|caption=How A 1999 Russian Bombing Led To Putin's Rise To Power
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}}
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The [[Russian]] government blamed the bombings on [[Chechnya]]n separatists, and initially this was widely believed; public support for a full scale war on Chechnya grew. The [[Second Chechen War]] was ongoing during the event, having started on 26 August 1999. In a foreshadowing of [[9/11]], domestic support for former [[FSB Director]] [[Vladimir Putin]] also grew, assisting his appointment as acting [[Russian President]] on December 31, 1999. Chechen separatist [[Ibn al-Khattab]] masterminded the murders.
  
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==Ryazan Incident==
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===Problems===
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A similar bomb was found and defused in the Russian city of Ryazan on 22 September 1999. Two days later [[Federal Security Service (Russia)|Federal Security Service]] (FSS) Director [[Nikolai Patrushev]] announced that the Ryazan incident had been a training exercise.<ref name=lentaprosecutors>[http://vip.lenta.ru/doc/2002/05/14/prosecutors/ Ответ Генпрокуратуры на депутатский запрос о взрывах в Москве] {{ru icon}}, [http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ru&tl=en&u=http://vip.lenta.ru/doc/2002/05/14/prosecutors/ machine translation].</ref> This led some, such as [[Alexander Litvinenko]] and [[Boris Berezovsky]] and the secessionist Chechen authorities to blame the apartment bombings on the [[FSB]].
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The supposed culprit, [[Ibn al-Khattab]], on September 14, 1999, Khattab told the Russian Interfax news agency in Grozny that "We would not like to be akin to those who kill sleeping civilians with bombs and shells."<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20050410090541/http://www.ict.org.il/articles/articledet.cfm?articleid=94</ref> The [[FSB]] [[assassinated]] him by exposing him to a [[poison]] letter.
  
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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>
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Former FSB agent, [[Alexander Litvinenko]] claimed that the Russian apartment bombings were a [[false flag]] attack by the FSB<ref>http://www.oilempire.us/999.html</ref> as did [[Boris Berezovsky]] made a film promoting this view. Both suffered sudden and suspicious deaths. [[Edward Jay Epstein]] also supports this theory.<ref>http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/question_putin.htm</ref>
  
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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
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==Ryazan Incident==
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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
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{{FA|9-99/Ryazan incident}}
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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> 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> 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 hunt the terrorists down.
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[[image:Ryazan incident.jpg|left|The bomb detonator discovered at Ryazan]]
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On 22 September 1999, a bomb was found and defused in the Russian city of Ryazan. Two days later [[Federal Security Service (Russia)|Federal Security Service]] (FSS) Director [[Nikolai Patrushev]] announced that the Ryazan incident had been a "[[terrorism drill|training exercise]]"<ref name=lentaprosecutors>[http://vip.lenta.ru/doc/2002/05/14/prosecutors/ Ответ Генпрокуратуры на депутатский запрос о взрывах в Москве] {{ru icon}}, [http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ru&tl=en&u=http://vip.lenta.ru/doc/2002/05/14/prosecutors/ machine translation].</ref> although local FSB denied all knowledge. [[Alexander Litvinenko]], [[Boris Berezovsky]] and [[Edward Jay Epstein]] have cited this as evidence that the [[FSB]] were responsible for the bombings. The Ryazan Incident marked the end of the bombings.
  
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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> At 5 A.M. Radio Rossiya reported about the attempted bombing noting that the bomb was set up to go off at 5:30 A.M. 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 8:00 A.M. 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>
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===Russian Duma forbids investigation into Ryazan===
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The Russian [[Duma]] rejected two motions for parliamentary investigation of the Ryazan incident.<ref name="terror99-49">[http://www.eng.terror99.ru/publications/049.htm Duma Rejects Move to Probe Ryazan Apartment Bomb], Terror-99, 21 March 2000</ref><ref name="terror99-42">[http://www.eng.terror99.ru/publications/042.htm Duma Vote Kills Query On Ryazan], ''[[The Moscow Times]]'', 4 April 2000</ref> The Duma, on a pro-Kremlin party-line vote, voted to seal all materials related to the Ryazan incident for the next 75 years and forbade an investigation into what happened.
  
