Blowing Up Russia (33 page)
Authors: Alexander Litvinenko
Tags: #History, #Europe, #Russia & the Former Soviet Union, #Political Science, #General, #Intelligence & Espionage, #Terrorism, #World, #Russian & Former Soviet Union, #Social Science, #Violence in Society, #True Crime, #Espionage, #Murder
Galkin: Assistant head of sector senior lieutenant Alexei Viktorovich Galkin, employee & (the foreign journalists point out that Galkin is badly seated and the camera light is not falling on him. They seat Galkin a bit further to the right.) Journalist: You can move this way a bit closer to the light. Say it again into the camera, please.
Galkin: Assistant head of sector senior lieutenant Alexei Viktorovich Galkin, employee of the Central Intelligence Office [GRU] of the Russian Federation.
Journalist: Can I ask you, please, how you came to be here?
Galkin: Together with major Ivanov and senior lieutenant Pokhomov, I was arrested on October 3 on the territory of the Chechen republic of Ichkeria during an attempt to drive from Mozdok to the settlement of Bino-Yurt in order to carry out a special assignment.
Journalist: And during the attempted crossing all these documents here - this here is your identity pass, this here - did you have it on you?
[Shows the identity pass] Galkin: I had this pass on me, and these documents here were in our personal belongings.
Journalist: And what exactly is the purpose of this information here, that there is in this little book, what kind of information is in it?
Galkin: In here there is a verbal exchange table [he shows it] for working with communications equipment, that is a table of coded messages for transmitting information via open channels of communication such as ultra-short wave radio sets like Motorola, Kenwood and radio telephones.
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Journalist: What is the purpose of the information in this little book here?
[shows the book]?
Galkin: It is a notebook with mathematical formulas for blowing up constructions, structures, buildings and various facilities.
Journalist: Is this your note, your handwriting?
Galkin: Yes, that is my handwriting.
Journalist: What were you intending to do with this information, with the help of this information?
Galkin: Our task was to mine the motor roads in order to destroy motor vehicles with refugees and peaceful members of the public and also in the future for mining buildings and blowing up buildings with peaceful members of the public.
Journalist: Did you take part in the bombing of buildings in Moscow and Dagestan?
Galkin: I personally did not take part in the bombing of the buildings in Moscow and Dagestan, but I know who blew them up, who is behind the bombing of buildings in Moscow and who blew up the buildings in Buinaksk.
Journalist: Can you tell us who?
Galkin: For blowing up the buildings in Moscow and in Volgodonsk the Russian special services are responsible, the FSB together with the GRU [Central Intelligence Office].
The bombing of the buildings in Buinaksk was the work of members of our group, which at the time was on a mission in Dagestan.
Journalist: And as far as I know, here you have been recorded on tape, you confessed to all this, apparently you were filmed with a video camera. And when& when you, during the filming were you acting from your own wishes?
Voice off camera of the head of the Chechen Security Service Abu Movsaev: That&
Don t answer that question.
Journalist: How have you been treated here?
Galkin: I ve been treated well here. As I prisoner of war I have not been beaten here, they have fed me three times a day and when necessary given me medical assistance.
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Journalist: Here is the statement made by you. Do you confirm that you made it voluntarily without any pressure on the part of anyone?
Galkin: This statement is printed from my words, I wrote this statement by hand [holds the piece of paper in front of his face], with my personal signature.
Journalist: Now, at this moment, as you are speaking with us, are you afraid of anything?
Galkin: No, it is simply that this is the first time I have faced journalists& journalists from western television companies, so I am a bit nervous.
Abu Movsaev s voice off camera: Their departments are not allowed to appear on&
Galkin: It is quite simply that due to the nature of our work we have to& we are not supposed to show ourselves in front of television cameras. [Smiles tensely.] Journalist: Thank you.
Voice off camera: Ah, yes, now questions, only in Turkish& Come over here&
Journalist: They re the same questions, only in Turkish, they will ask and that is all&
[Questions are asked in Turkish, then translated into Russian.] Journalist: Do you confirm that all these documents belong to you? This identity pass here, this statement, it all belongs to you. [Galkin shows the identity pass in an open position.] Galkin: yes, all these documents belong to me.
