At least 39 people were killed and more than 100 injured after an explosion ripped through a busy underground train in central Moscow during the morning rush hour on Friday.

Russian authorities blamed the apparent terrorist attack on Chechen suicide bombers, although no group has so far claimed responsibility. The Moscow metro system is used by 9m people a day.

Vladimir Putin, Russian president, speaking on television, accused Aslan Maskhadov, a Chechen rebel leader, of being behind 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.

However, in a telephone interview with the Financial Times, Akhmed Zakayev, a spokesman for Mr Maskhadov, denied the accusation and condemned the attack. "It is a horrific crime which cannot be justified by any cause. We condemn any form of terrorism whoever stands behind it," he said.

Dmitry Rogozin, a leader of the nationalist pro-Kremlin "Motherland" party, called for a state of emergency to be declared in Moscow. He called the attack an "ethnic" crime which must receive a most decisive response from the Kremlin.

His tough stance on the war in Chechnya helped to bring Mr Putin to power four years ago. But coming just six weeks before the presidential elections on March 14 which Mr Putin is almost certain to win, the latest attack is a deadly reminder of the failure of the Kremlin to resolve the conflict.

Anna Politkovskaya, one of Russia's most reputed war correspondents and outspoken critic of Russia's policies in Chechnya, said: "Unfortunately this kind of terrorist act was predictable. Every day Chechens disappear from their homes - led away by people in camouflage clothes with Kalashnikovs. Sometimes their bodies turn up, sometimes not. But their relatives seek revenge."

Despite the obvious importance of the Chechen problem for Russia, it did not feature as an issue in the parliamentary elections last year and is unlikely to be raised in next month's presidential elections. Russian media, much of which is controlled by the state, rarely reports on Chechnya.

Dmitry Trenin, a political analyst at Carnegie Moscow Centre said: "This attack was designed to cause as much pain as possible and to attract attention to Chechnya. It is a reminder that while Russian society may have forgotten about Chechnya, Chechnya remembers Russia."

"Every time I go down into the underground I wonder if I will finish my journey. Now 9m people will feel they are playing Russian roulette."

Irina Khakamada, a leader of the liberal Union of Right Forces and a presidential candidate, said the explosion showed that Russian security services had failed to prevent acts of terrorism.

"The terrible terrorist act takes place against the background of presidential elections and is undoubtedly caused by the unresolved situation in Chechnya whatever anyone says about the legitimacy of its government," she said.

Chechens deny involvement in blast

AFP, Posted Fri, 06 Feb 2004

A representative for top Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov said Friday the separatists were not behind a rush hour bomb blast in the Moscow subway that killed at least 39 people.

"We insist that we do not employ terrorist methods," Akhmed Zakayev, speaking on behalf of former Chechen president and rebel leader Maskhadov, told AFP by telephone from London.

"We have denounced and will continue to denounce terrorism in all of its forms," he said, after a rush hour attack  thought to be a suicide bomb  left 39 dead and injured 122.

Russian President Vladimir Putin had earlier in the day blamed Chechen leaders for the terror attacks that have plagued Russia with increasing frequency over the past year.

"The very fact that after such crimes, people are calling on us to negotiate with Maskhadov, indirectly proves that the people who are making those calls are linking Maskhadov and his bandits with terrorism.

"We do not need this indirect confirmation. We know for certain, that Maskhadov and his people are linked to this terror," Putin said in televised remarks.

"The president and the (urecognised Chechen) government declares that he does not have the slightest link to this bloody provocation and condemns it fully," said a statement from Maskhadov posted on the chechenpress.com website.

A statement attributed to Maskhadov and distributed in Ingushetia, a republic bordering Chechnya, said "he personally learned of the attack from the news."

Maskhadov fought Russian troops during the first Russo-Chechen war in 1994-1996 and was elected president of the republic after Moscow withdrew its soldiers and granted the region de facto independence.