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On '''24 September''', FSB director [[Nikolai Patrushev]] announced that the exercise was carried out 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> 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>
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==Parliamentary miss statement==
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{{cquote|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.}}
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On 13 September, just hours after the second explosion in [[Moscow]], Russian Duma speaker [[Gennadiy Seleznyov]] of the Communist Party announced:"''I have just received a report. According to information from Rostov-on-Don, an apartment building in the city of [[Volgodonsk]] was blown up last night''".<ref name=autogenerated5>''Death of a Dissident'', page 265</ref><ref name="Jamestown">[http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=13&issue_id=576&article_id=4218 ]{{dead link|date=January 2012}}</ref><ref name="CDI">http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/2006-25-32.cfm </ref><ref>{{ru icon}} http://www.newsru.com/russia/21mar2002/seleznyov.html ("Gennadiy Seleznyov was warned of the Volgodonsk explosion three days in advance") </ref> However, the bombing in Volgodonsk took place three days later, on 16 September. When the Volgodonsk bombing happened, [[Vladimir Zhirinovsky]] demanded an explanation in the Duma, but Seleznev turned his microphone off.<ref name=autogenerated5 /> Vladimir Zhirinovsky said in the Russian Duma: "Remember, Gennadiy Nikolaevich, how you told us that a house has been blown up in Volgodonsk, three days prior to the blast? How should we interpret this? The State Duma knows that the house was destroyed on Monday, and it has indeed been blown up on Thursday [same week]... How come... the state authorities of Rostov region were not warned in advance [about the future bombing], although it was reported to us? Everyone is sleeping, the house was destroyed three days later, and now we must take urgent measures..." [Seleznev turned his microphone off].<ref>http://fictionbook.ru/author/felshtinskiyi_yuriyi_georgievich/fsb_vzriyvaet_rossiyu/felshtinskiyi_fsb_vzriyvaet_rossiyu.html</ref>
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===Parliamentary miss statement===
 
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On 13 September, just hours after the second explosion in Moscow, Russian Duma speaker [[Gennadiy Seleznyov]] of the Communist Party made an announcement: "''I have just received a report. According to information from Rostov-on-Don, an apartment building in the city of [[Volgodonsk]] was blown up last night''".<ref name=autogenerated5>''Death of a Dissident'', page 265</ref><ref name="Jamestown">[http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=13&issue_id=576&article_id=4218 ]{{dead link|date=January 2012}}</ref><ref name="CDI">{{cite web|url=http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/2006-25-32.cfm |title=CDI |publisher=CDI |accessdate=29 January 2012}}</ref><ref>{{ru icon}} {{cite web |url=http://www.newsru.com/russia/21mar2002/seleznyov.html |title=Геннадия Селезнева предупредили о взрыве в Волгодонске за три дня до теракта ("Gennadiy Seleznyov was warned of the Volgodonsk explosion three days in advance") |publisher= Newsru.com|date= 21 March 2002}}</ref> However, the bombing in Volgodonsk took place three days later, on 16 September. When the Volgodonsk bombing happened, [[Vladimir Zhirinovsky]] demanded an explanation in the Duma, but Seleznev turned his microphone off.<ref name=autogenerated5 /> Vladimir Zhirinovsky said in the Russian Duma: "Remember, Gennadiy Nikolaevich, how you told us that a house has been blown up in Volgodonsk, three days prior to the blast? How should we interpret this? The State Duma knows that the house was destroyed on Monday, and it has indeed been blown up on Thursday [same week]... How come... the state authorities of Rostov region were not warned in advance [about the future bombing], although it was reported to us? Everyone is sleeping, the house was destroyed three days later, and now we must take urgent measures..." [Seleznev turned his microphone off].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://fictionbook.ru/author/felshtinskiyi_yuriyi_georgievich/fsb_vzriyvaet_rossiyu/felshtinskiyi_fsb_vzriyvaet_rossiyu.html |title=ФСБ взрывает Россию в библиотеке FictionBook |publisher=Fictionbook.ru |accessdate=29 January 2012}}</ref>
 
  
 
Two years later, in March 2002, Seleznyov claimed in an interview that he had been referring to an unrelated [[hand grenade]]-based explosion, which did not kill anyone and did not destroy any buildings, and which indeed happened in Volgodonsk.<ref name="Seleznev">''"Darkness at Dawn'', page 269.</ref><ref name="terror99-2">{{ru icon}} [http://terror99.ru/documents/doc02.htm Reply of the Public Prosecutor Office of the Russian Federation to a deputy inquiry]</ref> It remains unclear why Seleznyov reported such an insignificant incident to the Russian Parliament and why he did not explain the misunderstanding to Zhirinovsky and other Duma members.<ref name="Seleznev"/>
 
Two years later, in March 2002, Seleznyov claimed in an interview that he had been referring to an unrelated [[hand grenade]]-based explosion, which did not kill anyone and did not destroy any buildings, and which indeed happened in Volgodonsk.<ref name="Seleznev">''"Darkness at Dawn'', page 269.</ref><ref name="terror99-2">{{ru icon}} [http://terror99.ru/documents/doc02.htm Reply of the Public Prosecutor Office of the Russian Federation to a deputy inquiry]</ref> It remains unclear why Seleznyov reported such an insignificant incident to the Russian Parliament and why he did not explain the misunderstanding to Zhirinovsky and other Duma members.<ref name="Seleznev"/>
  
 
FSB defector [[Alexander Litvinenko]] described this as "the usual ''[[KGB|Kontora]]'' mess up": ''"Moscow-2 was on the 13th and Volgodonsk on 16th, but they got it to the speaker the other way around,"'' he said. Investigator [[Mikhail Trepashkin]] confirmed that the man who gave Seleznev the note was indeed an FSB officer.<ref>Death of a Dissident'', page 266</ref>
 
