07.02.2000 15:00 ON THE SITUATION IN THE NORTH CAUCASUS
SERGEI V. YASTRZHEMBSKY - assistant to the President of the Russian Federation for the coordination of the information and analytical work of the federal bodies of executive authority involved in the counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus
YASTRZHEMBSKY: Let's begin with Grozny. The units of the Joint Grouping of federal forces, acting jointly with the Chechen militia, held repeated special operations to expose bandits in the Zavodskoi district and the Aldy and Chernorechye suburbs of Grozny. Up to 300 bandits were killed during the operation held to liquidate the bandits, who escaped from Grozny to the settlements of Katyr-Yurt and Shani-Yurt.
A total of 147 bandits were killed in Katyr-Yurt, and some 160 bodies, barely covered with earth, were found with the help of local residents. A KamAZ load of weapons and munitions were found in that settlement.
Now about the situation in the mountain regions, where the Joint Groupig of forces blockaded the roads and settlements in the Argun gorge. Yesterday they blockaded the settlements of
Martan-Chu and Buni-Aul and the road linking Verkhotoi with Shali.
The bandits encircled in the settlement of Gekhi-Chu attempted to break out of it on cars they had taken from the local population. The attempt was foiled, and some 15 cars were burned down together with the bandits.
The bandits who tried to escape from the encirclement outside the settlement of Kokadoi lost some 35 men. We also found and liquidated the headquarters of the illegal armed groups, food and material-technical supplies depots there.
Now about the situation in Grozny, which is being swept for hidden weapons and munitions. The troops are demining civil facilities and administrative buildings there and searching for the buildings where administration agencies could be located. They are also organising hot meals to the local population.
In the past day the Interior Ministry troops held 35 special operations, which resulted in the detainment of 182 persons suspected of taking part in bandit groups, confiscated some 300 firearms and 112 explosive devices, and liquidated eight mini factories which produced fuel and lubricants. Efforts in this sphere will be redoubled as the military operation is moving south and the troops are focusing their attention on the Argun gorge.
An investigation group of the Main Department of the Office of the Russian Prosecutor General is working in the village of Tolstoi-Yurt of the rural Grozny region. Seventy bandits, who had been taken prisoner outside the village of Alkhan-Kala, were delivered there. All of them had documents proving their membership of different illegal armed groups. Twenty-five cases of members of illegal armed groups have been completed and forwarded to the Russian Supreme Court, which will determine their jurisdiction.
And here is information concerning the Ministry of Justice and the filtration camp in the settlement of Chernokozovo. The camp has 267 men now, but there were 586 bandits there following their mass surrender. But 287 of them were released after the inspection.
A new information concerning the Ministry of Emergencies. A second Zashchita field hospital is to be established for the medical treatment of the residents of Grozny and the suburbs, and a sanitary-epidemiological brigade will work in the settlement of Tolstoi-Yurt.
On the situation in the liberated regions of Chechnya. The restoration of peaceful life is underway there - the bodies of state authority are being established and schools, medical and social insurance establishments are being reopened there. The Interior Ministry agencies, acting jointly with the military commandants' offices, launched the establishment of temporary Interior Ministry agencies in the Sunzhensky, Leninsky and Oktyabrsky districts of Grozny. The central regional hospital and a school are being repaired in the settlement of Nadterechnoye in the Nadterechny district. A diesel power station was delivered to the settlement of Kalinovskoye in the Naurskaya district. A power relay line was restored in the settlement of Pravoberezhnaya in the rural Grozny region. The repair of a school in the settlement of Shalazhi was completed.
Humanitarian aid is delivered to the liberated Chechen regions from all over Russia. The latest example is the settlement of Grebenskaya in the Shelkovskaya Region, which received 60 tonnes of flour, 10 tonnes of coal, and so on.
A special investigation group of the FSB in Chechnya arrested a leader of a bandit group, which kidnapped people and committed other illegal acts, in the night of February 5/6. That bandit group was known for exceptional ruthlessness. There are grounds to suspect that the leaders of bandit groups organised the murder of Russian Vice Premier Viktor Polyanichko in 1994 and attacked the convoy of cars of the General Staff on the Chechen-North Ossetian border. The bandit warlords resisted the detention and tried to escape, but were wounded and taken to the hospital of the pre-trail detention ward.
Now about our work, yours and mine. We hold briefings daily now, and every Friday you get summary data on losses in the Chechen Republic.