He is currently thought to be in hiding in the mountains of the Caucasus republic, as is Shamil Basayev, a more hardline rebel leader who has claimed responsibility for several bombings.

Federation Council speaker condemns provocative appeals

RosBusinessConsulting. Friday, Feb. 6, 2004, 6:17 PM Moscow Time

Russian Federation Council Speaker Sergey Mironov considers thoughtless appeals for deporting all people from the Caucasus from Moscow, following today's blast in the Moscow Metro. He voiced this opinion talking with reporters.

"In our multiethnic country appeals for such actions are not just unreasonable but also illegal," Mironov underlined. At the same time, according to him, it is necessary to restore order, for example, with regard to illegal migration, as well as "to guarantee the security of Russian citizens wherever they are."

"Preventive work, including intelligence work, is required," the Federation Council speaker pointed out. He agreed with Russian President Vladimir Putin who remarked on a strange coincidence between an appeal by a large group of Russian lawmakers for talks with (Chechen rebel leader) Maskhadov and today's act of terrorism in Moscow. "There cannot be any talks with terrorists," Mironov underscored.

He added that the UN Human Rights Commissioner declared in his speech in the Federation Council before the referendum in Chechnya a year ago, "Maskhadov is nobody, and he does not represent anybody."

Mironov said he had met with deputy speakers of the Federation Council and members of the Federation Council Defense and Security Committee this morning to discuss the blast in the Metro. He called professional and accurate the actions of the Moscow authorities aimed at coping with the aftermath of the explosion. "Unfortunately, there is some experience," Mironov added. He pointed out that the

Federation Council had initiated a budget amendment to allocate additional funds for equipment for security services, following the hostage taking in the Music Theater. "This problem is still topical, and we are likely to come back to this theme," Mironov concluded.

Statement of Akhmed Zakayev

In connection with accusations which were expressed by Vladimir Putin in the address of leadership of the CHRI in regards to yesterday's act of terror in Moscow, I'm authorized to state, that the government of the CHRI and these combat units and structures which are controlled by it, do not have any relation to the explosion in the Moscow subway.

We condemn this act of terror and we express our condolences to the families of those who were killed and to the injured victims. This kind of actions are unacceptable for us and cannot be justified, even if it will be established that they are committed by people who lost their senses because of grief, when losing their close relatives as a result of atrocities of the Russian forces in Chechnya,

In this tragic moment the Government of the CHRI is turning again to responsible activists and politicians of Russia, to the Russian society and the nation with this appeal to do anything possible to stop this war. It is time to look into the face of reality - the policy of genocide against the innocent civilians has failed. It only generates bitterness, irreparability and terror. It is necessary to break this cycle of  violence, which does not have an end, and to end this senseless bloodshed.

We are prepared for an immediate negotiations without any preliminary conditions. If the negotiations will begin, we are assured that it's possible to take this situation under control and to bring to reason even the most irreconcilable and despaired. But, if there will be no negotiations, then the number of innocent victims on both sides will be multiplied. Responsibility for this will lie on the Russian leadership, which is ready to pay by the lives of guilty of nothing Chechens and Russians for its reckless policy.

Vice-premier of the government of CHRI, special representative of the President of CHRI

[signed] Akhmed Zakaev   

07.02.04  Chechenpress  

http://www.chechenpress.info/news/2004/02/05/07.shtml [BBC Monitoring]

IWPR'S CAUCASUS REPORTING SERVICE, No. 217, February 5, 2004.

CHECHNYA: new mwthods, same old abuses

A night-time campaign of kidnappings and murders continues to terrorise Chechnya.

By Murad Magomadov in Grozny

Thirty-two-year-old Umar Mantsigov recently got a job with Chechnya's police force.

He was tasked with guarding a four-storey temporary settlement centre in the Zavodskoi district of Grozny, which was home to several hundred refugees recently returned from neighbouring Ingushetia. It is hard to find a job in the shattered Chechen capital, so his friends and relatives thought him a lucky man.