FSB defector [[Alexander Litvinenko]] described this as "the usual ''[[KGB|Kontora]]'' mess up": ''"Moscow-2 was on the 13th and Volgodonsk on 16th, but they got it to the speaker the other way around,"'' he said. Investigator [[Mikhail Trepashkin]] confirmed that the man who gave Seleznev the note was indeed an FSB officer.<ref>Death of a Dissident'', page 266</ref>
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==Attempts at investigation==
 
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The Russian [[State Duma|Duma]] rejected two motions for parliamentary investigation of the Ryazan incident.<ref name="terror99-49"/><ref name="terror99-42"/>
 
  
 
==Kovalev Commission==
 
==Kovalev Commission==
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An independent public commission to investigate the bombings, which was chaired by Duma deputy [[Sergei Kovalev]], was rendered ineffective because of government refusal to respond to its inquiries.<ref name="terror99-107">[http://www.eng.terror99.ru/publications/107.htm Putin critic loses post, platform for inquiry], ''[[The Baltimore Sun]]'', 11 December 2003</ref><ref name="terror99-87">[http://www.eng.terror99.ru/publications/087.htm Russian court rejects action over controversial "anti-terrorist exercise"], [[Interfax]], 3 April 2003</ref>
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{{FA|Kovalev Commission}}
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An independent public commission to investigate the bombings, which was chaired by Duma deputy [[Sergei Kovalev]], was ineffective because the Russian government refused to respond to its inquiries.<ref name="terror99-107">[http://www.eng.terror99.ru/publications/107.htm Putin critic loses post, platform for inquiry], ''[[The Baltimore Sun]]'', 11 December 2003</ref><ref name="terror99-87">[http://www.eng.terror99.ru/publications/087.htm Russian court rejects action over controversial "anti-terrorist exercise"], [[Interfax]], 3 April 2003</ref>
  
 
Two key members of the Kovalev Commission, [[Sergei Yushenkov]] and [[Yuri Shchekochikhin]], both Duma members, have since died in apparent assassinations in April 2003 and July 2003, respectively.<ref name="nupi">[http://www.nupi.no/cgi-win/Russland/krono.exe?6200 Chronology of events.  State Duma Deputy Yushenkov shot dead], [[Centre for Russian Studies]], 17 April 2003</ref><ref name="terror99-118">[http://www.eng.terror99.ru/publications/118.htm Worries Linger as Schekochikhin's Laid to Rest], ''[[The Moscow Times]]'', 7 July 2003</ref> Another member of the commission, [[Otto Lacis]], was assaulted in November 2003<ref name="NewsRU">{{ru icon}} [http://www.newsru.com/russia/11nov2003/otto.html В Москве жестоко избит Отто Лацис], [[NewsRU]], 11 November 2003</ref> and two years later, on 3 November 2005, he died in a hospital after a car accident.<ref>{{ru icon}} [http://www.newsru.com/russia/03nov2005/otto.html Скончался известный российский журналист Отто Лацис], 3 November 2005</ref>
 
Two key members of the Kovalev Commission, [[Sergei Yushenkov]] and [[Yuri Shchekochikhin]], both Duma members, have since died in apparent assassinations in April 2003 and July 2003, respectively.<ref name="nupi">[http://www.nupi.no/cgi-win/Russland/krono.exe?6200 Chronology of events.  State Duma Deputy Yushenkov shot dead], [[Centre for Russian Studies]], 17 April 2003</ref><ref name="terror99-118">[http://www.eng.terror99.ru/publications/118.htm Worries Linger as Schekochikhin's Laid to Rest], ''[[The Moscow Times]]'', 7 July 2003</ref> Another member of the commission, [[Otto Lacis]], was assaulted in November 2003<ref name="NewsRU">{{ru icon}} [http://www.newsru.com/russia/11nov2003/otto.html В Москве жестоко избит Отто Лацис], [[NewsRU]], 11 November 2003</ref> and two years later, on 3 November 2005, he died in a hospital after a car accident.<ref>{{ru icon}} [http://www.newsru.com/russia/03nov2005/otto.html Скончался известный российский журналист Отто Лацис], 3 November 2005</ref>
  
