Limonov vs. Putin

by Edward Limonov

  2:45PM. Some of the terrorist group mixed with the hostages. They wear jeans and t-shirts; they left their camouflage and weapons. But the jeans give them away, since the hostages were going to school in festive clothes for September 1st. In the flow of the running hostages they escape from the school on Komintern Street and cross the railroad. Helicopters pursue the running militants. They are shot from the air. Others are encircled near private houses. The commandos run up to them and execute them. The German journalists comment: “It doesn’t look like they intended to arrest anybody. The commandos shot without asking questions.”

  3:05PM. General Tikhonov gives the order to enter the school.

  3:30PM. The shooting diminished. Nurpashi Kulayev leaves the school with a group of hostages (in particular with the physical education teacher Tzagalov). The commandos do not have the guts to shoot him in front of everybody. He is arrested.

  4:35PM. The fighting is not over. In the rear part of the building the terrorists are resisting with all their forces. On the second floor as well. Some militants barricaded themselves in the storeroom, some managed to reach the basement. They shoot from grenade throwers.

  4:40PM. Beslan. Hospital. Already 554 wounded were brought in, 500 of them were sent to Vladikavkaz.

  5:00PM. School Number One. The gymnasium, the main hallway, the theater hall, the cafeteria, the classes in the front part of the building are already in the hands of the security forces. The school is burning.

  6:13PM. Beslan. The anti-crisis Center. They tell the official number of wounded in the hospitals of Beslan and Vladikavkaz. 346. They are lying as usual. In reality there are already over six hundred. Putin’s proxy Aslambek Aslakhanov spreads the statement “that the number of victims could be over 150.” In reality he knows that they are already about three hundred.

  7:00PM. Beslan. The morgue. In order to obtain the body of the dead, the relatives must bring seven meters of cellophane and two bedcovers to the hospital. Yes, they do. The transport of the body is paid by the relatives. The beloved Motherland will not pay a penny here. It costs three hundred rubles to keep the beloved corpse one night in the refrigerator.

  7:08PM. Thousands of relatives stand near the House of Culture and the city hall. Many are loudly sobbing.

  9:09PM. Beslan. The Anti-crisis Center. The chief of North Ossetia’s FSB Valery Andreyev informs that the fighting in the school goes on. Especially in the big workshop. The tank number 325 of the 58th army arrives to the rear part of the school. It lowers the muzzle of the cannon and shoots in the basement. After this it is impossible to know who was there.

  September 4th. 2:00AM. School Number One. The back of the school. Ten explosions, similar to hand grenade explosions shatter the back wing of the school. The death cries: “Allah akbar! Allah akbar!” are heard in the silence. The end.

  After this technical, although incomplete, chronology (after all, I am not writing a book about the Beslan tragedy alone) let us return to the issue of responsibility. The militants wanted to negotiate. In general, we know that they demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya. The North Ossetian commission concludes, I cite Novaya Gazeta: “To this day there is no complete clarity about the demands of the terrorists. Also unknown is the fate and the content of the tape the terrorists gave to the operational headquarters (given through Aushev, – E. L.) … The RF authorities, in essence, distanced themselves from the responsibility and condemned the entire negotiation process to failure.” (However, meanwhile they prepared tanks, armored vehicles, helicopters, and 1054 hospital beds; we know that the order to prepare the beds came from Moscow).

  The question about the responsibility for the massacre of the innocents can be solved if we establish who is the author of the first explosions. Novaya Gazeta writes: “Doubtlessly, the first explosions have a hidden motive – legal and political. The possible appearance of Maskhadov and Zakayev in Beslan put the Kremlin before a difficult choice: allow the rescue of the hostages and thus legalize Maskhadov’s figure and allow the possibility of a political regulation of the Chechen problem. The “unplanned” raid as an alternative of the unfolding of events allowed avoiding such a situation. But it also made the authorities’ responsibility for the deaths of the hostages non obvious.

