| The President of Ingushetia was saved by a Mercedes from a Zhiguli terrorist car. The President of Ingushetia, Murat Zyazikov, was attacked by kamikaze terrorists yesterday morning. On the federal highway "Caucasus" at the exit from Nazran, when the head of the republic was heading to work in Magas, unknown saboteurs (or saboteurs - the number of criminals was still unknown yesterday) in Zhiguli cars loaded with explosives tried to ram his motorcade. Fortunately, no one died as a result of the powerful explosion. Mr. Zyazikov himself escaped with a slight concussion and bruises - he was saved by an armored Mercedes 600, which the head of Ingushetia has been using since the time of his election. Moreover, according to experts, if the president had been in a “regular” car at the time of the attack, he would have had little chance of survival. Experts yesterday estimated the power of the bomb detonated by a suicide bomber at 50-100 kg of TNT, but it went off only 10-15 meters from Mr. Zyazikov’s foreign car. Also, according to the intelligence services of Ingushetia, four people were seriously wounded - three presidential guards and a 9-year-old boy who happened to be nearby.
The explosion on the outskirts of Nazran became one of the largest terrorist attacks in Russia since the beginning of this year and the first “reliable” large-scale action by kamikaze bombers, who were marked by a series of bloody attacks last year. (As is known, there is still no documentary evidence that it was a suicide bomber who acted in the Moscow metro on February 6.) Moreover, it was directed against the head of the republic. However, both the intelligence services and the government structures reacted to the incident very restrainedly, without clear assessments and hard conclusions. Thus, President Putin limited himself to a telephone conversation with Mr. Zyazikov, who, after the emergency, having received first medical aid, went home to recover. According to the Kremlin press service, Vladimir Putin, in a conversation with the victim, noted that “he will provide constant assistance and assistance to the leadership of Ingushetia in establishing normal life in the republic.”
The Ingush special services also spoke cautiously yesterday about who could be behind the assassination attempt on Mr. Zyazikov. Thus, representatives of the republican prosecutor's office officially reported only that “we classify this emergency as a terrorist attack against the head of a federal subject.” In private conversations, investigators and operatives said that by all indications, the version of an attack by Chechen militants was naturally being considered as the main one.
Apart from them, no one else used suicide bombers in our country. In addition, the choice of Mr. Zyazikov as a victim is also understandable. He is a general of the FSB, and after coming to the leadership of the republic, he immediately intensified the actions of local special services against Chechen militants. Before this, the separatists felt calm in Ingushetia, having well-equipped bases and large weapons depots there. Moreover, this is not the first such terrorist attack. On September 12 last year, the Ingush special services neutralized a powerful landmine that was also planted along the route of Mr. Zyazikov’s motorcade. And on September 15, a truck loaded with explosives, driven by suicide bombers, exploded in Magas in front of the facade of the republican FSB directorate (then 2 people were killed and 29 were injured). In this regard, by the way, yesterday the FSB Directorate of Ingushetia did not rule out the possibility that the cases of the explosion on September 15 and the assassination attempt on the president of the republic could be combined, since in both cases the trace of the same group can be traced.
However, acting The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ingushetia, Abukar Kostoev, noted yesterday that “the investigation has several versions, including the “Chechen” one, but for now, in order not to interfere with the investigation, they cannot be named.” Apparently, this statement meant that Mr. Zyazikov may still have intra-republican enemies. And the intelligence services have no doubt that they existed until recently. The first attempt on Mr. Zyazikov's life occurred in the spring of 2002, shortly before the second round of the presidential elections. Then the criminals planted a bomb near the house of a relative of the current president of the republic, with whom Zyazikov was then living. As a result, the owner of the house was seriously injured, but Mr. Zyazikov was not injured. But it was after this that he was given an armored Mercedes, which saved his life yesterday.
