"Ryazan trainings" continue in Nazran?

In the second half of August 2005 on the territory of Ingushetia the numbers of fougasse explosions and assaults on representatives of local militia were on the increase. Quite obviously their organizers aimed at destabilizing the situationin the republic. In such a background the event of September 15 2005 in Narzan appears baffling. The witnesses questioned by monitors of HRC "Memorial" provided details which make one remember the notorious 'trainings', carried out by FSB in the fall of 1999 in the town of Ryazan when the local residents found personnel of security services planting explosives in a block of flats.

On August 15 at about 1 p.m. in Narzan in the Gajrbek Khadzi street was a fougasse explosion. At this moment the head of Municipal militia station of Narzan city, Dzabrail Kostoev was driving by in his car. As a result of explosion, Kostoev and his driver Evloev received splinter injuries.

On August 22 at 3:30 p.m. in the same street in Nazran a fougasse exploded at the moment when a mini-bus with personnel of local militia in it was passing by. As a result, a civilian, Imagozhev Khamzat, aged 48, who was driving his car behind the mini-bus was killed. Two militiamen were injured.

The same day, on August 22, according to the official sources, the representatives of mobile units of the Ministry of Interior of th Russian Federation and the personnel of the Republican FSB found remote-control explosives planted in the cellar of hotel "Magas". Next to the hotel is located a gasoline station "Imperial", and in case of explosion, there could have been casuaties and significant destruction.

On August 25 at about 2:10 p.m. in the town of Nazran, Pobedy street, on the way of cortege with the Chair of the Ingush government Ibragim Malsagov, two explosives went off. The first explosion damaged the escort car, killing Malsagov's body guard Amir Tsetchoev. After that the Mercedes with Malsagov stopped, Malsagov and his men got out of the car. This is when the second explosive went off. Malsagov and his driver, Mustafa Esiev received splinter injuries.

On September 6 at 7 a.m. in the proximity of the village of Gazi-Yurt, Nazranovsky district, near the cafe "Tusholi" was blown up an antena of mobile company "Megafon". When the investigating group arrived to the site, a second explosive went off. No one was injured.

On September 7 , according to news portal www.ingushetia.ru in Nazran at Chechenskaja street was discovered an explosive with the capacity of 20 kilos in trotile equivalent.

On September 10, according to www.ingushetiya.ru, at 8:35 am in the town of Malgobek, 400 meters from the ROVD building at Promyshlenaja street a explosion went off. In 10 minutes was the second blow. As a result two representatives of Malgobek militia were contusioned. A large group of militiamen arrived t the site. One of the officers felt something wrong and ordered everyone to step back. Soon was the second explosion, which injured militiamen Tsokiev and damaged several cars.

Same day on September 10, according to RIA "Novosti" news agency, in the area of administrative border between Ingushetia and North Osetia at the outskirts of Gireev household an attempt at blowing up a gas pipe was undertaken.

On September 11, according to www. ingushetiya.ru, in the proximity of village of Ali-Yurt, Nazran district during a special operation carried out by the servicemen of the Ministry of Defense in the forestry area one servicemen was injured as a result of explosion.

The same day on September 11 in the village of Surkhakhi, Nazranovsky district a station of telecommuication compay "BeeLine" was blown up.

On September 14, at 11:20 at the federal highway "Kavkaz", Gamurzievsky muicipal area of Nazran an explosion went off. The explosion happened in the moment when two cars with personnel of Sunzhensky militia were passing by. One of cars was insignificantly damaged.

On September 16 there were four explosions in Ingushetia.

At 4: 50 a.m. an explosive went off in Nazran, at Moskovskaia street, near a 5- storey building # 31 . The explosion resulted in a crater with the diameter of 1,5 meters 2 meters deep. The glass windows of the nearby building were broken. House # 31 is located in close proximity of the Supreme Court of Republic of Ingushetia and the municipal militia station.

At 11: 00 a.m. in the village of Nesterovskaja Sunzhensky district in a explosion went off when a military column was passing buy. One military car was insignificantly damaged.

At 1 p.m. in the village of Alkhasty, Sunzhensky district a landmine went off while several cars with militia personnel were passing by.

The same day, according to RIA "Novosti" at the border of North Osetia and Ingushetia was blown up a cargo train. Two cars were damaged.

At night of September 19, in the village of Ordzhonikidzobskaja, Sunzhensky district, a grenade was thrown into the building of the regional court. The building was insignificatly damaged. 1,5 hours later the second fougasse exploded 50 meters from the court.