  So the most important is the nature of the explosions. In the middle of May 2005 the trial of Nurpashi Kulayev, the only surviving terrorist from Beslan’s School Number One, began in Vladikavkaz. The witnesses and victims give a straightforward answer when asked about the nature of the explosions. “On one of the last sessions (in September) the following facts were confirmed and concretized by the victims who were present near the school on September 3rd,” Novaya Gazeta, issue 65, writes, “ simultaneously with the first explosion a smoke cloud of a perfect form (which is extremely important) went up vertically over the roof of the gymnasium and bits of the roofing slate were scattered on a distance of up to one hundred meters from the gymnasium. According to the best experts in explosives… both the smoke cloud of a perfect form and the roofing slate scattered on a long distance are the consequences of the roof being fired on from the inside. This fact is also supported by the nature of the hearths and the picture of the fire spreading in the gymnasium. Initially the fire broke out at 1:05PM after the first explosion at 1:02PM in the garret; the ceiling’s wooden overlaps and plastic paneling were enveloped in fire. After this the smoldering paneling and the burning overlaps started to fall on the people wounded and shell-shocked after the explosions. This is also appearing from the testimonies of many hostages who could not hear the second explosion because of their shell shock but have felt the bright burning flame that provoked a large fire inside the gymnasium. This flame could have been the cause of the detonation of one (one of the three, – E.L.) of the large self-made explosive devices. It is the third explosion that was the most powerful one.”

  Here I should give the analysis of the nature and the causes of death of 331 people.

  Gunshot wounds – 51ne people (21 of them were killed on September 1st and 2nd and 10 people are commandos.)

  Splinter-shell wounds – 150 people.

  Thermal burns – 10 people.

  Wounds caused by blunt objects (fragments of the burning roof) – 4 people.

  The experts were not able to establish the cause of death of 115 people because of the heavy effects of the flames, up to complete carbonization.

  Now let us turn directly to the testimonies of the witnesses on Kulayev`s trial:

  “The victim Zemfira Agayeva said how, when the terrorists were rounding up the people, they were shouting that we don’t fear anything, that ‘We are here so that they withdraw the troops from Chechnya’. The victim also spoke about the beginning of the raid: ‘Right after the first explosion was heard, some unbearable whistle was heard from the side of the schoolyard and something exploded again, only it was far more powerful. And a few minutes later it became hot as hell in the gymnasium, I even thought I was burning. These were the flamethrowers firing, although Shepel affirms (Russia’s deputy Prosecutor General Nikolay Shepel) that the flamethrowers could not have put anything on fire. If he was here I would have liked to ask him a question.” Kommersant, 08.03.05.

  The victim Rimma Kusraeva: “On September 1st at three or four o’clock at night they (the militants) told us that, from their previous experience, they think that there will be a raid. The militants said then that we should get down immediately, so that our people don’t kill us all and they will be able to resist the first attack. On the following day they came and said that they are declaring a hunger strike together with us, so that they stop the war in Chechnya. They were saying: ‘We are not terrorists, we are freedom fighters.’ And when the first explosion came, one of them told another that the roof was burning. We were led to the cafeteria, from there to the theater hall. Then to the cafeteria again. The children were drinking water there. I ran up to one of the terrorists and asked him: ‘Are you going to kill us?’ And he said: ‘
don’t you see who is firing at you? ” “Rima Kusraeva,” Kommersant continues, “told how the militants put the women and children in the window frames and gave them curtains. They were supposed to wave them like white flags so that they don’t shoot at the windows. ‘Then an armored vehicle arrived, three soldiers jumped out of it and started to shoot at the windows,’ the victim said. – I saw how a woman fell, after this there was a heap of corpses on the windowsill. The terrorists did not shoot us at all – I even thought that when they are done killing them, they (the military federals) will go in and kill us all.” Kommersant 08.08.05.

