Vultures over Nord-Ost

The atmosphere of secrecy around the Dubrovka tragedy has not dissipated so far

The Strasbourg Court, as Novaya Gazeta reported in its last issue (dated 07.07.2008), officially notified that lawyers Igor Trunov and Karinna Moskalenko had classified the complaints about Nord-Ost. The Registrar of the European Court of Justice formulated...

The Strasbourg Court, as Novaya Gazeta reported in its last issue (dated 07.07.2008), officially notified that lawyers Igor Trunov and Karinna Moskalenko had classified the complaints about Nord-Ost. The Registrar of the European Court put it this way: “The President of the Chamber has decided in accordance with Rule 33 (paragraph 1) of the Rules of Court that the documents submitted in connection with this case will not be available for public inspection.”

Without a doubt, such a decision should be joyfully received by the Russian authorities, who during all these years that have passed since the terrorist attack have done everything to classify the circumstances of its commission and the reasons for the death of the hostages. Anna Politkovskaya, who personally negotiated with the militants who seized the theater center on Dubrovka, tried to destroy this veil of secrecy and conducted her own journalistic investigation.

February 2003

In the Tver Intermunicipal Court, Judge Gorbacheva heard the tragic story of the death of 27-year-old artist of the Nord-Ost orchestra Timur Khaziev. There were 61 lawsuits in total. The result of the hearings so far is that the first three plaintiffs have been denied.

“Timur, when he left for work for the last time, had ten different identification cards with photographs in his pockets: that he was an artist of the Nord-Ost orchestra, a passport, a driver’s license ... But in the end, on October 27, the family received his body with a rubber tag , tied to the arm, which read: "No. 2551 Khamiyev unknown." <...> The Khazievs have death certificates in their hands, in which there is no “cause of death”. It's just empty space. And there is no hint that there was a terrorist attack at all.”

April 2003

“... The capture by terrorists of more than eight hundred hostages in the Theater Center on Dubrovka in Moscow could have been controlled by the Russian special services ... Such a conclusion allows us to draw an interview with 30-year-old Khanpash Terkibaev ...

<...> Apparently, it is Khanpash who is the very person whom everyone involved in the Nord-Ost tragedy was looking for. The man who carried out the attack from the inside. According to the information available in the editorial office (and he himself does not unlock, a conceited man!), Khanpash is an agent sent by special services. He entered the building along with the terrorists. As a squad member. Behind the scenes, in his own words, he provided passage through Moscow and to the Nord-Ost itself. <...> He left the building without waiting for the assault. Moreover, he had a plan for the Theater Center on Dubrovka, which neither Baraev, the nephew who commanded the terrorists, nor even at first the special forces detachment preparing for the assault had. If there was such a mishandled agent in Nord-Ost, then this means that the authorities knew that a terrorist attack was being prepared. <...> And this - turns the whole course of events six months ago.

August 2003

Anna Politkovskaya received a visit from a representative of the "special group at the Moscow City Prosecutor's Office, which is investigating the Nord-Ost case."

“Naturally, upon closer examination, he turned out to be a fighter of the invisible front - an FSB investigator, and, of course, I know his last name, but it is useless here, it is not important; his appearance and behavior is an indicator of HOW it all happened, verification and investigation. ... He said that he had 15-20 minutes for everything about everything. What needs to be short. That the case, in principle, is already being closed, but here, they say, “this information”, it is not very relevant now, and in general, they did not have anything like that in the case, and therefore it’s better not to ... The fighter asked several formal questions. He was not interested in any details, he did not include them in the protocol, citing their insignificance. The fighter was seriously interested in only one thing: that after the publication in our newspaper, Basayev threatened to deal with Terkibayev as a traitor. This was recorded as required by the Code of Criminal Procedure. So why did this FSB officer come? To find a way to get the agent out of harm's way and organize his defense against Basayev. <...> Soon they announced the closure of the Nord-Ost case due to the absence of living members of the terrorist detachment and the dissolution of the investigation group.

January 2004

A month before the end of the investigation, Vladimir Kalchuk, an investigator from the Department for the Investigation of Banditry and Murders, meets with former hostages and the families of the victims at the Moscow City Prosecutor's Office.