At night of September 20, in the village of Nesterovskaja, Sunzennsky district was killed a representative of FSB Gilani Amriev. Two persons in masks, dressed in camouflage uniform broke into the house, where Gilani Amriev lived and shot him dead.

On September 20, at 7 p.m. in the town of Karabulak the road leading to restaurant "Zolotoy Dvorets" a car with representatives of Ingush militia was subjected to fire. As a result, three militiamen were killed and one seriously injured.

In the light of the above described developments, an accident, which happened in Nazran, Moskovskaja street 31, 24 hours before the explosion appears puzzling.

In the morning at about 5:30 a.m. residents of houses ## 31 и 23 in Moskovskaja street of the town of Nazran, who woke up at dawn for the morning prayer, noticed a strange man who was planting small object under concrete block in the yard of one of the houses. This happened in about 70 meters from the building of the municipal militia (GUVD) and 150 meters from the Supreme Court of Republic of Ingushetia.

Liza Barkinhoeva, a resident of house N 23 in Moskovskaja street noticed a Moskvich car of light blue color with darkened windows registered in the 6th region, number 873. There were two men inside the car. One of them, of Slavic nationality, bend above the concrete block and planted some object under the block. Then he lightly pressed the soil with his foot, washed his hands in a puddle, got into the car, which drive away.

Barkinhoeva considered the behavior of the unidentified people strange and she called for the neighbors – Lidija Patieva and Fatima Komurzoeva, residents of house N 31. It turned out that Fatima Komurzoeva also saw a suspicious man, who was planting something under the concrete block. Patieva headed towards the garages, while Barkinhoeva, Komurzoeva and another local resident, Magomed Shakhmurziev went to GUVD to inform the militiamen about the strange men.

Having approached the garage Patieva noticed that a blew car "Moskvich" was located 100 meters from the place where a strange object had been planted. An unidentified man was standing next to the car and talking on his mobile phone. Having noticed Patieva he got into the car which immediately left. Right after that another car ('Niva') of dark brown color approached the garages. Patieva tried to warn the driver in the Ingush language that the place was dangerous and he should not approach it.

However, the car reached the very place where the strange object was allegedly planted and the man started doing something under the concrete block. Patieva could not see what exactly he was doing, because of the car on the way. However, she had an impression that the unidentified man dug out the object which was planted there and put it in his car. Then the man came up to Patieva and said in Russian "Woman, everything is under control. Our employee was working here." By appearance and unaccented language Patieva realized that the man was Russian. She asked whether he was a representative of a security agency, and he gave a positive response. To prove his identity he showed his ID. According to Patieva he was very nervous, his jaw was trembling as well as his hand which held the ID. The ID said that the man's name was Nesterenko Vitalij (or Anatolij), and he was an operations executive of a security agency (the threatened woman could not make out which exactly). Patieva asked what he was doing there: "Are you checking our attention?" she asked. Nesterenko agreed.

By that time other women brought a militiaman from GUVD. However, the militiaman looked rather intoxicated, he was unable to make sense of the situation. Nesterenko, used the opportunity and told the militiamen that he would himself drive to GUVD. And indeed, he left the yard and pretended to drive in the direction of GUVD, but he then turn into the opposite direction and disappeared.

At 8:00 representatives of Ministry for Emergency situations arrived with the sappers. They searched the area but found nothing. They were skeptical about the information provided by the women and laughed at them.

This situation would have remained an awkward accident if it had not been for an explosion which went off less than 24 hours later, 100 meters from the place where the operations executive Nesterenko (or a man who presented himself as Nesterenko) and his colleagues planted and then dug out a strange object.

On September 16, after the explosion Patieva, Komurzoeva and Barkinhoeva were invited for interrogation by the Mikail Evloev, the investigator of Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Ingushetia and investigator of prosecution Fargiev. During the interrogation Komurzaeva was shown a recording made by video camera, placed in the fence of the Court. The recordings from the afternoon of September 14 and dawn of September 15 have the same Moskvich car and the brown Niva car near the Court. Moreover, the recording captures a man, who looked very much like the one who planted something under the concrete block, repeatedly entering the Court on September 14. The same cars were on the record at the dawn of September 15.

When the women tried to reproach the militiamen for ineffectiveness, which resulted in the explosion of September 16, both investigators let them know that this is not their business anymore and they should better forget the whole story.

The local residents are puzzled how to interpret the events of September 15, was it the ineffectiveness of militia which let the terrorist go, or an analogue of the notorious 'Ryzan training' by special services?