Journalist: With what aim did you arrive in the region of Dagestan and afterwards in Chechnya?
Galkin: We arrived in Dagestan and Chechnya to carry out terrorist acts on the territory of Dagestan and on the territory of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.
Journalist: And against whom were these, were they directed? Were you supposed to carry out explosions against peaceful civilians or somebody else?
Galkin: These bombings were directed against peaceful civilians.
Journalist: And who& Who was it that sent you on this mission?
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Galkin: We were appointed and sent on our mission by order of the Central Intelligence Office [GRU] of the armed forces of the Russian Federation.
Journalist: Can you name the actual man who sent you?
Galkin: It was colonel general Korabelnikov, head of the Central Intelligence Office and head of the 14th section of the Central Intelligence Office lieutenant general Kostechko.
Journalist: Do you personally and does your unit have anything to do with the explosions in Moscow?
Galkin: Personally our unit has nothing to do with the explosions in Moscow, since at that time we were in Dagestan. The members of our unit, the members of our unit of 12 men, who were in Dagestan at that time, carried out the bombing of the house in Buinaksk.
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Appendix 10 Abu Movsaev s talk with a group of foreign journalists about the testimony of Senior Lieutenant A. Galkin Abu Movsaev: At the present time when we have with us a member of the GRU, their leader colonel Ivanov, the very one who supervised the blowing up of the house. The GRU& In the present situation you can photograph the senior lieutenant (shows identity pass) senior lieutenant Alexei Galkin, who was redeployed to the territory of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria from Dagestan. Is that it, have you photographed him? (They take photographs) More? In Volgodonsk too the explosions were carried out by members of the special services. And so today when they call us terrorists it proves the opposite. (Shows something) These are their cipher messages, that is, the cipher messages are here.
It s a book for explosions, for working with explosives, working with explosives activity: which ones and how much should be used. We have this all completely - the conclusive evidence and all their& It all (he demonstrates something) all this proves it (they take photographs)& That s all. Now, next, the next point&
Question: (Questions are usually asked in English and then translated into Russian by the interpreter, not always accurately and correctly). On whom exactly, on whom did you find this book?
Abu Movsaev s answer: Their group that was arrested here, the GRU. That is, that was, so that today you ll understand - that s the Central Intelligence Office of the Russian Federation, the 14th Department.
Question: On exactly what date did you find this book?
Answer: We arrested them, this group, on October 3-4 1999.
Question: When did they find this man?
Interpreter s answer: On the same day, the fourth, October 4.
Answer: The Fourteenth Department of the GRU. The Central Intelligence Office of the Russian Federation primarily handles killings of political leaders and sabotage activity.
Here s the statement made by senior lieutenant Galkin. (Shows it) Question: Does he have a voluntary statement?
Answer: Yes. There s his signature.
Question: Why didn t he make a statement immediately on October 4?
Answer: Ah, no& well at first we worked on him, worked on him for a long time, then he turned, we sent the cassette to Istanbul to the November 18 summit, where it specifically& they pointed out why they& After that, listen to this, after that the Russian leadership, the Central Intelligence Office, made a statement, supposedly they thought that we d shot them. Since we d spread the rumor.
Question: His motivation for confessing? What motivated him?
Answer: What motivated him was when he saw the Chechen people was being totally wiped out, indiscriminately. We showed him videos of children being murdered, women and old men being murdered, and then since after all I m a special services instructor and I know their Department, what they do, and when we gave him legal proof, and so after what followed, he confessed.
Question: And he accepted responsibility for one explosion, is that right?
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Answer: No& The explosion - at that time he was Buinaksk. The explosions made in Buinaksk were supervised by colonel Ivanov, who is his superior and was deployed to Chechnya with him. He named Ivanov and other employees, yes, no& but he didn t take part in this business.