We have introduced a new accreditation system and common rules, binding on all law enforcement agencies and other ministries and departments involved in the restoration of peaceful life in Chechnya. You can rely in your work on the structure of temporary press centres in Mozdok, Khankala and Gudermes now. You can get a single accreditation certificate now. As of now, 140 journalists received new accreditation certificates in the past two days, valid for six months.
We have resumed organised visits of mass media members to Chechnya. The first group went there today and will work in Gudermes and Khankala. The second group leaves tomorrow, some 30 journalists in all. The creation of a press centre working on the shift basis in Khankala has greatly simplified the work of journalists. Now the audiences of the leading TV channels can see live reports from Khankala. We will ask for accrediting the temporary press centre in the same settlement as the headquarters [of the federal forces].
A list of servicemen and the staff of the militia and Interior Troops who perished when doing their military duty in Daghestan will probably be published in four Russian newspapers - Krasnaya Zvezda, Rossiiskaya Gazeta, Komsomolskaya Pravda and Trud - on Wednesday. This is a big step forward of major significance for society, designed to perpetuate the names of those who died protecting the integrity of the Russian Federation. This work will be continued as we complete the counter-terrorist operation in Chechnya. Any questions?
QUESTION: Where is Andrei Babitsky?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: I have no information now. Please, don't ask other questions on this issue. I can understand your concern; I am interested in the matter, too, and we are taking steps to get any information that would be useful to you.
BBC RUSSIAN SERVICE: Don't you think the Russian authorities acted contrary to the Fundamental Law of Russia when treating Andrei Babitsky?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: No comment. This is a question for lawyers.
LA GUARDIA, SPAIN: Which state agencies arrested and detained Andrei Babitsky? And where is he now?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: I have no information on this issue. Andrei Babitsky was detained when leaving Grozny by the military intelligence, who had turned him over to the Interior Ministry; the office of the General Prosecutor in the North Caucasus was also involved in the case.
YUGOSLAV PRAVDA: Can you comment on the statement of General Zdanovich, who said that 1.5 billion dollars had been delivered to Russia for subversive acts? What do you know about Chechen fighters in Turkey?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: I have also seen the report on the sighting of Chechen fighters in some Turkish hospitals. But this information should be verified and reaffirmed. Please, do not regard it as a kind of accusation of the Turkish authorities. As for the statement of Mr. Zdanovich, as far as I understood it, he said they had such information and that it should be verified. This is all I know on this issue.
VESTI: Who sanctioned the exchange of Babitsky? The FSB, the Interior Ministry, the Defence Ministry and the Office of the General Prosecutor refuse to speak about this. And to whom did you hand him over? The persons on the tape did not look credible.
YASTRZHEMBSKY: I can hardly comment on how those persons look - this is your personal opinion. But this action could not be taken without the agreement of the Office of the General Prosecutor and the Interior Ministry.
EGYPTIAN TV: Maskhadov said the fall of Grozny did not mean the end of the war and that they would launch a guerrilla war. What does Moscow think about this? When will Moscow search for those with whom it can negotiate?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: I saw a digest of Maskhadov's interview in a Spanish newspaper. It is clear that Maskhadov does not really know what happened outside Grozny. But it is important that he officially reaffirmed the death of such prominent warlords as Israpilov and Ismailov, and the wounding of Basayev. As we know from the history of world wars, a guerrilla war is a war waged with reliance on the population. But the bandit chieftains are losing all chance of getting such support. He meant not a guerrilla war, but terrorist and subversive acts.
The task of the Joint Grouping of forces, and especially the Interior Troops, is to encircle the last effective groups of bandits in the Argun gorge and consistently liquidate them, and prevent the bandits who escaped from, say, the Grozny encirclement from freely staging subversive acts. This work will continue for a long time yet.
Now about negotiations. The military phase of the counter-terrorist operation is only a prelude to the political phase. The so-called Chechen problem cannot be resolved by military methods alone, but neither can the political phase be successful without the liquidation of the bandit groups. As we restore a normal life in Chechnya, we will see the layer of leaders respected by the Chechen people, including religious leaders, with whom we can and must hold consultations and negotiations in order to determine, say, the status of the Chechen Republic in the Russian Federation.