Among politicians, the “Chechen” version of the assassination attempt on Marat Zyazikov was the first to indignantly reject the head of Chechnya, Akhmat Kadyrov: “In Ingushetia, there are no fewer criminal groups, if not more, than in Chechnya.” However, other Republican politicians seem to disagree. “Security in Chechnya is fully consistent with wartime, and it is futile for the separatists to fight there. But Ingushetia and other neighboring regions are still living peacefully, and they hope that the situation there can be destabilized,” Abdul-Khakim Sultygov, former special representative of the Russian President in Chechnya, said in a conversation with a correspondent of the Vremya Novostei newspaper. He believes that the attempt on Mr. Zyazikov's life could have been the militants' response to recent changes in Chechnya - in particular, the March surrender of Maskhadov's Defense Minister Magomed Khambiev. The explosion in Nazran could also have been a PR action by militants. “They need to present something to the sponsors. In addition, if the assassination attempt on Murat had been successful, the media would have immediately started talking about the complete failure of Russian policy in Chechnya,” says Mr. Sultygov.
Ingush politicians, starting with the president himself, express essentially the same, very vague version of what happened. “The terrorist attack was carried out by those who do not like the positive changes taking place in the country and the region,” the injured President Zyazikov himself said yesterday. - The initiators and executors wanted to destabilize the situation, disrupt the peace process in the region and expand the theater of military operations. But they won’t break us, Russia will always be there, and terrorists and separatists have no future.” Who exactly is dissatisfied with the positive changes is not specified, although there are not many answers to this question. In addition to the Chechen militants and the terrorist international, everything reasonable, good and eternal in Ingushetia, from the point of view of its administration, has hidden enemies - supporters of the “former regime”. For example, Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of the Republic Bashir Aushev does not exclude the intra-Ingush political version, although in a conversation with a correspondent of the Vremya Novostey newspaper he tried to use the most rounded formulations: “The terrorist attack is directed directly against the Ingush people. Many people do not like the improvements that are taking place, the fact that during this time Ingushetia has become so firmly integrated into the legal field of Russia. Although we should not forget about the neighborhood with Chechnya.”
But Senator from Ingushetia Vasily Likhachev is sure: “There is no opposition in Ingushetia.” The senator agrees that the legal regime in Ingushetia currently “can be viewed from a critical perspective,” but revenge from the dissatisfied, in his opinion, is excluded. Mr. Likhachev adheres to the geopolitical version: “We are dealing with a case of rare political cynicism. The perpetrators of the terrorist attack wanted to create dissonance in the social and political life of Ingushetia, and in those days when UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was in Russia. It is quite possible that the threads of this crime stretch not only beyond the borders of Ingushetia, but also beyond the borders of Russia,” he told the Vremya Novostei newspaper.
For now, it is obvious that the background to yesterday’s explosion will not be revealed very soon. By the end of Tuesday, investigators were only able to reconstruct the general picture of the assassination attempt itself. According to the prosecutor's office of Ingushetia, the emergency occurred at 9.40 in the morning, when Mr. Zyazikov's motorcade was leaving Nazran along the Caucasus highway to the capital of the republic, Magas. According to the testimony of the president’s security guards, soon after they followed the traffic police picket at the entrance to Nazran, a white VAZ-2107 car was attached to the “tail” of the president’s Mercedes and the Toyota Land Cruiser jeep with security. For some time, the Zhiguli followed at a distance, and then suddenly began to overtake - the motorcade at that moment was traveling at a speed of 80-90 km/h. The bodyguards immediately drew attention to this, and as soon as the Zhiguli swerved to the side, clearly aiming for the rear door of the Mercedes, they managed to react. The Mercedes driver suddenly braked, and the security jeep began to ram the intruder, pushing him to the side of the road. When the Zhiguli had already flown to the side of the road, a powerful explosion occurred. The president's Mercedes was quite badly damaged - its hood flew off, its doors and roof were dented. However, in general, the armor withstood the blow, and the president and the guards inside were only damaged by the shock wave. The security jeep was pierced by shrapnel and also mangled.
Both the terrorists themselves and their car were literally scattered into small pieces. In the place where the Zhiguli filled with explosives was located, only a crater 1 meter deep and 3.5 meters wide remained. It was not clear yesterday how many terrorists there were. Hypothetically, the detectives suggested that two bombers took part in the assassination attempt - one drove the car, and the other worked on the bomb. However, by the evening, having examined the surroundings, experts suggested that, judging by the scraps of clothing found and fragments of the body, it seemed that there was still only one bomber. Victor PAUKOV, Alexander RASKIN, Ivan SUKHOV |
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