Question: On the basis of this confession alone you draw the conclusion that the other explosions in Moscow were also the work of the Russian government? You only think&
Answer: Eh, no& We don t think, we have proof. The first proof, the first proof is that any group that they deploy in the rear of the enemy, they already know, their leader announces that we re going into the territory of the Chechen Republic since we made the explosions in Moscow, Volgodonsk and Buinaksk. That is, not specifically their group, in all of them, that is in the eyes of the peaceful community we made terrorists out of them, killers in the abduction of people, today we have to prove that these people are& they have to wiped out, that is the Chechen people. At the political briefings. Until now& the second point where we have proof is what I repeated before this and I repeat now: hexogene was used. There is no hexogene on the territory of Chechnya. Hexogene marked top secret in red is only held by the special services of the Russian Federation and without the leaders of the Central Intelligence Office and the FSB no one has the right to take a single gram of this hexogene. And afterwards Central Intelligence Office employees arrested by us explained that on the last raid their colonel Ivanov explained to them at the political briefing that these explosions were carried by our employees together with the FSB. Yes, yes, and another thing, they all talked about it&
Question: Do you accuse, place the guilt for these explosions on the Government of Russia, the Central Intelligence Office, the FSB or one individual in particular?
Answer: In the first place, I ll tell you specifically. Vladimir Putin as chairman developed them. Specifically by the leaders of these special services of the Russian Federation, former agents of external intelligence who were appointed by Putin and these are Putin s most trusted people at the present time. Here there is a second point: the fact that today with the political, in the political arena Putin today at any price, by any killings wants to become president of the Russian Federation. (The light goes out, they stop recording. Abu Movsaev lights a cigarette.) When I m smoking, please, don t film me. (They switch on the light, recording is resumed.) Answer: Another thing, I don t want to prove to you here today that we are angels, I don t want to prove that we are good people. We want to prove one thing: that Russia is a terrorist state. Nothing else. All that we today& that we re trying to do, for the sake of Allah we re doing it, if the West interferes, it won t interfere for us, if honestly speaking we are sure that today the West, the leadership of the West, will not at least intervene in the killing of the Chechen people, all the rest, you know, all the wars end through negotiations. I believe that we won the last war, I think& in this war, we ll win this war.
So you can have concrete information, today we were informed that Argun has been taken by the Russians. Right now bitter fighting is taking place in Argun and the Russian forces are pulling back. Right, any more questions for me? Afterwards& And I have just one request: translate for them& Too many questions& I won t let them ask the Central Intelligence Office man too many questions. You can& You can ask him& ask for what purpose he was redeployed in the territory of Chechnya, concerning Dagestan, where they worked before that, and all the rest& well and now the statement (shows it) - did we force him or not. Please don t think today that we did to this man, if our men fall
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into their hands they kill them straight away. Well, although today we can t dress him and feed him the way we should - the Russians themselves are to blame, because we re completely blockaded. Another thing: any international law provides for members of special services who have crossed the border to cause explosions, kill their political leaders, by judicial& they hold a judicial inquiry and have them shot. We could have shot them before this. (Shows the GRU man s book, shows the code notebook of the other prisoner.) Question: Is the signature actually this officer s or someone else s?
Answer: It belongs to the second member of the GRU, it s& Ah, it s his own, his&
These are the second member s code messages, code messages and code signal messages, that they gave them, these code messages are prepared in advance, this is all that they were given, these are their routes where& yes, these are their code messages, the signalman and the demolition man& These are theirs yes& these& they re code names, satellite links& There& There look& There s a verbal exchange table on satellite communications radio location for managing radio traffic. It s&
Question: It s stupid for an intelligence officer to carry papers like that on his person.
Answer: They didn t think& They were being transported by Chechens in a secret vehicle, since sometimes we don t check Chechen vehicles, with a beard, especially. The way of thinking& They were relying on it. There s data - it s what, look, the enemy s designated - the page (shows and talks about designations from the code notebook). If they saw an enemy, that is, us. They& Code names&
Translator: A beetle is an armed personnel carrier, a spider is an automobile, a string is a plane.
Question: Well, in general, what is it? That is, what else?