LE FIGARO: You have said recently that Putin assumed control of the case of Babitsky. Was he in the know of things before the exchange of Babitsky for Russian servicemen? It was reported today that some new circumstances in the Babitsky case came to light and hence the Office of the General Prosecutor requests Babitsky's presence. What new circumstances are these?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: I have replied before about the Office of the General Prosecutor and the Interior Ministry. As for new circumstances, I know nothing about them. I hope that I will be on the site in Chechnya tomorrow or the day after tomorrow and will have more information then. As for Putin, of course he is in the know, generally in the know of this situation.
ALEKSANDR BACHAN, RADIO FREE EUROPE, PRAGUE: If the Prosecutor Office and the Interior Ministry know something and request Babitsky's presence, then Babitsky is alive?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: Since these departments do not have this information either, I cannot tell you now that they have full information about Babitsky. They don't.
BACHAN: Babitsky disappeared from the face of the earth, the form of detention has been changed for the second time, Babitsky is sent somewhere, so that he cannot come to Moscow and testify on these new circumstances. This is illogical. Being a man of logic, you probably asked these questions, did you?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: And I am still asking them.
EKHO MOSKVY: Can you finally give us the names of servicemen who were exchanged for Babitsky? And where are they now? Can we expect the Acting President to make a statement on this issue?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: I don't know. That's for your latter question. I don't know that such statement is being drafted. I think you will be able to put these questions directly to the Acting President within a few days. As for the first question, Mr. Zavarzin was handed over prior to the so-called exchange, while two others, Dmitriyev and Vasilyev, were handed over during it. They are in their units in Chechnya now.
THE LOS ANGELES TIMES: You said there is no guerrilla war in Chechnya. What is it then? And how many bandits are still alive?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: You know as well as I do what is going on there. The counter-terrorist operation is going on. The military phase provides for the liquidation of the main groups of the bandits, and the neutralisation or arrest of their leaders. The second part of the military operation provides for the liquidation of the bandits in the Argun gorge. The Interior Ministry and the Interior Troops will be playing star roles during the police phase of the operation.
As for the number of bandits, we think there are 5,000-8,000 of them.
ANATOLY YAROSHEVSKY, NOVOSTI REN TV: What weaponry did the bandits save while escaping to the mountains?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: According to available information, the illegal armed groups have not preserved their heavy weaponry. Fighting has moved from the flat up into the mountain part of the republic, and the use of heavy weaponry by either side would be complicated in these conditions. In addition, the roads have been either blockaded or are controlled by aviation. Convoys and concentration of hardware are immediately detected and liquidated by air strikes. I think the bandits could preserve some mortars and take them up to the mountains by horses or cars.
SPANISH TV: It was reported that Putin allegedly told Russian journalists on Friday that Babitsky will be scared when he understands who holds him. Can you reaffirm this information?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: No, I can't, because I did not attend such a meeting. Indeed, Vladimir Putin met with journalists, but as far as I know, this question was not touched upon in this manner.
EXPRESS-KHRONIKA: About the publication of lists. A spokesman of the Defence Ministry said this is impossible, since many relatives don't want this to be done. How will this problem be settled?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: This is a serious problem, the problem of the safety of the relatives of those who died. It was settled for Daghestan. But the lists of those who died in Chechnya will be published after the completion of the hostilities there, when there will be no real threat to the relatives. There is much evidence that the leaders of bandit groups ordered the identification of the crews of helicopters and planes, so as to blackmail or dispose of their relatives.
ANDREI KARPLYUK, RADIO-1: How many peaceful civilians are there in Grozny now? What is to be done with Grozny? Koshman said two months ago that the capital should be moved to Gudermes.
YASTRZHEMBSKY: I know of this opinion of Nikolai Koshman. As for the situation of peaceful civilians, you can see TV reports about their housing conditions. The city was seriously ruined, especially its high-rise buildings. One-story buildings in some districts of Grozny are in a better condition. It is difficult to say how many peaceful civilians survived the operation in Grozny. We will evaluate the amount of assistance, which they should receive, within a week.
THE VOICE OF AMERICA: It was reported that 22 peaceful civilians had been executed in Grozny. Do you know anything about this?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: No. I think you should check information before broadcasting it. I seriously doubt that this information is truthful.
PETRA PROHASKOVA, THE CZECH REPUBLIC: Did anyone check the persons to whom Babitsky was handed over? It appears that the field commanders you named at this press conference do not exist. And Turpal Ali Atgeriyev denies ever asking for Babitsky.
YASTRZHEMBSKY: Who?
PROHASKOVA: You said it was Turpal Ali Atgeriyev.