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The commission asked lawyer [[Mikhail Trepashkin]] to investigate the case. Mr. Trepashkin reports that the FSB promised not to arrest him, his supervisors and staff if he left the Kovalev commission and started working together with the FSB "against Alexander Litvinenko".<ref name="Interview with Mikhail Trepashkin"/> Trepashkin declined and kept working, uncovering evidence that the basement of one of the bombed buildings was rented by FSB officer Vladimir Romanovich and that the latter was witnessed by several people.  Mr. Trepashkin was unable to bring the alleged evidence to the court because shortly before he was to make his findings public he was arrested in October 2003 for illegal arms possession.<ref name="cdi.org"/> He was sentenced by a Moscow military court to four years imprisonment for disclosing state secrets.<ref name="coranet.radicalparty.org"/> [[Amnesty International]] issued a statement that "there are serious grounds to believe that Mikhail Trepashkin was arrested and convicted under falsified criminal charges which may be politically motivated, in order to prevent him continuing his investigative and legal work related to the 1999 apartment bombings in Moscow and other cities".<ref name="web.amnesty.org"/> Romanovich subsequently died in a hit and run accident in Cyprus. {{Citation needed|date=March 2010}}
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The commission asked lawyer [[Mikhail Trepashkin]] to investigate the case. Mr. Trepashkin reports that the FSB promised not to arrest him, his supervisors and staff if he left the Kovalev commission and started working together with the FSB "against Alexander Litvinenko".<ref name="Interview with Mikhail Trepashkin"/> Trepashkin declined and kept working, uncovering evidence that the basement of one of the bombed buildings was rented by FSB officer [[Vladimir Romanovich]] and that the latter was witnessed by several people.  Mr. Trepashkin was unable to bring the alleged evidence to the court because shortly before he was to make his findings public he was arrested in October 2003 for illegal arms possession.<ref name="cdi.org"/> He was sentenced by a Moscow military court to four years imprisonment for disclosing state secrets.<ref name="coranet.radicalparty.org"/> [[Amnesty International]] issued a statement that "there are serious grounds to believe that Mikhail Trepashkin was arrested and convicted under falsified criminal charges which may be politically motivated, in order to prevent him continuing his investigative and legal work related to the 1999 apartment bombings in Moscow and other cities".<ref name="web.amnesty.org"/> Romanovich subsequently died in a hit and run accident in Cyprus.{{Citation needed|date=March 2010}}
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==Deaths of dissenting voices==
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{{YouTubeVideo
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|caption=How Vladimir Putin used a series of bombings targeting civilians across Russia in 1999 to set the stage for his rise to power - ''TDC'' - April 2015.
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}}
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{{FA|Russian apartment bombings/Premature death}}
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Some of those who have challenged the Russian government's [[official narrative]] of the bombings have been [[assassinated]].
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===Journalists===
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[[Artyom Borovik]] told [[Grigory Yavlinsky]] that Borovik investigated the Moscow apartment bombings and prepared a series of publications about them.<ref>{{ru icon}} [http://yavlinsky.ru/news/index.phtml?id=29 Grigory Yavlinsky's interview], [[TV6 Russia]], 11 March 2000 ([http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ru&tl=en&u=http://yavlinsky.ru/news/index.phtml?id=29 computer translation])</ref> Mr. Borovik received numerous death threats, and he died in an aeroplane crash on 9th March 2000.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/europe/672849.stm Russian crash: search for terrorist link], BBC News, 10 March 2000</ref> [[Journalist]] [[Anna Politkovskaya]] who blamed the [[FSB]] for the bombings, was gunned down in front of her apartment in 2006.<ref>{{ru icon}} [http://www.novayagazeta.ru/data/2004/02/13.html Presidential election is our last chance to learn the truth], [[Anna Politkovskaya]], [[Novaya Gazeta]], № 2, 15 January 2004 ([http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ru&tl=en&u=http://www.novayagazeta.ru/data/2004/02/13.html computer translation])</ref>
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===FSB agents===
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[[Alexander Litvinenko]] and co-authors named [[Maxim Lazovsky]] as a suspect in the Russian apartment bombings (along with other crimes including [[murder]]s and [[kidnapping]]s). He was [[poisoned]] by [[polonium]] and died on 23 November, 2006. A month earlier Russian diplomat [[Igor Ponomarev]] died suddenly, (reportedly of a [[heart attack]], aged 41) and his death has been linked to the murder of Litvinenko.<ref>https://larussophobe.wordpress.com/2007/01/14/what-about-ponomarev/</ref>
  
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==More killings of dissenting voices==
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In February 1996, [[Maxim Lazovsky]] was detained by the Moscow Criminal Investigation department (MUR) and accused of various criminal activities together with the Moscow FSB employee [[Alexey Jumashkin]] and six other FSB employees. In 1997 Lazovsky was convicted to two years for illegal possession of drugs and weapons. He was released in 1998.  On April 28, 2000, Lazovsky was shot by assassins on the entryway of a church in the village of Uspenskoye near Moscow, where he lived. [[Yuri Felshtinsky]] and [[Vladimir Pribylovsky]] later accused Lazovsky of helping stage the 1999 Moscow bombings.<ref name="Assassins">[[Yuri Felshtinsky]] and [[Vladimir Pribylovsky]] ''The Age of Assassins. The Rise and Rise of Vladimir Putin'', Gibson Square Books, London, 2008, ISBN 1-906142-07-6</ref>
  