Answer: It s when they come across, for example, one of our population centers, when they have to make strikes, they transmitted code names if we re in there, so we wouldn t understand. There, for example, Berlin, they call a town Berlin, on Chechen territory there s Bratskoe, Nadterechny district. Bar, the word Bar, that s the Nadterechny district too. These are the population centers where they had to work initially and make strikes.
Galkin: Assistant head of sector senior lieutenant Alexei Viktorovich Galkin, employee of the Central Intelligence Office [GRU] of the Russian Federation.
Journalist: Can I ask you, please, how you came to be here?
Galkin: Together with major Ivanov and senior lieutenant Pokhomov, I was arrested on October 3 on the territory of the Chechen republic of Ichkeria during an attempt to drive from Mozdok to the settlement of Bino-Yurt in order to carry out a special assignment.
Journalist: And during the attempted crossing all these documents here - this here is your identity pass, this here - did you have it on you?
[Shows the identity pass] Galkin: I had this pass on me, and these documents here were in our personal belongings.
Journalist: And what exactly is the purpose of this information here, that there is in this little book, what kind of information is in it?
Galkin: In here there is a verbal exchange table [he shows it] for working with communications equipment, that is a table of coded messages for transmitting information via open channels of communication such as ultra-short wave radio sets like Motorola, Kenwood and radio telephones.
181
182
Journalist: What is the purpose of the information in this little book here?
[shows the book]?
Galkin: It is a notebook with mathematical formulas for blowing up constructions, structures, buildings and various facilities.
Journalist: Is this your note, your handwriting?
Galkin: Yes, that is my handwriting.
Journalist: What were you intending to do with this information, with the help of this information?
Galkin: Our task was to mine the motor roads in order to destroy motor vehicles with refugees and peaceful members of the public and also in the future for mining buildings and blowing up buildings with peaceful members of the public.
Journalist: Did you take part in the bombing of buildings in Moscow and Dagestan?
Galkin: I personally did not take part in the bombing of the buildings in Moscow and Dagestan, but I know who blew them up, who is behind the bombing of buildings in Moscow and who blew up the buildings in Buinaksk.
Journalist: Can you tell us who?
Galkin: For blowing up the buildings in Moscow and in Volgodonsk the Russian special services are responsible, the FSB together with the GRU [Central Intelligence Office].
The bombing of the buildings in Buinaksk was the work of members of our group, which at the time was on a mission in Dagestan.
Journalist: And as far as I know, here you have been recorded on tape, you confessed to all this, apparently you were filmed with a video camera. And when& when you, during the filming were you acting from your own wishes?
Voice off camera of the head of the Chechen Security Service Abu Movsaev: That&
Don t answer that question.
Journalist: How have you been treated here?
Galkin: I ve been treated well here. As I prisoner of war I have not been beaten here, they have fed me three times a day and when necessary given me medical assistance.
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183
Journalist: Here is the statement made by you. Do you confirm that you made it voluntarily without any pressure on the part of anyone?
Galkin: This statement is printed from my words, I wrote this statement by hand [holds the piece of paper in front of his face], with my personal signature.
Journalist: Now, at this moment, as you are speaking with us, are you afraid of anything?
Galkin: No, it is simply that this is the first time I have faced journalists& journalists from western television companies, so I am a bit nervous.
Abu Movsaev s voice off camera: Their departments are not allowed to appear on&
Galkin: It is quite simply that due to the nature of our work we have to& we are not supposed to show ourselves in front of television cameras. [Smiles tensely.] Journalist: Thank you.
Voice off camera: Ah, yes, now questions, only in Turkish& Come over here&
Journalist: They re the same questions, only in Turkish, they will ask and that is all&
[Questions are asked in Turkish, then translated into Russian.] Journalist: Do you confirm that all these documents belong to you? This identity pass here, this statement, it all belongs to you. [Galkin shows the identity pass in an open position.] Galkin: yes, all these documents belong to me.
Journalist: With what aim did you arrive in the region of Dagestan and afterwards in Chechnya?
Galkin: We arrived in Dagestan and Chechnya to carry out terrorist acts on the territory of Dagestan and on the territory of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria.
