Editing Second Chechen War (section)

===Russian apartment bombings===
{{Main|1999 Russian apartment bombings}}

Before the wake of the Dagestani campaign had settled, a series of bombings took place in Russia (in [[Moscow]], [[Volgodonsk]] and [[Buynaksk]]). On 4 September 1999, 62 people died in an apartment building housing members of families of Russian soldiers. Over the next two weeks, the bombs targeted three other apartment buildings and a mall; in total over 350 people were killed. The then [[Vladimir Putin|Prime Minister Putin]] quickly blamed the attacks on Chechen militants and despite no evidence linking the bombings to Chechens; ordered the bombing campaign of Chechnya.<ref name="Cardin">{{cite web |last1=Cardin |first1=Ben |title=PUTIN'S ASYMMETRIC ASSAULT ON DEMOCRACY IN RUSSIA AND EUROPE: IMPLICATIONS FOR U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY |url=https://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/FinalRR.pdf |website=Senate Committee on Foreign Relations |publisher=U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE |access-date=15 February 2023 |page=10 |date=10 January 2018 |archive-date=9 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210209193625/https://www.foreign.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/FinalRR.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> In February 2000, the [[United States Secretary of State|US Secretary of State]] [[Madeleine Albright]] stated they had not seen any evidence that tied the bombings to Chechnya.<ref name="Cardin" /> 

On 22 September 1999, Russian [[Federal Security Service]] (FSB) agents were caught by local [[police]] planting a bomb at an apartment complex in [[Ryazan]]. They were later released on orders from Moscow. FSB chief [[Nikolai Patrushev]] announced on television that the apparent bomb had been part of a “training exercise”.<ref name="AmyKnight">{{cite magazine |last1=Knight |first1=Amy |date=22 November 2012 |title=Finally we Know About the Moscow Bombings |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2012/11/22/finally-we-know-about-moscow-bombings/ |magazine=The New York Review |access-date=14 August 2024 |archive-date=7 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211207194054/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2012/11/22/finally-we-know-about-moscow-bombings/ |url-status=live }}</ref> 

A Russian criminal investigation of the bombings was completed in 2002. The results of the investigation, and the court ruling that followed, concluded that they were organized by [[Achemez Gochiyaev]], who remains at large, and ordered by Khattab and [[Abu Omar al-Saif]] (both of whom were later killed), in retaliation for the Russian counteroffensive against their incursion into Dagestan. Six other suspects have been convicted by Russian courts.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Knight |first1=Amy |date=22 November 2012 |title=Finally we Know About the Moscow Bombings |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2012/11/22/finally-we-know-about-moscow-bombings/ |magazine=The New York Review |access-date=28 October 2018 |archive-date=7 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211207194054/https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2012/11/22/finally-we-know-about-moscow-bombings/ |url-status=live }}</ref> 

Many observers, including [[State Duma]] deputies [[Yuri Shchekochikhin]], [[Sergei Kovalev]] and [[Sergei Yushenkov]], cast doubts on the official version and sought an independent investigation. Some others, including [[David Satter]], [[Yury Felshtinsky]], [[Vladimir Pribylovsky]] and [[Alexander Litvinenko]], as well as the secessionist Chechen authorities, claimed that the 1999 bombings were a [[false flag]] attack coordinated by the FSB in order to win public support for a new full-scale war in Chechnya, which boosted the popularity of Prime Minister and former FSB Director [[Vladimir Putin]], brought the pro-war [[Unity (political party, Russia)|Unity Party]] to the [[State Duma]] in the [[1999 Russian legislative election|1999 parliamentary election]], and secured Putin [[President of Russia|as president]] within a [[2000 Russian presidential election|few months]].  A description of the bombings as FSB false-flag operations appears in the book ''Blowing Up Russia'', which is banned in the Russian Federation.<ref name="Assassins 2">''The Age of Assassins. The Rise and Rise of Vladimir Putin'', [[Vladimir Pribylovsky]] and [[Yuri Felshtinsky]], Gibson Square Books, London, 2008, {{ISBN|1-906142-07-6}}; pages 105–111.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hudson.org/files/publications/SatterHouseTestimony2007.pdf |title=David Satter – House committee on Foreign Affairs |access-date=17 October 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927065706/http://www.hudson.org/files/publications/SatterHouseTestimony2007.pdf |archive-date=27 September 2011 }}</ref><ref name="Satter">David Satter. ''Darkness at Dawn: The Rise of the Russian Criminal State''. Yale University Press. 2003. {{ISBN|0-300-09892-8}}, pages 24–33 and 63–71.</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur46/012/2006/en/ |title=Russian Federation: Amnesty International's concerns and recommendations in the case of Mikhail Trepashkin |work=Amnesty International |date=23 March 2006 |access-date=10 September 2009 |archive-date=22 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181122054145/https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/eur46/012/2006/en/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>[https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-sep-10-mn-8677-story.html Bomb Blamed in Fatal Moscow Apartment Blast], Richard C. Paddock, [[Los Angeles Times]], 10 September 1999</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9909/10/russia.explosion.03/ |title=At least 90 dead in Moscow apartment blast |work=CNN |date=10 September 1999 |access-date=13 July 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000823013738/http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9909/10/russia.explosion.03/ |archive-date=23 August 2000 }}</ref><ref>''The Chechen Wars: Will Russia Go the Way of the Soviet Union?'', page 81, Matthew Evangelista, pub. Brookings Institution Press, 2002, {{ISBN|0-8157-2499-3}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8157-2499-5}}</ref>