1999 Russian apartment bombings
| Russian apartment bombings | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Location | Buynaksk, Moscow and Volgodonsk |
| Date | 4–16 September 1999 |
| Target | Apartment buildings |
|
Attack type
|
Time bombings, terrorism |
| Weapons | RDX |
| Deaths | 293 |
|
Non-fatal injuries
|
1,000+ |
|
Suspected perpetrators
|
|
The 1999 Russian apartment bombings were a series of attacks carried out on four apartment blocks in the Russian cities of Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk in September 1999 that killed 293 people and injured more than 1,000. Together with the Dagestan War, the bombings led the country into the Second Chechen War.
The blasts hit Buynaksk on 4 September, Moscow on 9 and 13 September, and Volgodonsk on 16 September. An explosive device similar to those used in these bombings was found and defused in an apartment block in the Russian city of Ryazan on 22 September. The next day, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin praised the vigilance of the inhabitants of Ryazan and ordered the air bombing of Grozny, which marked the beginning of the Second Chechen War. According to the Moscow City Court, these were acts of terrorism organized and financed by the leaders of the illegal armed group Caucasus Islamic Institute. Thirty-six hours later, three FSB agents who had planted the explosives at Ryazan were arrested by the local police. The incident was declared to have been a training exercise and the agents were released on Moscow's orders.
Yury Felshtinsky, Alexander Litvinenko, Boris Berezovsky, David Satter, Boris Kagarlitsky, Vladimir Pribylovsky, and the secessionist Chechen authorities claim that the 1999 bombings were a false flag attack coordinated by the FSB in order to win public support for a new full-scale war in Chechnya. This war boosted the popularity of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who was previously the director of the FSB, and helped the pro-war Unity Party succeed in the elections to the State Duma and helped Putin attain the presidency within a few months. This theory has been criticised by Robert Bruce Ware, Henry Plater-Zyberk, and Simon Saradzhyan.
...
Wikipedia