Yesterday [1 November], Internet media disseminated a declaration by [Chechen separatist leader] Aslan Maskhadov's representative Akhmed Zakayev [currently in UK] containing a reply to another threat by [Chechen warlord Shamil] Basayev to continue terrorist acts against the Russian civilian population. "I am authorized to declare that the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria government categorically rejects this position and firmly condemns the taking of innocent citizens hostage and their murder," the disseminated document says. "The intentional use of civilians as targets is a military crime and subject to punishment in compliance with the Geneva conventions."
It should be noted that the declaration by Akhmed Zakayev came shortly after a report that secret services had detected more than 80 suicide-bombers heading to Russia (this information was announced at a State Duma session last Friday [29 October] by Russian FSB [Federal Security Service] Director Nikolay Patrushev). Officials of the FSB public relations centre refused yesterday [1 November] to provide any additional information to a Nezavisimaya Gazeta correspondent on possible "mass" appearance of suicide terrorists. Nor could the Russian Internal Affairs Ministry clarify the situation. "It would be illogical to comment on a declaration voiced by a representative of a different department," Nezavisimaya Gazeta was told at the Internal Affairs Ministry press service.
If new suicide-bombers are actually ready to appear in Russian cities, it would be logical to assume that they will rely on the already existing organizational network that has already been used to prepare terrorist acts. Law-enforcement agencies constantly encounter traces of this smoothly operating system when investigating major terrorist acts. It was the case, for example, when FSB staffers and police found in July of 2003 a base of terrorists in Tolstopaltsevo, a Moscow suburb (the tip came from Zarema Muzhakhoyeva, who prepared an explosion on First Tverskaya-Yamskaya Street). A store of ammunition, prepared by terrorists for blasting, was detected last March in Lyubertsy - later, it turned out that the "hideout" apartment had been rented by two Caucasians. After a series of terrorist acts in August (the bombings of aeroplanes and the Rizhskaya subway station), police obtained information on several apartments in Klin near Moscow, where hundreds of people, including those coming from the North Caucasus, were registered to live. Nikolay Kipkeyev, a "supervisor" of the female suicide-bomber who died in the Rizhskaya station bombing, was also registered in Klin.
Who are these people and how do they make their way to Moscow? Yuriy Sinelshchikov, former deputy prosecutor for Moscow (one of the last cases he handled was a terrorist act in Tushino at the "Krylya" festival in July of 2003), told a Nezavisimaya Gazeta correspondent that suicide-bombers are recruited as a rule in the North Caucasus. "I do not know of a single one who had already settled down in Moscow or at least travelled here frequently," he says. "The recruiters treat very seriously issues relating to personnel selection. As a rule, suicide-bombers are women whose relatives, husbands, or sons have died. In some cases, however, women who never experienced such tragedies in their lives have become suicide-bombers."
According to our source, the routine of direct preparation for a terrorist act has been long thoroughly practised. The suicide-bombers arrive in the capital on a regular train one or two days before the planned event. Notably, they are often not escorted by their supervisor (these people, mostly Caucasians, come to the capital several months before the terrorist act, obtain registration, and immediately after the act again hide in the Caucasus or adjacent regions). The supervisor meets the bombers and takes them to an earlier prepared apartment, which the suicide-bomber does not leave until "day zero". The supervisor is responsible for creating all necessary conditions, from finding an apartment and food for the suicide-bomber to assembling an explosive device.
The apartment is rented for several weeks and never through a real estate agency but through "many hands" - relatives of acquaintances, for example. In most cases, the apartment owners have no idea who will actually lives there. "The suicide-bomber never runs around the city looking for an apartment but always knows where to go and who will wait for him," Yuriy Sinelshchikov says. "Upon arrival, he immediately starts carrying out his tasks and acts according to an earlier agreed plan."
A special stage in the process of preparing a terrorist act is transportation of explosives. "In most cases, we have been able to establish their origin - it is the Caucasus," our source says. "It is easy to buy or forcibly obtain them there. A plastic-based explosive is delivered to Moscow by car - it stands to reason that it is impossible to check all passenger cars when they enter the city. No forces or resources are enough to turn inside out every car arriving from the south." As for the funds spent on preparation of a terrorist act, "these are not at all astronomic sums," according to Yuriy Sinelshchikov. The budget of one terrorist act amounts to several thousand dollars on average.

Source: Nezavisimaya Gazeta, Moscow
BBC Monitoring