But at dawn on January 29, a minibus with no number-plates drew up outside the centre, and a group of armed men wearing masks and camouflage fatigues burst in and took Mantsigov away. Since then, his police colleagues and relatives have searched for the missing man - with no success.

Mantsigov's family believe he was snatched because after the first Chechen conflict of 1994-96, he had several pictures taken of himself in the company of rebel fighters. Photographs such as this and even old newspapers from the period between 1991 and 1994 when Jokhar Dudayev was president, have reportedly been used to identify and target people in abductions and disappearances.

Arbitrary arrests and abductions, torture and killing are continuing in Chechnya, say witnesses and human rights monitors, although both the perpetrators and the methods they used have changed.

The abuses are often more covert, but are still being recorded every day - challenging the Russian federal government's assertion that Chechnya is undergoing a "normalisation process" and daily life is improving.

On January 21, Moscow abolished the post of Russian presidential special representative for human rights in Chechnya, and sacked the incumbent Abdul-Khakim Sultygov.

Alexander Cherkasov, a leading expert on Chechnya with the Russian human rights group Memorial, said that Sultygov had been an official appointee who had done nothing to defend human rights. "The abolition of this post is just a confirmation of the existing reality," he told IWPR by telephone from Moscow. "Nonetheless, a disgraceful situation is continuing there and there is a need for particular and heightened attention to Chechnya, which is not forthcoming from the Russian state.

"The situation remains very alarming. People are still being abducted, they continue to disappear."

Memorial's office in Ingushetia says that the numbers of abductions and killings it recorded in Chechnya in 2003 was less than the year before, but the change was not a significant one. In 2002 they recorded 729 killings of civilians and 537 people who were abducted and disappeared without trace. Last year the figures were around 500 killed and more than 470 disappeared.

These figures are incomplete, stresses Memorial's Shakhman Akbulatov, and the real numbers could be much higher.

"Our organisation is able to cover only about 25 to 30 per cent of the territory of Chechnya," he said. "The remaining regions, including the mountains, are inaccessible to our researchers.

"Even in the regions covered by our monitoring, Memorial cannot draw up an exhaustive report. Our rough estimates suggest that the total number of crimes committed against civilians in the Chechen Republic could be two or three times higher than the information we have at Memorial."

The manner of the abuses has changed. The "mass cleansing operations" experienced by Chechen villagers two or three years ago, when the Russian military would arrive in force at a village and close it off for several days, are now a rarity. More common are now are what are described as "targeted cleansing operations", when a group of armed men snatch one person at night - as happened with Mantsigov. In the majority of cases the abducted men are never seen alive again.

The infamous "filtration camps" at Chernokozovo, PAP-1 (a former bus garage in Grozny) and the Khankala military base, where large numbers of Chechen men were detained and tortured, have virtually ceased to operate.

They have been replaced, however, by a series of underground pits, known as "zindans" (prisons), located at almost all military bases in the republic, including Khankala. These appear to be the destination of most of the abducted men - but few get out alive, and those relatives who do manage to extract their loved ones from a "zindan" are reluctant to speak about it.

The pro-Moscow government of Chechen leader Akhmad Kadyrov also now runs a series of small "private prisons" across the republic. One of them is in Tsentoroi, Kadyrov's home village of Kadyrov, and is under the charge of his son, Ramzan. Two others have been set up in Pobedinskoe and Krasnaya Turbina outside Grozny, run respectively by Kadyrov's security chief Movladi Baisarov and Russian special forces commander Said-Magomed Kakiev, who is a Chechen. Another special forces officer, Sulim Yamadayev, runs a "private prison" in the town of Gudermes.

The prominent role now being played by Kadyrov, who was elected president of Chechnya in October, has contributed to another major change in the republic. Many ordinary Chechens say that as well as special Russian military units - dubbed "death squads" by locals - they fear operations carried out by Kadyrov's commanders.