  The victim Zarina Tokaeva: “When I heard the first explosion I fell and saw the ceiling. It started to burn and to collapse… I saw the militants who stood near the changing-room. Their faces were confused. I heard them saying ‘You were blown up by your own people.’ While I was regaining my senses after the explosion, the roof of the gymnasium was heavily bombed all this time. A few children and we were making sprints first from the gymnasium to the changing-room and then to the second changing-room. Children were hiding and screaming from fear everywhere and we were gathering them on our way. All this time the hall and the roofs of the changing-rooms were heavily bombed; it seemed as if we were going from the changing-room to another room and they instantly start to bomb that room. But there were no militants in the gymnasium. Why did they bomb it?

  – What do you mean by bombing? – The prosecutor Semisinova asked.

  – Well… – the former hostage was confused, – it’s when they fire missiles on the roof and the walls and they explode. This is approximately how it was in the gymnasium and the school.

  – On the preliminary investigation you testified that a militant has fixed a mine that was hanging above you; he made something with his hands there…

  – Yes, I remember that mine. I have come to know it inside out after three days. It didn’t explode after the explosion. After the first explosion the walls of the gymnasium shook and the ceiling collapsed…” Novaya Gazeta, issue 55, 08.08-03.05

  The witness Kazbek Torchinov. “He was recognized as a victim although he wasn’t a hostage, because during the raid his house, situated near the school, was heavily damaged. … Kazbek Torchinov remembered the beginning of the raid in all its details. He saw everything from his window.

  – A vehicle arrived and four men wearing uniforms of the Ministry of emergencies came out of it. They held their hands up and went to an open window where one of the militants was apparently sitting. They had a talk and started to load the corpses into the car. A terrorist came up to them and watched how they worked. At one moment the militant seemed to notice something and darted back inside the school. And right after this they started to fire at the angle of the school from the armored vehicle. I don’t know why he shot but a few seconds later the first explosion took place. – After a little thinking Kazbek Torchinov added:

  – I can’t understand why they didn’t let Maskhadov, who strived for it, to enter the school. Were they ashamed? And today, aren’t they ashamed to look at the memorial? ” Kommersant. 09.28.05

  The victim Vitaly Makeev, 13 years old, about the beginning of the raid: “It seemed to me that somebody had fired from the street because some sort of fire flew in the gymnasium. After this a terrorist run up and told us to go to the training room. And we started to run over the bodies. I noticed one of my classmates there – he was lying on the floor… without his head. Then they told us to go to the cafeteria. And there I saw a red ball flaying in through the window. It hit the bars and they broke.” Kommersant, 09.21.05

  The victim Viktorya Kastuyeva explained with whom did the terrorists want to talk: “He (the militant who led the talks on the cellphone) was saying that he needed four persons: Dzasokhov, Alkhanov (Chechnya’s president) and Rushailo. He also said on the phone ‘you too’. Later in the hospital I asked my brother whom did the terrorists want to see apart from those three. They told me it was Ziazikov (Ingushetia`s president) and I realized that he was speaking with him. I still don’t understand why everybody started saying that he wanted to see Roshal. Amir was yelling on the phone that he’s not sick; he doesn’t need a doctor. I’m sure he said he wants Rushailo to come, not Roshal. I heard it myself.’ The victim Kastuyeva said that the negotiator of the terrorists nicknamed Amir (not a single former hostage had identified him among the killed terrorists) said: ‘it is a great sin before God that because of me children and women are left without water’. ‘He said that the special services had poisoned the water, like in Nord-Ost, told the woman. The victim said that she was outraged by the claims of Nikolay Shepel in the television program Man and Law. ‘He says there that he doesn’t know at what time the tanks started to fire at the school,’ said the woman looking straight at the deputy prosecutor, ‘With my own eyes I saw that the tanks started to fire at about four o’clock! The militants ordered me to stand in the window and to wave a curtain into the street while they are firing back!

  – And in what direction was the tank firing? – Nikolay Shepel asked.