“Mr. Kalchuk was asked the main questions of concern to people, but, in fact, he did not answer any of them. But he said a lot more...

- Do you think that on the videotape, which was published by Novaya Gazeta, one of the hostages could have been destroyed in this way? ( No. 90 is footage from October 26, 2002, filmed at 6:51 a.m. on the threshold of the Dubrovka Theater Complex, where an unknown woman in camouflage is aiming and possibly firing a pistol at an unknown man with his hands cuffed back. )

“On film, no one finishes anyone off. This is how journalists want to present what they are finishing off. We have appointed an expert. There, the corpse was dragged from place to place, and the woman simply shows where. We know whose body it is.

- Whose?

- I will not say. You say something, and you say it's nonsense. <…>

- A question about Terkibaev. ( one of the members of the terrorist detachment who left the Nord-Ost building before the assault . - Approx. ed. )

- Terkibaev was not there. But Politkovskaya did not help us. Refused to give information about Terkibaev. She said, "I don't know anything." …

At the end of the two-hour meeting, I had to intervene and remind Mr. Kalchuk about the truth in the Terkibaev case. After very long requests, investigator Timoshin (Kalchuk's subordinate) came to the editorial office of our newspaper and collected all the information that the editorial office had. Under protocol.

Kalchuk's reaction to these reminders was inadequate. He asked to calm down and not write anymore, otherwise he would “hint” to the victims of “Nord-Ost” that my son’s mobile phone number was, for example, found in the database of the phone used by the terrorists, “and then we’ll see what they will do with you ... And in general, you can ask what kind of connections you personally had with the terrorists ... " <...> "It was necessary to negotiate in those days - and I did it."

February 2004

“For a year and four months, only mothers and fathers - and not society - persuaded investigator Kalchuk to let them read cases about the causes of death of their relatives. Finally allowed some. With the condition: do not copy materials in an official way. <…> So that there are no more courts. <…>

Moms and dads rewrite forensic reports on the death of their children. Here it is, the first, primary, that is, immediately after death: "Pathological anatomical diagnosis: poisoning with a toxic substance." In black and white - poison, not a harmless gas. In almost all the dead, the primary diagnosis establishes that people died from a “toxic” or “unknown toxic” substance. <...> The investigation team, having received over a hundred primary examinations of forensic doctors almost identical in content, did not do the only thing that was obliged to find out what kind of gas and convert the “unknown toxic substance” into a known one. <…> The group did exactly the opposite - it appointed repeated commission (indirect) examinations - for everyone. <...> And the “commissions” decided: everyone who died (except for six people who died from the failure to provide timely medical care) came to the performance with incurable internal diseases (!), In fact, invalids, and these diseases of theirs could not withstand the stress caused by the detachment Chechen terrorists. <...> One day, the special services accidentally blurted out: “... In order to prevent the mass death of innocent people ... a special formulation based on fentanyl derivatives was used. <...> in accordance with the current legislation, data on the composition, concentration and duration of exposure to the special recipe used during the counter-terrorist operation are not subject to disclosure ... Head of the FSB Department for Moscow and the Moscow Region V.N. Zakharov, No. 1/1471 dated November 3, 2003. Kalchuk looked at this paper, which the victims brought him, and said (she heard it herself): “I didn’t see it. I don't know that. Fentanyl? Didn't hear."

April 2004

“<…> 129 people died, all the terrorists were destroyed, the accomplice of the terrorists (recognized by the court) Zaurbek Talkhigov received 8 years, another accomplice, Khanpash Terkibaev, died under strange circumstances in a car accident; the official investigation (investigator - Vladimir Kalchuk, Moscow City Prosecutor's Office) is sluggish, attempts to conduct a parallel investigation are ridiculed. What gas was used? Who is responsible for choosing the composition? Who gave the order to apply? Who did not order the organization of specialized assistance to gas victims? <...> as a result, after a year and a half, these questions remain only for the internal use of the victims.”

July 2004

“... All the victims of the theatrical tragedy, the official assures, died due to their own numerous illnesses against the background of dehydration and stress, and a little bit due to the use of an “unidentified chemical substance”. But why was it impossible to identify THIS most "unidentified" thing in two years? Not a sound about this. "Does not seem possible".