Detachments of "Kadyrovtsy", as these units are known, operate throughout Chechnya. On January 28-29, a joint force of"Kadyrovtsy" and police carried out a rare "mass cleansing operation" in Alleroi, the native village of rebel president Aslan Maskhadov. Two days later Sultan Dadayev, who led the operation, and four of his men were shot dead in Alleroi by pro-Maskhadov fighters.

The Kadyrov administration insists that the human rights situation in Chechnya is improving. A senior official in the interior ministry, who asked not to be named, said that, "the situation in the Chechen Republic is constantly improving. We can see a radical change for the better in comparison with 2000 and 2001."

However, Kadyrov himself told a government meeting on January 23 that he was "concerned about the continuing abductions and disappearances".

Both he and the Russian military blame Chechen pro-independence and Islamist fighters for the abductions.

Colonel Ilya Shabalkin, a senior Russian commander in charge of the "anti-terrorist operation" in Chechnya, said that the rebels were dressing up in military uniforms to carry out abductions and killings.

"They are doing this primarily to sow distrust of federal and local officials among the population, and to discredit the process of political settlement in Chechnya," Shabalkin said. "Often they use fake documents from members of the security forces. There is plenty of proof of this."

Shabalkin cited a case from mid-January when he said Russian troops had found "high-quality" fake identity documents for the Chechen police force and Kadyrov's security service in a house near the village of Tangi-Chu.

While there is plenty of evidence that Chechen rebels have killed civilians in suicide bombings and raids, human rights monitors challenge the assertion that they are behind the abductions. They say that these raids are almost always carried out at night, during curfew hours, when large numbers of fighters could be easily spotted. The attackers are usually heavily armed and have special equipment, such as helmets with radio links and automatic weapons with silencers, which the rebel fighters do not have.

"Practically all the abductions, murders, robberies and looting happen at night and are carried out by men in masks and military uniforms," said Alkhazur Suleimanov, a former Chechen policeman. "In most cases the bandits arrive in armoured vehicles or several cars. And only soldiers or employees of the security services can travel freely in Chechnya by night, when there are checkpoints at every step of the way. It's obvious they wouldn't clash with their own people."

Another worrying phenomenon is the increased targeting of Chechens living in Ingushetia. On January 12, Khamzat Osmayev, a 50-year-old doctor who had lived in the neighbouring republic since the conflict began, was abducted from his office in the village of Plievo.

Two weeks later, Osmayev was dumped in wasteland near Ingushetia's Magas airport. He told Memorial that he had been beaten and tortured by a group of men demanding information about Chechen fighters. The only explanation he could give about why he was targeted was that in a wedding photograph taken in 1999, he had shared the frame with Chechen warrior Shamil Basayev.

Osmayev believes he was held either in the Russian military base at Khankala or in Grozny.

Anna Neistat, who researches Chechnya for Human Rights Watch in Moscow, says she will remain pessimistic unless and until the Russian justice system changes its attitude on Chechnya.

"We can only begin to say that the problem is being solved when all the cases of abductions and disappearances are investigated and brought to an end, and not as now, when the prosecutor's office opens criminal charges on an abduction and then closes it a couple of months later," she said. "Serious changes for the better will only begin when the disappearances become very rare, they are all investigated and those responsible end up in court."

Murad Magomadov is a journalist with Chechenskoe Obshchestvo newspaper in Chechnya.

Chechen president criticizes "inappropriate" remarks after metro blast

Moscow, Itar-Tass, 6 February: Chechen President Akhmat Kadyrov "shares the common grief" but regards statements inciting interethnic strife following the terrorist act on the Moscow metro as unacceptable and inappropriate.

"In such a situation it is essential to be especially balanced and correct, and not to make rash statements which inflame interethnic discord," he told ITAR-TASS in an exclusive interview by telephone from Chechnya. Kadyrov stressed that Chechens living in Moscow, like the residents of Chechnya, "are outraged by what happened on the Moscow metro and express their condolences to the families of the victims" and also "like all citizens of Russia, hate the Wahhabis ".