−
[[Artyom Borovik]] told [[Grigory Yavlinsky]] that Borovik investigated the Moscow apartment bombings and prepared a series of publications about them.<ref>{{ru icon}} [http://yavlinsky.ru/news/index.phtml?id=29 Grigory Yavlinsky's interview], [[TV6 Russia]], 11 March 2000 ([http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ru&tl=en&u=http://yavlinsky.ru/news/index.phtml?id=29 computer translation])</ref> Mr. Borovik received numerous death threats, and he died in an aeroplane crash in March 2000.<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/europe/672849.stm Russian crash: search for terrorist link], BBC News, 10 March 2000</ref>
+
On December 9, 2002, ''[[Novaya Gazeta]]'' published an open letter from Yusuf Krymshamkhalov and Timur Batchaev, [[Karachai]] suspects in the 1999 apartment blocks bombings in [[Moscow]] and [[Volgodonsk]], to the commission for investigation of this event. In the letter, they claimed that [[German Ugryumov]] had supervised the bombing campaign on behalf of the FSB,<ref>{{Ru icon}}[http://2002.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2002/91n/n91n-s00.shtml ГЕКСОГЕНОВЫЙ СЛЕД]</ref> and included an interview with one of main proponents of this theory, historian [[Yury Felshtinsky]]. Felshtinsky had passed the letter to the newspaper, and alleged that Ugryumov had committed suicide, possibly under pressure from the FSB.<ref>{{Ru icon}}[http://2002.novayagazeta.ru/nomer/2002/91n/n91n-s01.shtml Историк Юрий ФЕЛЬШТИНСКИЙ — о частном расследовании терактов в Москве, Волгодонске и Буйнакске]</ref><ref>[http://eng.terror99.ru/documents/?111.txt Interview with Yuri Felshtinsky]</ref>
  
−
Journalist [[Anna Politkovskaya]] who blamed the [[FSB]] for the bombings, was gunned down in front od her apartment in 2006, while former FSB officer [[Alexander Litvinenko]], who came to a similar conclusion, was poisoned with polonium, also in 2006.<ref>{{ru icon}} [http://www.novayagazeta.ru/data/2004/02/13.html Presidential election is our last chance to learn the truth], [[Anna Politkovskaya]], [[Novaya Gazeta]], № 2, 15 January 2004 ([http://translate.google.com/translate?sl=ru&tl=en&u=http://www.novayagazeta.ru/data/2004/02/13.html computer translation])</ref>
+
==Double Standards on Conspiracy Theories==
 +
As an interesting observation on the label [[conspiracy theory]], people who are normally ruthless in denying any conspiracies behind similar things happening in the West, are freely accusing the Russian government of being responsible. For example, the whole Wikipedia article on the incident is laid out to conclude with a Russian government false flag operation.
 +
 
 +
Senator [[John McCain]], who stated of [[9/11]] that "conspiracy mongering poisons the discourse and dishonors the victims"<ref>https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a798/john-mccain-september-11/</ref> had no problem in stating "Russia's FSB had a hand in carrying out these attacks. Mr. Putin ascended to the presidency in 2000 by pointing a finger at the Chechens for committing these crimes"<ref>https://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=f4f5cf0c-9104-4b3f-8ebe-84f3dc24c51b</ref>.
 +
 
 +
[[Edward Lucas]] warns of "Russian-backed websites promote conspiracy theories [that] 9/11 was an “inside job"<ref>https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-danger-of-russian-disinformation/2016/05/06/b31d9718-12d5-11e6-8967-7ac733c56f12_story.html</ref> but sees no danger in writing "The weight of evidence so far supports the grimmest interpretation: that the attacks were a ruthlessly planned stunt to create a climate of panic and fear in which Putin would quickly become the country's indisputable leader, as indeed he did."<ref>Edward Lucas, The New Cold War: Putin's Russia and the Threat to the West, Palgrave Macmillan (19 February 2008)</ref>
 +
 
 +
==Weblinks==
 +
*[https://www.cbc.ca/fifth/blog/september-1999-russian-apartment-bombings-timeline Timeline of the events] by [[CBC]]
  
−
==Sealing of all materials by Russian Duma==
 
−
The Russian Duma rejected two motions for parliamentary investigation of the Ryazan incident.<ref name="terror99-49">[http://www.eng.terror99.ru/publications/049.htm Duma Rejects Move to Probe Ryazan Apartment Bomb], Terror-99, 21 March 2000</ref><ref name="terror99-42">[http://www.eng.terror99.ru/publications/042.htm Duma Vote Kills Query On Ryazan], ''[[The Moscow Times]]'', 4 April 2000</ref> The Duma, on a pro-Kremlin party-line vote, voted to seal all materials related to the Ryazan incident for the next 75 years and forbade an investigation into what happened.
 