Journalist: And against whom were these, were they directed? Were you supposed to carry out explosions against peaceful civilians or somebody else?
Galkin: These bombings were directed against peaceful civilians.
Journalist: And who& Who was it that sent you on this mission?
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184
Galkin: We were appointed and sent on our mission by order of the Central Intelligence Office [GRU] of the armed forces of the Russian Federation.
Journalist: Can you name the actual man who sent you?
Galkin: It was colonel general Korabelnikov, head of the Central Intelligence Office and head of the 14th section of the Central Intelligence Office lieutenant general Kostechko.
Journalist: Do you personally and does your unit have anything to do with the explosions in Moscow?
Galkin: Personally our unit has nothing to do with the explosions in Moscow, since at that time we were in Dagestan. The members of our unit, the members of our unit of 12 men, who were in Dagestan at that time, carried out the bombing of the house in Buinaksk.
184
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Appendix 10 Abu Movsaev s talk with a group of foreign journalists about the testimony of Senior Lieutenant A. Galkin Abu Movsaev: At the present time when we have with us a member of the GRU, their leader colonel Ivanov, the very one who supervised the blowing up of the house. The GRU& In the present situation you can photograph the senior lieutenant (shows identity pass) senior lieutenant Alexei Galkin, who was redeployed to the territory of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria from Dagestan. Is that it, have you photographed him? (They take photographs) More? In Volgodonsk too the explosions were carried out by members of the special services. And so today when they call us terrorists it proves the opposite. (Shows something) These are their cipher messages, that is, the cipher messages are here.
It s a book for explosions, for working with explosives, working with explosives activity: which ones and how much should be used. We have this all completely - the conclusive evidence and all their& It all (he demonstrates something) all this proves it (they take photographs)& That s all. Now, next, the next point&
Question: (Questions are usually asked in English and then translated into Russian by the interpreter, not always accurately and correctly). On whom exactly, on whom did you find this book?
Abu Movsaev s answer: Their group that was arrested here, the GRU. That is, that was, so that today you ll understand - that s the Central Intelligence Office of the Russian Federation, the 14th Department.
Question: On exactly what date did you find this book?
Answer: We arrested them, this group, on October 3-4 1999.
Question: When did they find this man?
Interpreter s answer: On the same day, the fourth, October 4.
Answer: The Fourteenth Department of the GRU. The Central Intelligence Office of the Russian Federation primarily handles killings of political leaders and sabotage activity.
Here s the statement made by senior lieutenant Galkin. (Shows it) Question: Does he have a voluntary statement?
Answer: Yes. There s his signature.
Question: Why didn t he make a statement immediately on October 4?
Answer: Ah, no& well at first we worked on him, worked on him for a long time, then he turned, we sent the cassette to Istanbul to the November 18 summit, where it specifically& they pointed out why they& After that, listen to this, after that the Russian leadership, the Central Intelligence Office, made a statement, supposedly they thought that we d shot them. Since we d spread the rumor.
Question: His motivation for confessing? What motivated him?
Answer: What motivated him was when he saw the Chechen people was being totally wiped out, indiscriminately. We showed him videos of children being murdered, women and old men being murdered, and then since after all I m a special services instructor and I know their Department, what they do, and when we gave him legal proof, and so after what followed, he confessed.
Question: And he accepted responsibility for one explosion, is that right?
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186
Answer: No& The explosion - at that time he was Buinaksk. The explosions made in Buinaksk were supervised by colonel Ivanov, who is his superior and was deployed to Chechnya with him. He named Ivanov and other employees, yes, no& but he didn t take part in this business.