"We certainly commiserate and share the common grief," he said. "Here in Chechnya people suffer every day, every day the terrorists of  Maskhadov and Basayev kill civilians, soldiers, police officers and officials." He said he fully shares the position of the Russian head of state.

"The president has drawn absolutely correct conclusions, and it is only in this way that Chechnya and Russia as a whole can now be saved from terrorism," he said. Kadyrov said there were currently forces in the West and the East "who want to force us to sit at the negotiating table with the terrorists, which is unacceptable".

"Why is it no-one tries to make America sit down at the negotiating table with Bin-Ladin? It's time to end all insinuations on the subject of talks with Maskhadov. Maskhadov can either by addressed by an investigator, or by a bullet," he said.

"Our patience is at an end, we have no intention of talking to them, we will destroy them."

07 February 2004 [BBC Monitoring]

Chechen "rebel" web sites report killings and arrests by Russian troops in Chechnya

Chechen "rebel" web sites have reported that the Russian troops have been killing, kidnapping and arresting Chechen civilians in the last few days.

The web site of the Council of NGOs http://www.livechechnya.org/ reported that the Russian law-enforcement agencies killed two people in the vicinity of the town of Shali on 3 February. It is not know why the two were shot, the web site said.

The web site also said that 12 local residents were detained during a "zachistka" operation carried out by Russian troops in Chechnya's Kurchaloy District in the last few days. It quoted a policeman as saying that the detainees were suspected of killing guards of Chechnya's pro-Russian President Akhmat Kadyrov in the village of Alleroy on 31 January.

The web site went on to say that a local woman called *Ruzanna Shibzakhova was arrested and taken away by Russian troops in the district centre of Shelkovskaya several day ago. According to her relatives, the military said that she was detained for preparing a terrorist attack, the web site reported. According to the web site, her whereabouts and further fate have not been established yet.

The web site of the Council of NGOs also reported that the Russian police kidnapped a young woman in Grozny on 5 February. Satsita Kamayeva, 21, was taken away by a group of police officers who had arrived in several vehicles without registration numbers, the web site said on 7 February. The officers also beat up Kamayeva's parents who tried to defend their daughter. Her whereabouts and further fate are not known yet, it reported.

Several civilians were detained during a Russian "zachistka" operation in the village of Agishbatoy in Vedeno District several days ago, the web site went on to say. The operation followed the killing of four Russian soldiers in the village, it said.

At the same time, the Baku-based Chechen rebel news agency Daymohk reported on 5 February that three civilians were killed by Russian troops on 4 February in the vicinity of the village of Akhkinchu- Borzoy in Chechnya's Nozhay-Yurt District. According to Daymohk, this information was received from the locals. The details of the incident and the surnames of the killed people are being checked, the web site said.

Sources: Council of Nongovernmental Organizations, in Russian 6, 7 Feb 04, Daymohk news agency web site, Baku, in Russian 6 Feb 04

Radio Russia 02 February 2004

Female suicide bomber detained in Chechnya when preparing attack

*A female suicide bomber who was preparing a terrorist attack has been detained in Chechnya. Local residents reported to the office of the commandant of the interior troops of Shelkovsky District that a suspicious-looking woman had been seen in several villages of the district. As a result of a check a Ruzanna Shibzakhova has been detained. She turned out to be an accomplice of an active member of a gang operating in Shelkovskoy District. Operational officers discovered that she was getting ready to use a suicide belt in a terrorist attack.

eng.kavkaz.memo.ru 7/2/2004

Anna Politkovskaya denies information about "decent conditions" being created for Chechen refugees