 
{{SMWDocs}}
 
{{SMWDocs}}
 +
 
==References==
 
==References==
 
{{reflist|2}}
 
{{reflist|2}}

Latest revision as of 21:54, 2 December 2022

Event.png "Islamic Terrorism"
Russian apartment bombings (third rail topic,  false flag attack,  structural deep event,  murder,  casus belli?) Rdf-entity.pngRdf-icon.png
4
Apartment bombing.jpg
Date4 September 1999 - 16 September 1999
LocationRussia
PerpetratorsFSB
Blamed onIbn al-Khattab, Chechnya, Adam Dekkushev, Yusuf Krymshakhalov
TypeBombing.jpg time bombings
Deaths293
Injured (non-fatal)1000
Exposed byAlexander Litvinenko
Interest ofArtyom Borovik, Kovalev commission, Sergei Kovalev, David Satter
Subpage•Russian apartment bombings/Premature death
DescriptionA 'Russian 9/11' which boosted support for the second war that was launched in Chechnya

The Russian apartment bombings (also called the 9/99 bombings[1]) were a series of bombings that demolished 4 apartment blocks in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow and Volgodonsk in September 1999, killing 293 and injuring over 650. They occurred in Buynaksk on 4 September, Moscow on 9 and 13 September, and Volgodonsk on 16 September, during which time several other bombs were defused in Moscow.

The bombings ceased after the Ryazan incident in which suspected FSB agents were seen with a sack of white powder and timing device in the basement of an apartment block. The Russian Dumas forbade an investigation into the incident, and sealed relevant records for 75 years. The Russian government blamed them on Chechnyan separatists, providing a casus belli for the invasion of Chechnya. Others such as Alexander Litvinenko have claimed that they were a false flag attack by a deep state FSB cell. Sergei Kovalev headed a commission to investigate this but was abandoned after sudden deaths among its staff. Some journalists have also suffered a similar fate.[2]

Official Narrative

How A 1999 Russian Bombing Led To Putin's Rise To Power

The Russian government blamed the bombings on Chechnyan separatists, and initially this was widely believed; public support for a full scale war on Chechnya grew. The Second Chechen War was ongoing during the event, having started on 26 August 1999. In a foreshadowing of 9/11, domestic support for former FSB Director Vladimir Putin also grew, assisting his appointment as acting Russian President on December 31, 1999. Chechen separatist Ibn al-Khattab masterminded the murders.

Problems

The supposed culprit, Ibn al-Khattab, on September 14, 1999, Khattab told the Russian Interfax news agency in Grozny that "We would not like to be akin to those who kill sleeping civilians with bombs and shells."[3] The FSB assassinated him by exposing him to a poison letter.

Former FSB agent, Alexander Litvinenko claimed that the Russian apartment bombings were a false flag attack by the FSB[4] as did Boris Berezovsky made a film promoting this view. Both suffered sudden and suspicious deaths. Edward Jay Epstein also supports this theory.[5]

Ryazan Incident

Full article: 9-99/Ryazan incident
The bomb detonator discovered at Ryazan

On 22 September 1999, a bomb was found and defused in the Russian city of Ryazan. Two days later Federal Security Service (FSS) Director Nikolai Patrushev announced that the Ryazan incident had been a "training exercise"[6] although local FSB denied all knowledge. Alexander Litvinenko, Boris Berezovsky and Edward Jay Epstein have cited this as evidence that the FSB were responsible for the bombings. The Ryazan Incident marked the end of the bombings.

Russian Duma forbids investigation into Ryazan

The Russian Duma rejected two motions for parliamentary investigation of the Ryazan incident.[7][8] The Duma, on a pro-Kremlin party-line vote, voted to seal all materials related to the Ryazan incident for the next 75 years and forbade an investigation into what happened.

Parliamentary miss statement

On 13 September, just hours after the second explosion in Moscow, Russian Duma speaker Gennadiy Seleznyov of the Communist Party announced:"I have just received a report. According to information from Rostov-on-Don, an apartment building in the city of Volgodonsk was blown up last night".[9][10][11][12] However, the bombing in Volgodonsk took place three days later, on 16 September. When the Volgodonsk bombing happened, Vladimir Zhirinovsky demanded an explanation in the Duma, but Seleznev turned his microphone off.[9] Vladimir Zhirinovsky said in the Russian Duma: "Remember, Gennadiy Nikolaevich, how you told us that a house has been blown up in Volgodonsk, three days prior to the blast? How should we interpret this? The State Duma knows that the house was destroyed on Monday, and it has indeed been blown up on Thursday [same week]... How come... the state authorities of Rostov region were not warned in advance [about the future bombing], although it was reported to us? Everyone is sleeping, the house was destroyed three days later, and now we must take urgent measures..." [Seleznev turned his microphone off].[13]

Two years later, in March 2002, Seleznyov claimed in an interview that he had been referring to an unrelated hand grenade-based explosion, which did not kill anyone and did not destroy any buildings, and which indeed happened in Volgodonsk.[14][15] It remains unclear why Seleznyov reported such an insignificant incident to the Russian Parliament and why he did not explain the misunderstanding to Zhirinovsky and other Duma members.[14]