  – At the school, naturally, answered the upset victim. – Do you think the missile could have changed its direction? … I have nothing against the tankers who fired and the commandos, said the woman through tears. – I have a bullet in my lungs, our bullet… I don’t blame them. But where were our Special services during these three days? Why neither Putin nor Ivanov, our commanders-in-chief, did anything? The commandos were cannon fodder just like us. The woman burst in tears and the judge stopped the interrogation.”

  Let us sum up. Even before two commissions have started the investigation, the official version was that the massacre was caused by an accidental explosion that occurred in the gymnasium. Supposedly, the basketball rings high over the heads of the hostages were mined. Supposedly, for some reason, notice, in the moment when four men in uniforms of the Ministry of emergencies started to load the corpses; they arrived in a truck, in a crucial moment when the terrorists should fear an attack, they decided to start remining the gymnasium according to another scheme and the system blew up. Notice that the mined rings, everybody talked about them right after Beslan, give a good answer as to why did the roof explode. Later, during the Kulayev trial the precise official version said that there was a detonation button, on which a terrorist was constantly sitting and pressed it with his foot. The last version was that our Russian sniper removed this terrorist.

  The official version is a doubtless lie. The flamethrowers, as Novaya Gazeta journalists affirm, were doubtlessly used during the raid, however professional military will not fire on the roof with them. I affirm that the raid began with the firing of missiles from helicopters on the gymnasium’s roof. The helicopters appeared over the school at 1:04PM according to some sources, at 1:11PM according to others and not later. In order for the helicopters to be in the air at that time they should have been lifted before 1 o’clock. The firing can be made during the time when the helicopter has not yet appeared over the school. (And it will not hover above it or it will get shot.) The roof was torn open with missiles. (In order to justify the missiles they needed the rings.) In a moment of panic among the terrorists the first commandos in uniforms of the Ministry of emergency were supposed to burst into the building followed by other attacking forces. This is what happened; the witness Kazbek Torchinov said: “They started to fire from the armored vehicle at the school.” However the 33 suicide bombers who occupied the school were experienced and cold-blooded fighters. (Let us not forget that the Chechens have defended the Brest tower.) In result the operation “Release” came down to the massacre of children, to the massacre of the innocents. One detail: The Committee of the Dubrovka Victims has addressed Putin on September 2nd asking him not to use gas in Beslan. The president, with his usual scorn or arrogance did not answer anything. Putin fulfilled the request of the Committee; he did not use gas. But he gave his agreement to the raid of a school fully packed with crying children, since he always puts his personal (confoun
ding them with the State’s) interests incomparably above the lives of Russian citizens, above the lives of children. Therefore he is an inhuman president. Therefore the nazbols are right when they chant on their meetings: “Putin is the butcher of Beslan!” Therefore he is an extremely dangerous president. It is simply absurd to contest the fact that he was taking the fateful decision about the raid of the school. It does not appear to be possible to imagine that such a highly important decision was taken without the participation of the head of State. Even in non absolutist-type States such important decisions are made by the head of State after he has heard the opinions of professional specialists. What speaks in favor of the fact that Putin made this inhuman decision, as well as the decision to raid the Center on Dubrovka himself is the surprising circumstance that no one from the ministers and generals was fired, degraded or sent on retirement. Because Putin had no one to punish. He gave the order. He cannot fire himself.

  Again, like in the case of the neutralization of the terrorist act on Dubrovka, a big lie was built up. Again the blame for the raid was cast on the terrorists. It is impossible to contest that the terrorists, whatever goals they pursued or whatever they are called, even “wreckers”, and even if they acted in the interests of their Chechen people, and that is how they acted, it is impossible to contest that they are inhuman if only because of the single fact that they took hostages and above all children. However it is not at all necessary to contest the inhumanity of the president. Again, like two years before that, he refused to negotiate; he refused to show the video of the hostages speaking. Again with his agreement, his servants lied, lied, lied. It appears that lying is his operational method. With its help he covers up the inhumanity of his actions.

  And finally, let us turn to the final witness.