The saturnalia of carnage ended on 16 September when a bomb went off on a crowded Volgodonsk street, killing nineteen and injuring over 1000 people. Countrywide panic set in. The bombings were blamed on Chechen terrorists. A commander in the Chechen Mujahedeen, Ibn Al-Khattab, had told German and Czech newspapers just days before the Moscow bombings that “Russian women and children will pay for the crimes of Russian generals”, adding later in the interview that “this will happen not tomorrow, but the day after tomorrow”3. During the same interview the Mujahedeen terrorist would go on to claim that attacks, or ‘reprisals’, would be carried out across Russia. Ibn Al-Khattab is the man who was officially held responsible for the attacks, he was the Osama bin Laden to Russia’s 9/11 and on 20 March 2002, Al-Khattab was assassinated by the FSB. The current gold standard among Russian conspiracy theories is that the FSB planned and executed the bombings. It’s origin lies in an incident that would occur in the early hours of 22 September, the stillborn bombing of a Ryazan apartment building. A bus driver by the name of Alexei Kartofelnikov was returning home when he saw a white car pull up to the rear service entrance of the building. Reportage here is contradictory; some sources, including Scott Anderson’s infamous GQ article ‘None Dare Call it Conspiracy’ (2009), claim that two men emerged from the car, others report a man and a woman exiting the Russian-made vehicle. No matter their sex, Kartofelnikov saw two people carry three large sacks into the basement of the building. At this point Moscow media had reported that previous bombs had been placed in the basements of their respective buildings. Furthermore, eyewitnesses had reported seeing alien sacks in their stairwells prior to the explosion. Kartofelnikov noted the make of the car and its license plate. The section of the plate that shows the region of the car had been covered by a piece of paper showing the relevant symbol for Ryazan. The bus-driver called the police, who arrived three-quarters of an hour later. Inside the basement, police found three sacks labeled ‘Sugar’ and filled with wires, a timer and powder, amongst other things. On-site tests were positive for Research Department Explosive (RDX), a military explosive more powerful and brisant than Trinitrotoluene (TNT).4 The building was evacuated and many people were so terrified that they left their apartments unlocked. Days after the incident, it would emerge that most of the apartments had been looted. Kartofelnikov became a national hero, with city dignitaries and politicians praising his vigilance; notably among them was the head of the FSB’s local chapter. A manhunt for the would-be bombers commenced with 1,200 troops brought in to lock down and search the city. It seemed likely that they would catch the bombers since they knew the make and model of the car and had identikit sketches of the assailants. Here the intrigue commences. On 24 September, Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo spoke on the topic of the bombings, saying that progress had been made and a “bombing prevented in Ryazan”. Just half an hour after this pronouncement the Head of the FSB, Nikolai Patrushev, held a press conference and claimed Rushailo had been incorrect. The supposed bombing had been a training exercise to test the readiness of the local law enforcement and the vigilance of the Ryazan citizenry. He is quoted as saying “nothing was XXX Ormond Papers
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