FSB defector Alexander Litvinenko described this as "the usual Kontora mess up": "Moscow-2 was on the 13th and Volgodonsk on 16th, but they got it to the speaker the other way around," he said. Investigator Mikhail Trepashkin confirmed that the man who gave Seleznev the note was indeed an FSB officer.[16]

Kovalev Commission

Full article: Kovalev Commission

An independent public commission to investigate the bombings, which was chaired by Duma deputy Sergei Kovalev, was ineffective because the Russian government refused to respond to its inquiries.[17][18]

Two key members of the Kovalev Commission, Sergei Yushenkov and Yuri Shchekochikhin, both Duma members, have since died in apparent assassinations in April 2003 and July 2003, respectively.[19][20] Another member of the commission, Otto Lacis, was assaulted in November 2003[21] and two years later, on 3 November 2005, he died in a hospital after a car accident.[22]

The commission asked lawyer Mikhail Trepashkin to investigate the case. Mr. Trepashkin reports that the FSB promised not to arrest him, his supervisors and staff if he left the Kovalev commission and started working together with the FSB "against Alexander Litvinenko".[23] Trepashkin declined and kept working, uncovering evidence that the basement of one of the bombed buildings was rented by FSB officer Vladimir Romanovich and that the latter was witnessed by several people. Mr. Trepashkin was unable to bring the alleged evidence to the court because shortly before he was to make his findings public he was arrested in October 2003 for illegal arms possession.[24] He was sentenced by a Moscow military court to four years imprisonment for disclosing state secrets.[25] Amnesty International issued a statement that "there are serious grounds to believe that Mikhail Trepashkin was arrested and convicted under falsified criminal charges which may be politically motivated, in order to prevent him continuing his investigative and legal work related to the 1999 apartment bombings in Moscow and other cities".[26] Romanovich subsequently died in a hit and run accident in Cyprus.[citation needed]

Deaths of dissenting voices

How Vladimir Putin used a series of bombings targeting civilians across Russia in 1999 to set the stage for his rise to power - TDC - April 2015.
Full article: Russian apartment bombings/Premature death

Some of those who have challenged the Russian government's official narrative of the bombings have been assassinated.

Journalists

Artyom Borovik told Grigory Yavlinsky that Borovik investigated the Moscow apartment bombings and prepared a series of publications about them.[27] Mr. Borovik received numerous death threats, and he died in an aeroplane crash on 9th March 2000.[28] Journalist Anna Politkovskaya who blamed the FSB for the bombings, was gunned down in front of her apartment in 2006.[29]

FSB agents

Alexander Litvinenko and co-authors named Maxim Lazovsky as a suspect in the Russian apartment bombings (along with other crimes including murders and kidnappings). He was poisoned by polonium and died on 23 November, 2006. A month earlier Russian diplomat Igor Ponomarev died suddenly, (reportedly of a heart attack, aged 41) and his death has been linked to the murder of Litvinenko.[30]

In February 1996, Maxim Lazovsky was detained by the Moscow Criminal Investigation department (MUR) and accused of various criminal activities together with the Moscow FSB employee Alexey Jumashkin and six other FSB employees. In 1997 Lazovsky was convicted to two years for illegal possession of drugs and weapons. He was released in 1998. On April 28, 2000, Lazovsky was shot by assassins on the entryway of a church in the village of Uspenskoye near Moscow, where he lived. Yuri Felshtinsky and Vladimir Pribylovsky later accused Lazovsky of helping stage the 1999 Moscow bombings.[31]

On December 9, 2002, Novaya Gazeta published an open letter from Yusuf Krymshamkhalov and Timur Batchaev, Karachai suspects in the 1999 apartment blocks bombings in Moscow and Volgodonsk, to the commission for investigation of this event. In the letter, they claimed that German Ugryumov had supervised the bombing campaign on behalf of the FSB,[32] and included an interview with one of main proponents of this theory, historian Yury Felshtinsky. Felshtinsky had passed the letter to the newspaper, and alleged that Ugryumov had committed suicide, possibly under pressure from the FSB.[33][34]

Double Standards on Conspiracy Theories

As an interesting observation on the label conspiracy theory, people who are normally ruthless in denying any conspiracies behind similar things happening in the West, are freely accusing the Russian government of being responsible. For example, the whole Wikipedia article on the incident is laid out to conclude with a Russian government false flag operation.

Senator John McCain, who stated of 9/11 that "conspiracy mongering poisons the discourse and dishonors the victims"[35] had no problem in stating "Russia's FSB had a hand in carrying out these attacks. Mr. Putin ascended to the presidency in 2000 by pointing a finger at the Chechens for committing these crimes"[36].

