The Russian apartment bombings were a series of five bombings in Russia that took place in Moscow and two other Russian towns during ten days of September 1999. Altogether nearly 300 civilians were killed at night. The bombings, together with the Dagestan War, led the country into the Second Chechen War. Chechen militants were blamed but no Chechen field commander accepted responsibility for the bombings and Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov denied any involvement of his government.
The bombings ceased when a similar bomb was found and defused in an apartment block in the Russian city of Ryazan on September 23. Later in the evening Vladimir Putin praised the vigilance of the Ryzanians and ordered the air bombing of Grozny, which marked the beginning of the Second Chechen War. [1] A few hours later, three FSB agents who had planted the bomb were caught by the local police. This incident was declared to be a training exercise by FSB director Nikolai Patrushev.
Russian Parliament member Yuri Shchekochikhin filed two motions for a parliamentary investigation of the events, but the motions were rejected by the Russian Duma in March 2000. An independent [2] public commission to investigate the bombings chaired by Duma deputy Sergei Kovalev was hampered by government refusal to respond to its inquiries, and its chairmen admitted that he has no evidence to support any version of the events. [3] [4] Two key members of the Kovalev Commission, Sergei Yushenkov and Yuri Shchekochikhin, both Duma members, have since died in apparent assassinations. The Commission's lawyer Mikhail Trepashkin was arrested.
A number of people were convicted or accused of involvement in the bombings.
According to official investigation, the following people either delivered explosives, stored them, or harbored other suspects:
Arab-born Mujahid Ibn al-Khattab who was killed by the FSB in 2002.
The suspicious events led to allegations that the bombings were in fact a " false flag" attack perpetrated by the FSB in order to legitimize the resumption of military activities in Chechnya and bring Vladimir Putin and the FSB to power. This theory is promoted in books by David Satter, [26] [27] Yuri Felshtinsky and Vladimir Pribylovsky. [28] It was also supported by Alexander Litvinenko and Anna Politkovskaya, who were assassinated. [29] According to them, the following suspects have been involved: [28]
Aleksey Galkin, a GRU officer, was captured and tortured by Chechen separatists in 1999. In a video statement the captors coerced him to make, he said that a team of twelve GRU operatives conducted bombings in the city of Buynaksk under general command of Lieutenant General Nikolai Kostechko.
{{
cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (
link) Separatists Tied to '99 Bombings.
The Russian apartment bombings were a series of five bombings in Russia that took place in Moscow and two other Russian towns during ten days of September 1999. Altogether nearly 300 civilians were killed at night. The bombings, together with the Dagestan War, led the country into the Second Chechen War. Chechen militants were blamed but no Chechen field commander accepted responsibility for the bombings and Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov denied any involvement of his government.
The bombings ceased when a similar bomb was found and defused in an apartment block in the Russian city of Ryazan on September 23. Later in the evening Vladimir Putin praised the vigilance of the Ryzanians and ordered the air bombing of Grozny, which marked the beginning of the Second Chechen War. [1] A few hours later, three FSB agents who had planted the bomb were caught by the local police. This incident was declared to be a training exercise by FSB director Nikolai Patrushev.
Russian Parliament member Yuri Shchekochikhin filed two motions for a parliamentary investigation of the events, but the motions were rejected by the Russian Duma in March 2000. An independent [2] public commission to investigate the bombings chaired by Duma deputy Sergei Kovalev was hampered by government refusal to respond to its inquiries, and its chairmen admitted that he has no evidence to support any version of the events. [3] [4] Two key members of the Kovalev Commission, Sergei Yushenkov and Yuri Shchekochikhin, both Duma members, have since died in apparent assassinations. The Commission's lawyer Mikhail Trepashkin was arrested.
A number of people were convicted or accused of involvement in the bombings.
According to official investigation, the following people either delivered explosives, stored them, or harbored other suspects:
Arab-born Mujahid Ibn al-Khattab who was killed by the FSB in 2002.
The suspicious events led to allegations that the bombings were in fact a " false flag" attack perpetrated by the FSB in order to legitimize the resumption of military activities in Chechnya and bring Vladimir Putin and the FSB to power. This theory is promoted in books by David Satter, [26] [27] Yuri Felshtinsky and Vladimir Pribylovsky. [28] It was also supported by Alexander Litvinenko and Anna Politkovskaya, who were assassinated. [29] According to them, the following suspects have been involved: [28]
Aleksey Galkin, a GRU officer, was captured and tortured by Chechen separatists in 1999. In a video statement the captors coerced him to make, he said that a team of twelve GRU operatives conducted bombings in the city of Buynaksk under general command of Lieutenant General Nikolai Kostechko.
{{
cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (
link) Separatists Tied to '99 Bombings.