Asia Times: Terror threat comes home to Moscow



	September 15, 1999	atimes.com

Central Asia/Russia

Terror threat comes home to Moscow
By Sergei Blagov

MOSCOW - After the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Boris Yeltsin promised Russians that they would be part of the world's elite. Nine years later, they instead find themselves facing an endless economic crisis, rampant graft, and now, terrorist bombs.

The threat of violence in Russia is no longer isolated on Russia's fringe, where militant rebel groups from neighboring Chechnya are a constant threat, but is now seemingly omnipresent in the Russian capital itself. On Monday, Moscow suffered its second bombing in five days. Together with the images of the destroyed residential block in southern Moscow - where 140 people lived and at least 50 were killed by a powerful explosion - Russian television announced the phone numbers for the city morgues.

Nikolai Kovalyov, chief of Moscow's police department said the attack was carried out by the same group that had destroyed another apartment building on 9 September, killing 94 people.

The second deadly blast fuelled rumors that Yeltsin was going to decree a state of emergency, which would automatically suspend parliamentary elections due in December. Yeltsin introduced tough security measures, but promised that ''all actions will be in accordance with the constitution'', apparently clearing up doubts about the issue.

The president on Monday chaired an emergency meeting with Interior minister Vladimir Rushailo, Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov and the head of the Federal Security Service, the KGB's successor, Nikolai Patrushev. Yeltsin ordered Luzhkov - one of his main political foes - to have all of Moscow's estimated 30,000 apartment blocks checked by police to prevent further bombings. The mayor had already linked both blasts to Chechen terrorists, and promised tough action against their supporters in Moscow.

Yeltsin also ordered a tightening of security measures at nuclear power stations, oil depots and other sensitive sites across Russia. ''We have to join efforts when facing a common enemy,'' Yeltsin said in televised remarks, apparently sending a conciliatory message to his political opponents.

The message appears to have fallen on deaf ears. The leaders of the Federation Council and the State Duma - the upper and lower chambers of Russian parliament - made it clear Monday that even in the aftermath of the bombings in Moscow they would not back a decree on emergency rule. Members of the Russian parliament argued that the law governing the imposition of a state of emergency is yet to be approved, and under the circumstances the emergency rule by decree could throw Russia into lawlessness.

Russian former prime minister and presidential hopeful Yevgeny Primakov has also opposed emergency rule in Russia, because it could be used not to combat terrorism but ''to achieve political goals''. ''We have been pressed into a terrorist war, and we have turned out to be unprepared for this war.''

Only Vladimir Ryzhkov, leader of a pro-Kremlin ''Our Home Russia'' faction in Parliament has said he would probably support emergency rule. A ''de facto state of emergency has been introduced in combat zones of Dagestan'', he argued.

Russian officials speculated that the latest bombing was in fact the militant's retaliation for the seizure of rebel strongholds in Dagestan by the Russian army. On 12 September Russian troops dislodged rebels from the villages of Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi, the main stronghold of Islamic fundamentalism in Dagestan, where local leaders announced in September 1998 that they would no longer recognize Russian authorities and pledged to live by the Islamic Sharia law.

The two villages had come under intense bombing and shelling over the past three weeks. In a bid to support Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi enclave, hundreds of Chechen rebels crossed last week over into Novo Lak, another Dagestani district, vowing to set up an independent Islamic state. A rebel leader, a Jordanian militant known as Khattab, reportedly threatened Moscow that he would unleash a terrorist campaign in all Russian cities.

In a strange twist of fate, the blasts seem to have revived international support for the Kremlin, which had been flagging in recent weeks because of allegations of money-laundering and corruption. US Secretary of Defense William Cohen, speaking in Moscow, condemned the bombing as an act of terrorism against innocent civilians and promised to cooperate with Russia to combat terrorism.

Russian media speculated that it was the Kremlin itself who could be interested in a considerable destabilization in Russia - so as to distract the world's attention from the graft allegations. But even Yeltsin's strongest critics have dismissed such views. Embattled former prosecutor general Yuri Skuratov - who was proactive in revealing corruption in Yeltsin's inner circle and lost his job as a result - described the allegations as ''absurd''.

Russia is currently in the grip of terrorism, and only strong leadership could stand up to this threat. And, as Guennady Zyuganovas, chairman of the Russian Communist party, argued, a strong national leader is not available at the moment.

(Inter Press Service)