Edward Lucas warns of "Russian-backed websites promote conspiracy theories [that] 9/11 was an “inside job"[37] but sees no danger in writing "The weight of evidence so far supports the grimmest interpretation: that the attacks were a ruthlessly planned stunt to create a climate of panic and fear in which Putin would quickly become the country's indisputable leader, as indeed he did."[38]

Weblinks


 

Related Document

TitleTypePublication dateAuthor(s)Description
Document:The Global Drugs Meta-GrouparticleOctober 2005Peter Dale Scott

 

The Official Culprits

NameDescription
ChechnyaMuslim majority region of Russia, in the Caucasus mountains.
Adam DekkushevAccording to Dekkushev, it wasn't the FSB that ordered the bombing, as Boris Berezovsky later claimed, but the United States Central Intelligence Agency.
Yusuf Krymshakhalov
Ibn al-KhattabPoisoned and named by the FSB as the organiser of the 1999 Russian apartment bombings.


Rating

4star.png 26 August 2016 Robin  A good introduction to this rather sidelined event
Understanding this event - carried out while Putin was FSB premier - is an easy way to understand why the Russians have not exposed 9-11. And if the Russians have chosen not to, do you see any other national governments doing so?
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References

  1. ↑ http://www.oilempire.us/999.html
  2. ↑ Russian apartment bombings/Premature death
  3. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20050410090541/http://www.ict.org.il/articles/articledet.cfm?articleid=94
  4. ↑ http://www.oilempire.us/999.html
  5. ↑ http://www.edwardjayepstein.com/question_putin.htm
  6. ↑ Ответ Генпрокуратуры на депутатский запрос о взрывах в Москве (in Russian), machine translation.
  7. ↑ Duma Rejects Move to Probe Ryazan Apartment Bomb, Terror-99, 21 March 2000
  8. ↑ Duma Vote Kills Query On Ryazan, The Moscow Times, 4 April 2000
  9. ↑ a b Death of a Dissident, page 265
  10. ↑ [1][dead link]
  11. ↑ http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/2006-25-32.cfm
  12. ↑ (in Russian) http://www.newsru.com/russia/21mar2002/seleznyov.html ("Gennadiy Seleznyov was warned of the Volgodonsk explosion three days in advance")
  13. ↑ http://fictionbook.ru/author/felshtinskiyi_yuriyi_georgievich/fsb_vzriyvaet_rossiyu/felshtinskiyi_fsb_vzriyvaet_rossiyu.html
  14. ↑ a b "Darkness at Dawn, page 269.
  15. ↑ (in Russian) Reply of the Public Prosecutor Office of the Russian Federation to a deputy inquiry
  16. ↑ Death of a Dissident, page 266
  17. ↑ Putin critic loses post, platform for inquiry, The Baltimore Sun, 11 December 2003
  18. ↑ Russian court rejects action over controversial "anti-terrorist exercise", Interfax, 3 April 2003
  19. ↑ Chronology of events. State Duma Deputy Yushenkov shot dead, Centre for Russian Studies, 17 April 2003
  20. ↑ Worries Linger as Schekochikhin's Laid to Rest, The Moscow Times, 7 July 2003
  21. ↑ (in Russian) В Москве жестоко избит Отто Лацис, NewsRU, 11 November 2003
  22. ↑ (in Russian) Скончался известный российский журналист Отто Лацис, 3 November 2005
  23. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Interview with Mikhail Trepashkin
  24. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named cdi.org
  25. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named coranet.radicalparty.org
  26. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named web.amnesty.org
  27. ↑ (in Russian) Grigory Yavlinsky's interview, TV6 Russia, 11 March 2000 (computer translation)
  28. ↑ Russian crash: search for terrorist link, BBC News, 10 March 2000
  29. ↑ (in Russian) Presidential election is our last chance to learn the truth, Anna Politkovskaya, Novaya Gazeta, № 2, 15 January 2004 (computer translation)
  30. ↑ https://larussophobe.wordpress.com/2007/01/14/what-about-ponomarev/
  31. ↑ Yuri Felshtinsky and Vladimir Pribylovsky The Age of Assassins. The Rise and Rise of Vladimir Putin, Gibson Square Books, London, 2008, ISBN 1-906142-07-6
  32. ↑ (in Russian)ГЕКСОГЕНОВЫЙ СЛЕД
  33. ↑ (in Russian)Историк Юрий ФЕЛЬШТИНСКИЙ — о частном расследовании терактов в Москве, Волгодонске и Буйнакске
  34. ↑ Interview with Yuri Felshtinsky
  35. ↑ https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/a798/john-mccain-september-11/
  36. ↑ https://www.mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=f4f5cf0c-9104-4b3f-8ebe-84f3dc24c51b
  37. ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-danger-of-russian-disinformation/2016/05/06/b31d9718-12d5-11e6-8967-7ac733c56f12_story.html
  38. ↑ Edward Lucas, The New Cold War: Putin's Russia and the Threat to the West, Palgrave Macmillan (19 February 2008)
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