Peg-Leg
MOSCOW - A notorious rebel Chechen warlord has claimed responsibility for blowing up a gas pipeline near Moscow and expressed concern over the explosion that tore through the capital's metro earlier this month. Moreover, Basayev said he is ready to dispatch ''special subdivisions to maintain law and order in the capital''. It seems that Mayor Luzhkov’s agreement is the only thing needed to have them officially registered in Moscow.
Basayev failed to justify the fears of Russian special services who had anticipated new terrorist attacks on the day of the 60th anniversary of the deportation of Chechens. Instead, Basayev reminded them of his existence in a more peaceful manner, by issuing a press statement.
The statement reads that the Islamic group Riyadus-Saliheyn, operating under his command, claims responsibility for carrying out ''a successful sabotage operation'' that resulted in the destruction of two gas pipelines and the blowing-up of a Moscow water-heating station.
In his statement, published by rebel news agency Kavkaz Tsentr, Shamil Basayev maintains that ''altogether 60 artillery shells were used in the sabotage operation''. The attack was aimed at temporarily cutting off gas supplies to the Russian capital and disrupting the normal operation of its heating system.
However, the rebel leader laments, not only did the Russian authorities guilefully ''classify all information about the action as secret'', but in fact they disrupted the rebels’ plans by redirecting gas intended for Belarus to the capital.
''The statement by the Russian authorities that the reason for cutting off gas supplies to Belarus is its debt is nothing but a bluff. Gas supplies (at the height of the winter season!) to Kaliningrad, Poland and other regions have been cut as well. We are hereby refuting these statements as being false and not conforming to reality,'' Basayev said.
Furthermore, Basayev claimed, the entire act of sabotage near Moscow has been videotaped, and the footage will be forwarded to the media in the near future. The Russian authorities have so far ignored Basayev’s statements. They are most probably investigating the incident that occurred on 18 February in the Ramenskoye district near Moscow.
On that day, in the vicinity of the village of Starnikovo, experts found a crater under a pipeline and 10-mm holes in a 200-mm gas pipe. On the day after the incident Alexander Alexeyev, a senior police official with the regional police directorate told Gazeta.Ru that judging by the size of the crater, either two explosive devices of about 200 grams of TNT or a bucket of petrol blew up under the pipeline.
An explosive device planted by unknown saboteurs under another pipe in the same area was discovered and defused by sappers before it detonated. Local police suggested that local teenagers, who had watched too many action movies, could have been to blame.
No serious damage was inflicted to the gas network and all the capital’s heating stations are operating normally, the city authorities said.
Remarkably, in his statement, Shamil Basayev expressed concern about the latest events in Moscow, including the recent blast in the metro. He even expressed his willingness to dispatch special units to protect law and order in Moscow. Earlier Basayev claimed responsibility for the October 2002 rebel raid on a Moscow musical theatre and a suicide bombing at an open-air rock concert in the capital in July 2003.