YASTRZHEMBSKY: I not just named him, but I also showed you the documents, which I had at the time. Regrettably, I don't have any additional information on this issue.
QUESTION: What personal interest is Putin taking in Babitsky's fate?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: Vladimir Vladimirovich is in the know of developments, on the whole. I cannot tell you about details. What personal interest did he take? He is daily reported on the situation in Chechnya.
TV CENTRE: Do you use satellites to hunt for the bandit leaders? Did you receive the originals of those letters? You showed us facsimile copies.
YASTRZHEMBSKY: As far as I know, the originals are in the Interior Ministry. As for satellite hunt, I cannot tell you anything on this score.
QUESTION: Spokesmen of the Defence Ministry said the current trend is to gradually withdraw troops from Chechnya. Is this plan still effective? How many troops will be pulled out?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: You refer to the opinion of Valery Manilov. I saw nothing sensational in what he said. It is expected that a division will be deployed in several areas of Chechnya. The Interior Troops will take over the initiative. Naturally enough, our troops will move away from Grozny now. The Interior Troops and the militia will mop up the territory and restore the Interior Ministry agencies in Grozny. Troops will be redeployed and are enjoying a short respite now. But they are not pulled out so far. We are replacing the servicemen who have completed their term in Chechnya and should be dispatched to their permanent deployment sites in accordance with plan, with fresh units replacing them.
LE FIGARO: Did Putin know about Babitsky's exchange before it took place? Who in the Interior Ministry and the Office of the General Prosecutor sanctioned the exchange? Was it done in Moscow or on the site?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: As for the Office of the General Prosecutor, you are asking a question that was asked on the day of the so-called exchange. Look carefully at Interfax or ITAR-TASS reports and you will see in them the viewpoint of the acting General Prosecutor of the Russian Federation. Nothing has changed since then.
As for the so-called exchange, he was informed about it, too. After the exchange.
QUESTION: What are the grounds for presenting accusations to Babitsky?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: Babitsky was arrested on January 27 under Article 90 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation on suspicion of committing crimes stipulated under Part 2 of Article 208 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, "involvement in illegal armed formations." The prosecutor office has the relative facts.
EL CORREO, SPAIN: FSB director Patrushev said today that Babitsky is alive. But his whereabouts are unknown. Can you say on what grounds he made this statement if you don't know Babitsky's whereabouts? US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said that the responsibility for what happens to Babitsky rests with the Russian authorities. Do you agree?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: If Mr. Patrushev said he knows that Babitsky is alive, this means that he has requisite information for making such statement. I don't doubt that he provides you with reliable information. We know about the stand of Mrs. Albright. If the Russian authorities held Mr. Babitsky, I would say that we bear full responsibility for him. As of now, he is not held by the Russian law enforcement agencies.
A FINNISH NEWSPAPER: Do you plan the disappearance of other correspondents, both foreign and Russian, soon? (Laughter in the audience)
YASTRZHEMBSKY: A good joke!
SAME: This is the question of our security.
YASTRZHEMBSKY: Certainly. As for your security, if we act as we agreed to, that is, we issue you the single accreditation and you work with us on the basis of it, there will be no emergency situations.
A GERMAN JOURNALIST: The Interior Ministry plays the star role in the exchange of Babitsky. But it keeps mum. Why? Can you show the place where this happened on the map?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: This happened on the road between two settlements, this is all I know. As for the Interior Ministry, put more questions to them and you will get more answers. I don't work for the Interior Ministry. And I don't determine their information policy.
A SPANISH NEWSPAPER: The exchange took place between Argun and Shali. According to you, the federal forces control this territory. Where did the bandits, to whom you handed Babitsky over, go?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: I don't have such information. I have told you everything I know about Babitsky.
QUESTION: Whom should we ask?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: You keep asking everyone from morning till night. I don't think I will have more information today.
RADIO LIBERTY: Our correspondents in Chechnya can prove that physical force was applied to Babitsky. Will you comment, please?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: I think this is nonsense. What we saw on the tape - although there can be many complaints about it - shows that Babitsky was adequate physically and psychologically.
QUESTION: Was Babitsky officially charged? If not, who is he in the eyes of the Russian justice now?
YASTRZHEMBSKY: Did you see the statement of the Prosecutor Office today? I have nothing to add. Whatever information I tried to find, I did. Regrettably, it is scarce, but I shared it with you. You can ask me another ten or fifteen questions, but nothing will change.
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