User:Ilgiz/Allegations of state terrorism by Russia

Human rights groups and critics accused Russian government and Russian president of state terrorism.

Allegations relating to the wars in Chechnya
Australian journalist John Pilger described the alleged use of vacuum bombs in Chechnya as state terrorism.

The Memorial society stated in 2009 that Russia was suffering from state terror.

Alexander Litvinenko poisoning
Former KGB operative Alexander Litvinenko was murdered in London by poisoning with a radioactive substance. The British Government requested the extradition of chief suspect, but the request was turned down by the Russian government, who said that doing so would be against their constitution. When the story broke, western media immediately pointed its finger at Moscow. First Deputy Press Attaché Dmitry Peskov says the media was "not willing and not ready to dive into details". The Times claimed that a "senior British official was unequivocal. The murder of the former KGB man Alexander Litvinenko was “undeniably state-sponsored terrorism on Moscow’s part. That is the view at the highest levels of the British government”.

Vladimir Putin's aide Sergei Yastrzhembsky commented:
 * "The excessive number of calculated coincidences between the deaths of people, who defined themselves as the opposition to the Russian authorities, and major international events involving Vladimir Putin is a source of concern. I am far from believing in the conspiracy theory, but, in this case, I think that we are witnessing a well-rehearsed plan of the consistent discrediting of the Russian Federation and its chief.  In such cases, the famed 'qui bono'[sic] question has to be asked."

1999 Russian apartment bombings
The Russian apartment bombings were a series of bombings in Russia that killed nearly 300 people and, together with the Dagestan War, led the country into the Second Chechen War. The five bombings took place in Moscow and two other Russian towns during ten days of September 1999. None of the Chechen field commanders accepted the responsibility for the bombing. Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov denied involvement of his government.

The bombings had stopped after a controversial episode when a similar bomb was found and defused in an apartment block in the Russian city of Ryazan on September 23. Later in the evening, Vladimir Putin praised the vigilance of the Ryzanians and ordered the air bombing of Grozny, which marked the beginning of the Second Chechen War. A few hours later, three FSB agents who planted the bomb were caught by the local police. This incident was declared to be a "training exercise" by FSB director Nikolai Patrushev.

Former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko, Johns Hopkins University and Hoover Institute scholar David Satter,, Russian lawmaker Sergei Yushenkov, historian Felshtinsky, and political scientist Vladimir Pribylovsky asserted that the bombings were in fact a "false flag" attack perpetrated by the FSB (successor to the KGB) in order to legitimize the resumption of military activities in Chechnya and bring Vladimir Putin and the FSB to power. But security and policy analysts Simon Saradzhyan and Nabi Abdullaev pointed out, that neither Litvinenko nor Felshtinsky have not provided any direct evidence to back up their claims about FSB involvement in the bombings.

An official investigation of the bombings was completed only three years later, in 2002. It was conducted by the Russian FSB agency. Seven suspects were killed, six have been convicted on terrorism-related charges, and one remains a fugitive. According to the investigation, all bombings were organized and led by Achemez Gochiyaev - who as of 2007 remained at large.

The Russian Duma rejected two motions for parliamentary investigation of the Ryazan incident. An independent public commission to investigate the bombings chaired by Duma deputy Sergei Kovalev was rendered ineffective because of government refusal to respond to its inquiries. Two key members of the Kovalev Commission, Sergei Yushenkov and Yuri Shchekochikhin, both Duma members, have since died in apparent assassinations in April 2003 and July 2003 respectively.

The Commission's lawyer Mikhail Trepashkin has been arrested in October 2003 to become one of the better-known political prisoners in Russia.

Viktor Yushchenko poisoning
Russia backed a pro Russian candidate, Victor Yanukovych, in the Presidential elections in Ukraine in 2004 and was accused of complicity in the poisoning of Viktor Yushchenko. Viktor Yushchenko came to power following the Orange Revolution, after mass protests against election results, which were deemed fraudulent, were overturned.

Other cases
Former FSB officer Aleksander Litvinenko and investigator Mikhail Trepashkin alleged that Moscow theater hostage crisis was directed by a Chechen FSB agent. Yulia Latynina and other journalists also accused the FSB of staging many smaller terrorism acts, such as market place bombing in the city of Astrakhan, bus stops bombings in the city of Voronezh, and the blowing up the Moscow-Grozny train, whereas innocent people were convicted or killed. Journalist Boris Stomakhin claimed that a bombing in Moscow metro in 2004 was probably organized by FSB agents rather than by the unknown man who called the Kavkaz Center and claimed his responsibility. Stomakin was arrested and sentenced to five years of prison for inciting hatred and defamatory statements aimed at groups and persons of particular religious and ethnic background and for promoting violent change of constitutional regime and violation of territorial integrity of Russian Federation (articles 280 and 282 of the Russian Criminal Code).

Many journalists and workers of international NGOs were reported to be kidnapped by FSB-affiliated forces in Chechnya who pretended to be Chechen terrorists: Andrei Babitsky from Radio Free Europe, Arjan Erkel and Kenneth Glack from Doctors Without Borders, and others.