Translated material
Georgian trace?
Nine Russian peacekeepers were killed in a terrorist attack in South Ossetia
Russian authorities on Saturday officially accused the Georgian special services of involvement in organizing the explosion that occurred on Friday afternoon in Tskhinvali near the headquarters of Russian peacekeepers. As a result of the emergency, according to final official data, 11 people were killed - two local residents and nine Russian soldiers from the peacekeeping contingent in South Ossetia, including the head of the Joint Headquarters of the peacekeeping forces in the conflict zone, Colonel Ivan Petrik. Six more Russian peacekeepers were seriously injured.According to the official representative of the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office (SKP) of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Markin, on the basis of a special agreement with the Prosecutor General's Office of South Ossetia, a team of employees of the Military Investigation Department (MID) of the SKP took over the investigation of the explosion in Tskhinvali. They immediately regarded the incident as “terrorism”, opening a corresponding criminal case, and already on the second day of work they announced their conclusions. “The investigation has every reason to believe that Georgian special services were involved in the terrorist attack in Tskhinvali,” Mr. Markin said on Saturday. - The purpose of this action is to destabilize the situation in the young independent republic, which has only recently begun to recover from the aggression of the Georgian army against South Ossetia. The Georgian leadership continues to pursue a policy of state terrorism. Georgian intelligence services do not stop planning and organizing provocations and acts of sabotage, which are directed not only against the citizens of South Ossetia, but also against Russian peacekeepers.”
The quick conclusions of Russian investigators became a logical continuation of the exchange of mutual claims between the authorities of South Ossetia and Georgia, which began in the very first hours after the explosion. The head of South Ossetia, Eduard Kokoity, said that the terrorist attack was organized by the Georgian Ministry of State Security. And the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs, in turn, stated that Russian special services were behind the explosion, who are pursuing the goal of “delaying the withdrawal of Russian occupation forces from the areas adjacent to the conflict zone,” provided for by the Medvedev-Sarkozy plan . According to these agreements, from October 1 to October 10, Russian peacekeepers must withdraw their units from the “security zones” around South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and they must be replaced by EU observers. The explosion in Tskhinvali actually coincided with the beginning of the implementation of this plan, but there is no talk of its disruption yet.
Yesterday afternoon, Assistant Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Ground Forces, Colonel Igor Konashenkov, officially announced that “we have begun work on dismantling and removing materiel from observation posts located on the southern border of the security zone.” His words were confirmed by the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs and the EU observer mission. According to the Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs, on Sunday night, about 30 Russian military trucks left the village of Urta in the Zugdidi region of Georgia, and the military began dismantling the peacekeepers’ base located in this village. In addition, according to Georgian data, Russian army units began preparing to leave the villages of Kanti, Anaklia, Chkhorotsku and Ganmukhuru. In turn, the head of the EU mission in Georgia, Hans Jörg Haber, said yesterday that in the afternoon, Russian units canceled their post and left the village of Nabarkhevi in the Khashuri region of Georgia.
As for the explosion itself in Tskhinvali, despite the violent reaction to it by the authorities of South Ossetia, Russia and Georgia, only the circumstances of the explosion and its consequences are so far known with certainty. The explosion occurred at about 16.45 a few meters from the headquarters of the Russian peacekeepers in the so-called Lower Town of Tskhinvali. This happened at the moment when the military began examining a suspicious car delivered by the patrol, which, according to preliminary data, contained a powerful bomb.
As a result of the terrorist attack, 11 people were killed. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of South Ossetia, nine Russian military personnel were on the list of victims of the terrorist attack: the chief of staff of the peacekeepers, Colonel Ivan Petrik, Major Igor Kukarin, Major Ravil Kolchin, Private Marat Astsandiyarov, Junior Sergeant Alexander Durkin, Junior Sergeant Vyacheslav Khorosh, Senior Sergeant Pavel Kurkin, foreman Sergei Shurulya and junior sergeant Sergei Bakalev. Major Sergei Volochaev, warrant officer Vyacheslav Kilinchenko, warrant officer Sergei Popov, private Vladimir Dashiev, junior sergeant Vladimir Pavlov and sergeant Ivan Soldatenko were injured.
The chief of staff of the peacekeepers, Colonel Petrik, was in his office on the first floor of the headquarters building at the time of the explosion; the car was left almost under his window. The explosion was so powerful that windows in buildings within a radius of almost 500 meters were broken.
Where this car came from, under what circumstances it appeared at the peacekeepers’ headquarters building and why it exploded, was not entirely clear. Almost everyone who knew this died, since the explosion occurred almost immediately after she was taken to headquarters and began to be examined.
Statements about the type of bomb planted in the car and the method of detonating it also did not look very reliable. Since the car was literally blown into small pieces, all this can only be determined by an examination, which in such cases takes several weeks, or even months. Accordingly, the reports of the South Ossetian Ministry of Internal Affairs that the mine in the car was radio-controlled and the terrorists detonated it specifically in such a situation and at that moment in order to inflict the greatest losses on the peacekeepers could be considered only one of the versions. After all, it can also be assumed that the car was blown up as a result of the careless actions of those who inspected it. Also, based solely on the scale of destruction, apparently, the power of the exploded bomb was determined - approximately 20 kg of TNT.
At first it was reported that the explosion occurred in a VAZ-2109 car, and later in a UAZ. True, in both versions it was noted that the mined car had Georgian registration numbers. Various data were also voiced regarding the origin of the car. According to some, he was discovered by South Ossetian militias patrolling in their private car in the area of the empty and destroyed village of Ditsi on the road to Gori, 5-6 km from Tskhinvali, where Georgians previously lived. The car attracted their attention because it was empty, but supposedly with the key in the ignition. The militia decided to deliver the car to Tskhinvali, but on the way they were stopped by a patrol of peacekeepers, who escorted both cars and four militia to the headquarters for investigation. According to this version, the explosion also killed two militiamen who found the car.
According to another version, the suspicious car was detained directly by a patrol of peacekeepers, since two grenades and machine guns were found on the people in it. And there was no talk of any militias. In addition, the South Ossetian Ministry of Internal Affairs assumed that the car could have been specially “planted” on the peacekeepers by the Georgian special services. According to this version, previously a detachment of Georgian special forces was based in the village of Ditsi, which was driven out of there during the hostilities, but recently Georgian saboteurs allegedly periodically visited the village.
In support of this version, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of South Ossetia stated that, according to their data, recently “Georgian special services have prepared 18 passenger cars filled with explosives to carry out terrorist attacks on the territory of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and the explosion in Tskhinvali is similar to the terrorist attack committed recently in Sukhumi building of the security service of Abkhazia." The head of the South Ossetian Information and Press Committee, Irina Gagloeva, for her part, noted that since the beginning of this year, seven similar terrorist attacks using cars brought from Georgian territory have been recorded in the republic. “As a rule, citizens agreed with relatives and acquaintances from the Georgian side about the purchase of transport, and then this transport exploded in South Ossetia,” Ms. Gagloeva said.