November 2004

There is a sensation in the Nord-Ost case: for the first time in two years, the victims of the tragedy were able to read the decision of the prosecutor's office to refuse to initiate a criminal case. On the third attempt, Judge Susina made the Moscow City Prosecutor's Office enforce the law: providing the court with the materials of criminal case No. 229133.

... “According to the explanation of Alabov A.Yu. ( the position is not specified, apparently, this is an employee of the special forces. - A.P. ) <...> he personally saw how the doctors "shone flashlights in the eyes of the victims, pulled off the lower part of their clothes and made injections in the gluteal region." <…> What kind of doctors? Officially, there were no doctors in the hall at 6.30, they also had no order to advance, only later they would begin to pick up their patients from the steps at the recreation center. Then who could "shine lanterns"? Were it not the military chemists who continued the experiment and hastily injected their victims, who were still alive, with antidotes known only to them?

“From the explanations of the chief physician of the 13th Aronov: “There was no official information about what caused this state of the hostages, the hospital did not receive.” But even these explanations of the doctor were left without any investigative attention: why did the one who was obliged and knew not tell what people were poisoned with? The investigation did not even move in this direction.”

Outcome: "Refuse to initiate a criminal case due to the absence in the actions <...> of officials responsible for organizing the provision of medical care, corpus delicti." The decision is dated December 31, 2002. It took more than two years to hide the main state secret.”

April 2005

The victims in the Theater Center manage to subpoena the head of the investigation group of the Moscow city prosecutor's office, Vladimir Kalchuk. Anna Politkovskaya is quoting dialogues between lawyer Karinna Moskalenko and Kalchuk.

“MOSKALENKO: <…> When and where did Letyago Alexandra die? In the hospital? In the hall?

KALCHUK ( annoyed, shifts to thieves intonations ): Well, why are we going to crush again ... I have a lot of these. Well, where did Letyago die? I don't remember.

MOSKALENKO: Did the investigation team identify the substance that was used by the special services during the assault?

KALCHUK: I relied on official expertise. There was no mention of any gas. It's all media.

MOSKALENKO: But then why does it say on page 13 of your resolution that the use of nalaxone (a potent drug used to block drugs in the treatment of opium-type addictions - A.P.) did not play a significant role in the condition of the victims?

KALCHUK: Why are you someone else, why?! Because the victims constantly used this substance. ( A necessary clarification to this principled statement by the investigator: he claims that since practically all 129 dead hostages had an “unidentified chemical substance” in their blood, it means that they used drugs. - A.P. )

MOSKALENKO: Did the investigators make their requests to identify the substance?

KALCHUK: What, are you going to teach me here? What else do you need? I won't tell you anything more!

MOSKALENKO: But you are on trial.

KALCHUK ( although the judge didn't give him a word ): I won't talk any more - you won't get anything from me. And I won't come here again. Don't want".

December 2005

“And this is what turned out when the Moscow City Prosecutor's Office managed to re-shoot materials for 60 people: 60 dead, in particular, post-mortem examinations of the autopsy of bodies. Of the 60, 40 indicated that they were not provided with medical assistance. The victims at Dubrovka wrote to President Putin. The letter said: “The materials of the investigation made it possible to correct the number of dead, of which there are at least 174 hostages. 129 is a frozen figure from three years ago! It is not clear who made such a mistake and “hid” 45 dead for almost three years! According to the conclusions of medical experts about the death of the hostages, it was possible to evaluate the properties of the "harmless gas". After the assault, all the vital organs of the dead underwent irreversible changes incompatible with life: “sudden cardiac death”, “rapid death syndrome”, “sudden death syndrome” - variations of the causes of the “collective” death of the hostages from the protocols of medical examinations.

“The Nordostites have gone through everything that is possible. They filed lawsuits and received refusals in the Tver, Zamoskvoretsky, Nikulinsky courts of Moscow, in the Moscow City Court, in the Constitutional Court. There is still hope for Strasbourg, the Nord-Ost case is next in line there and is listed as the case of Chernetsova and Others v. the Russian Federation.