Question: On the basis of this confession alone you draw the conclusion that the other explosions in Moscow were also the work of the Russian government? You only think&
Answer: Eh, no& We don t think, we have proof. The first proof, the first proof is that any group that they deploy in the rear of the enemy, they already know, their leader announces that we re going into the territory of the Chechen Republic since we made the explosions in Moscow, Volgodonsk and Buinaksk. That is, not specifically their group, in all of them, that is in the eyes of the peaceful community we made terrorists out of them, killers in the abduction of people, today we have to prove that these people are& they have to wiped out, that is the Chechen people. At the political briefings. Until now& the second point where we have proof is what I repeated before this and I repeat now: hexogene was used. There is no hexogene on the territory of Chechnya. Hexogene marked top secret in red is only held by the special services of the Russian Federation and without the leaders of the Central Intelligence Office and the FSB no one has the right to take a single gram of this hexogene. And afterwards Central Intelligence Office employees arrested by us explained that on the last raid their colonel Ivanov explained to them at the political briefing that these explosions were carried by our employees together with the FSB. Yes, yes, and another thing, they all talked about it&
Question: Do you accuse, place the guilt for these explosions on the Government of Russia, the Central Intelligence Office, the FSB or one individual in particular?
Answer: In the first place, I ll tell you specifically. Vladimir Putin as chairman developed them. Specifically by the leaders of these special services of the Russian Federation, former agents of external intelligence who were appointed by Putin and these are Putin s most trusted people at the present time. Here there is a second point: the fact that today with the political, in the political arena Putin today at any price, by any killings wants to become president of the Russian Federation. (The light goes out, they stop recording. Abu Movsaev lights a cigarette.) When I m smoking, please, don t film me. (They switch on the light, recording is resumed.) Answer: Another thing, I don t want to prove to you here today that we are angels, I don t want to prove that we are good people. We want to prove one thing: that Russia is a terrorist state. Nothing else. All that we today& that we re trying to do, for the sake of Allah we re doing it, if the West interferes, it won t interfere for us, if honestly speaking we are sure that today the West, the leadership of the West, will not at least intervene in the killing of the Chechen people, all the rest, you know, all the wars end through negotiations. I believe that we won the last war, I think& in this war, we ll win this war.
So you can have concrete information, today we were informed that Argun has been taken by the Russians. Right now bitter fighting is taking place in Argun and the Russian forces are pulling back. Right, any more questions for me? Afterwards& And I have just one request: translate for them& Too many questions& I won t let them ask the Central Intelligence Office man too many questions. You can& You can ask him& ask for what purpose he was redeployed in the territory of Chechnya, concerning Dagestan, where they worked before that, and all the rest& well and now the statement (shows it) - did we force him or not. Please don t think today that we did to this man, if our men fall
186
187
into their hands they kill them straight away. Well, although today we can t dress him and feed him the way we should - the Russians themselves are to blame, because we re completely blockaded. Another thing: any international law provides for members of special services who have crossed the border to cause explosions, kill their political leaders, by judicial& they hold a judicial inquiry and have them shot. We could have shot them before this. (Shows the GRU man s book, shows the code notebook of the other prisoner.) Question: Is the signature actually this officer s or someone else s?
Answer: It belongs to the second member of the GRU, it s& Ah, it s his own, his&
These are the second member s code messages, code messages and code signal messages, that they gave them, these code messages are prepared in advance, this is all that they were given, these are their routes where& yes, these are their code messages, the signalman and the demolition man& These are theirs yes& these& they re code names, satellite links& There& There look& There s a verbal exchange table on satellite communications radio location for managing radio traffic. It s&
Question: It s stupid for an intelligence officer to carry papers like that on his person.
Answer: They didn t think& They were being transported by Chechens in a secret vehicle, since sometimes we don t check Chechen vehicles, with a beard, especially. The way of thinking& They were relying on it. There s data - it s what, look, the enemy s designated - the page (shows and talks about designations from the code notebook). If they saw an enemy, that is, us. They& Code names&
Translator: A beetle is an armed personnel carrier, a spider is an automobile, a string is a plane.
Question: Well, in general, what is it? That is, what else?
Answer: It s when they come across, for example, one of our population centers, when they have to make strikes, they transmitted code names if we re in there, so we wouldn t understand. There, for example, Berlin, they call a town Berlin, on Chechen territory there s Bratskoe, Nadterechny district. Bar, the word Bar, that s the Nadterechny district too. These are the population centers where they had to work initially and make strikes.
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