"It will never be calm here"

Grozny after the terrorist attack: reporting Julia Sugueva

On the night of December 4 in Grozny, the largest terrorist attack in recent years occurred. A group of armed militants entered the capital of Chechnya and barricaded in the Press House - a high -rise building in the city center. As a result of the special operation, the security forces actually destroyed the building along with the terrorists. In addition, law enforcement officers from machine guns and grenade launchers fired at school No. 20, where militants also took refuge. Both sides suffered losses: 10 militants were killed - and the same number of police officers. The responsibility for the attack on the city was taken by the organization of Islamists, which was banned in Russia, Imrat Caucasus. Julia Sugueva, journalist, on the instructions of Medusa, went to Grozny and talked with eyewitnesses of battles.

“Hey, where are you going? Stop, do not come closer, open your hands, ”the Mask man shouts with a strong Chechen accent, directing the machine gun at me. - Don't take a step, you can’t do it here. Who are you at all? " “The main thing is that you do not explode here now,” his partner grumbles when I say that I am a journalist. - Show the documents. You walked there, poured to the wall, thought, we won’t notice? You go alone here. "

The center of the Terrible December 4 was really completely empty. After the terrorist attack, cafes, shops, state institutions did not open in the city; The schools announced a day off. The head of Chechnya advised local residents to sit at home; Residents tried not to peek out the windows. On all streets, intersections and alley stood military patrols. Traffic (except for service and taxi) in the center was limited; The entrance to the city was closed. I managed to get to Grozny only because I was with a woman and two men, late on the plane.

The taxi driver Rustam during the attack rested with friends near the house of the press. They first took the sounds of explosions for children's crackers, but then they saw burning traffic police cars. “The shooting began. The center was cordoned off, the equipment went - armored personnel carriers, UAZ, a lot. They began to beat the building [of the Press House], the smoke fell, and then we left sin away, ”says Rustam.

He is surprised that this event “attracted such attention of the media”, and believes that the incident by local standards is “everyday life”. “They often shoot here. There recently, the suicide bomber killed police officers (on October 5 in Grozny, the suicide bomber blew himself up near the entrance to the concert hall, as a result, five police officers were killed, 13 were injured - approx. Medusa ), the breaks periodically happen, shootings. ” Today's attack of Rustam considers the attempt of the militants to declare themselves - to show that, despite the statements of the authorities, they have not gone anywhere.

The cleaning operation lasted several hours. The exact number of participants in the attack on Grozny has not yet been reported; According to preliminary data, ten militants were killed (the search for bodies continues).

By noon, the bodies of the dead were still lying near the Press House. The workers disassembled the rubble, and the firefighters extinguished the two -story building, the covered market “Berkat”, which was sunbathing during the special operation, from which the roof collapsed. “They [the security forces] shot so much that they caught fire. From the armored personnel carriers, they beat and broke [building]. The police, of course, worked badly. There were few militants, but they were just a bunch of them, and they had as many weapons, and they suffered more losses. Do you have to fight like that? " - says a young guy named Muhammad, an eyewitness to the night battle. The security forces suffered tangible losses during the special operation - 10 police officers were killed, 28 were injured. So far, only one murdered peaceful resident is known.

The blue-blue building of the print house is severely damaged-it was completely burned out from the inside; Neon snowflakes and the word "year" remained from the New Year's jewelry. “Nothing, we will fix the building soon. In a month or even earlier as a new one will be. It’s like Ramzan [Kadyrov] will say, ”says the local resident Ruslan, who came to the house of the press with his team of workers - they are waiting for them to be engaged in the restoration of the building. While around the house of the press - military equipment and armed men in civilian clothes.

One of these men, seeing how I photograph the charred building, begins to scream something in Chechen. Realizing that I do not understand, goes into Russian: “You can’t shoot. Remove the camera and do not look for anything here, you will learn everything then. ” “No one will know anything,” says the woman standing nearby as soon as he leaves. “Nobody knows anything here, only conversations.” She lists rumors about today's attack: there were at least a hundred militants, they also captured a school, a maternity hospital, a kindergarten and one of the buildings of the oil technical school, there are many victims among civilians.

About two kilometers from the house of the press is school No. 20, where militants also took refuge. Muhammad escorts me there. When we move away from the accumulation of people, he says that he does not support either security forces or militants. However, the creation of an Imrat (Islamic state) in the Caucasus, in his opinion, is a “good idea”.

The guy does not know the exact road to school, but no one to ask, so we go to smoke and sound sounds. The territory around the school is guarded much more thoroughly than the print house, so it is not possible to approach it close. “There two escaped, they are caught. And they will shoot you if you climb, ”the policeman laughs. “It’s better to wait for us to eliminate these bastards.”

“They will eliminate how,” the elderly woman grows nearby, whom the policeman did not let her in a friend living in the house opposite the school. - Two Chechen survived, withstood so much, and now sit in the basement again. It will never be calm here, forever in martial law we will live. ”

Julia Sugueva

Terrible