Organizers of apartment blasts in Moscow and other Russian cities are hiding on Georgia's territory

Dozens of accomplices of terrorists were detected in the course of the investigations carried out by the Federal Security Service (FSB) into the apartment bombings in Buinaksk, Moscow and Volgodonsk committed by terrorists in September 1999. RIA Novosti learned this from Lieutenant-General Ivan Mironov, deputy head of the department to combat terrorism, head of the Russian FSB's operations and search department. The general said that "not a few, but dozens" of such people have been detected during the investigation, and in some cases "there were even hundreds of them." These are people who "helped the terrorists to obtain means of transportation, bought components for the self-made explosive devices," and, in particular, bought aluminum powder and ammonium nitrate, noted general Mironov.

General Mironov believes that "the worst thing is that they knew that the acts of terrorism were being prepared." For example, many relatives of the criminals who have now been proved guilty "knew of the actions that were being prepared" in the Russian cities, and did nothing to prevent them.

Mironov said that at present the FSB has defined concrete "chains and names of all those whom the terrorists directly used for carrying out the explosions" of the apartment houses in Moscow, and the blasts in Volgodonsk and Buinaksk.

According to the Russian FSB, it has been established as a result of the investigation into the apartment blasts committed on September 8 and 13, 1999 in Moscow on 19, Ulitsa Guryanova and 6, Kashirskoye Shosse, that among those involved in the blasts is Wahhabi Achimez Gochiyayev, as well as Kh. Abayev, R. Akhmyarov, D.Batchayev.

The carrying out of the acts of terrorism in Moscow was directly headed by Achimez Gochiyayev who received orders from Chechnya from Arab terrorists Khattab and Abu Umar. Saitakov, Akhmyarov and Batchayev were destroyed by the federal forces in Chechnya, as well as the Arab mercenaries Khattab and Abu Umar. The FSB is now establishing the places of their burial for carrying out investigations for the exhumation and identification of the corpses. Gochiyayev himself and his deputy Krymshamkhalov are on the international wanted list.

According to information from the secret services, Gochiyayev and Krymshamkhalov are hiding on the territory of Georgia.