Speaking to Ekho Moskvy Radio, journalist Anna Politkovskaya denied information that "decent conditions" were being created for Chechen refugees. On February 5, First Deputy Head of the Federal Migration Service Militia Major-General Igor Yunash announced that Bart, a tent camp for displaced persons in Ingushetia, would be liquidated soon. "Three days ago, I visited the settlement that 50 families from Bart are to be removed to by February 10. There are only log houses, no infrastructure, no facilities; workers were in a hurry to knock up toilets," said the journalist. Anna Politkovskaya does not also believe that normal living conditions will be created for refugees who stay in Ingushetia. "As far as I know, there is no habitation for them in reality," she said. "There are ill-equipped cottages for persons displaced as a result of the Osetian-Ingush conflict, who have been standing in the queue for housing for years. This information is for use in Moscow, for people who do not reach Chechnya and do not see the real situation. It is a 100 percent PR-action timed to the election. Functionaries have the only task to resettle the refugee so that they do not loom hear. And after 1 March they will say there are no refugees - the president has coped with this problem." Ms Politkovskaya also noted that at present they "do not load refugees onto carts, as it was in 1944", in order to forcibly evict them. "The first means is to cut off gas supply, and one will not be able to live in a tent for long. The other means is to constantly seize people they plan to evict," the journalist said.

Editors note: See also the article "Authorities intend to close Bart tent refugee camp". Source: Ekho Moskvy Radio

2004-02-07 12:22   

Police officer killed in Grozny

GROZNY, February 7 (RIA Novosti) - An officer of the Chechen Interior Ministry's economic crimes department was murdered in Grozny.

The body of Major Khabilyayev was found on Friday morning in Lisitsyn street in Grozny's Oktyabrsky district, a spokesman for the Chechen Interior Ministry told RIA Novosti.

The officer died of gunshot wounds. Criminals seized his PM pistol with 16 rounds, an AKM assault-rifle with 30 rounds and service certificate.

Investigators consider three versions of the murder, including one related to Khabilyayev's police activities and the purpose to seize his weapons.

Russian presidential candidate disappears

Saturday, February 7th, 2004

By JIM HEINTZ, Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) - A former national security chief planning to challenge President Vladimir Putin has been missing since Thursday, his campaign staff said Saturday.

Hours earlier, the Central Elections Commission approved the presidential candidacy of liberal Ivan Rybkin, who has harshly criticized Putin.

Kseniya Ponomaryova, head of Rybkin's campaign group, told The Associated Press that Rybkin had been unreachable since late Thursday, but declined to give details.

Under Russian law, a missing persons report can be filed after three days without contact.

The news agency Interfax also quoted Rybkin's wife as saying his relatives had not been able to contact him for two days.

The approval of Rybkin's candidacy increases the field for the March 14 presidential election to five, including Putin. The commission has until Sunday to decide on the bids of two other potential candidates.

Any candidate running without party affiliation must submit 2 million supporting signatures, and the commission is assessing the validity of signatures submitted by the two potential candidates.

Putin is the overwhelming favorite in the election, which opposition politicians discussed boycotting to protest the alleged unfairness of December's parliamentary election.

The pro-Putin United Russia party won a two-thirds majority in the parliamentary election - sufficient to change the constitution. The election was criticized by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which said state media campaign coverage was slanted toward Putin supporters and the government allegedly pressured news media, especially in the provinces, to limit coverage of opposition views.

Rybkin this week unofficially launched his campaign with a full-page open letter in the newspaper Kommersant accusing Putin of being Russia's most powerful oligarch and of ruling by fear. In the letter, Rybkin said power and money are inseparable under dictatorship, and he claimed to have information linking Putin to big business.

Rybkin, a national security council chief under former President Boris Yeltsin, has pushed in recent years for talks between the Kremlin and Chechen rebels on ending the fighting in the breakaway republic. Putin firmly refuses to countenance negotiations.

Rybkin has been supported by Boris Berezovsky, a billionaire who was a powerful Kremlin insider in the Yeltsin years but who fell out with Putin and was granted asylum in the United Kingdom.

Although Rybkin's candidacy was approved, an elections commission spokesman said the commission found tens of thousands of apparently counterfeit signatures among the submissions and has forwarded evidence to prosecutors.