The story
In September 1999 a series of powerful explosions tore through apartment buildings in Russia. On September 4 a truck bomb hit a block housing military families in Buynaksk, Dagestan. On September 9 and 13 bombs in the basements of buildings on Guryanova Street and Kashirskoye Highway in Moscow killed more than 200 people as they slept. On September 16 a truck bomb exploded in Volgodonsk in the south. In all about 300 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured. The government blamed Chechen and Dagestani Islamist militants, and the attacks spread fear across the country.
Russia had fought a disastrous war in Chechnya from 1994 to 1996, and in August 1999 Chechen-based fighters had invaded neighboring Dagestan. Vladimir Putin, a former head of the FSB, the main security service, had just been appointed prime minister. He promised a hard response, and by October Russian troops had entered Chechnya, starting the Second Chechen War. His popularity soared, and he became acting president on December 31, 1999.
On September 22, residents of an apartment block in Ryazan found sacks connected to a timer in the basement. Local police said they held explosives and arrested two men, who turned out to be FSB officers. FSB director Nikolai Patrushev then said it had been a training exercise using sugar. Critics, including the former FSB officer Alexander Litvinenko, argued the bombings were a provocation by the security service. A Russian court convicted two men from the North Caucasus in 2004, while members of a public commission investigating the bombings died or were jailed. The question remains bitterly contested.
Why it mattered
- The bombings rallied public support behind the Second Chechen War and helped carry Vladimir Putin to the presidency.
- Suspicion about Ryazan became a lasting fault line between the Kremlin and its critics, several of whom were later killed.
- Alexander Litvinenko's accusations over the bombings were part of the background to his own poisoning in London in 2006.
Sources
- Who Blew Up Moscow Apartment Buildings in 1999? RFE/RL
- Russia Election / Bombings Voice of America (via FAS)
- Vladimir Putin and the 1999 Russian Apartment House Bombings: Was Putin Responsible? Hudson Institute (David Satter)
- The Case of Mikhail Trepashkin U.S. Helsinki Commission
- RFE/RL Newsline, January 13, 2004 (apartment bombings verdict) RFE/RL
Drafted by AI (Claude) from the sources above and checked against them by AI; no historian has reviewed this page. Spot a mistake? Suggest a correction. How pages are made
Contested history
Consensus: Bombs destroyed four apartment blocks in Russia in September 1999, killing about 300 people, and the government blamed militants from the North Caucasus. A foiled bomb in Ryazan, later called an FSB training exercise, led critics to accuse the security service; Russian courts convicted two North Caucasus men, and no independent inquiry has resolved the dispute.
- Vladimir Putin and the 1999 Russian Apartment House Bombings: Was Putin Responsible? Hudson Institute (David Satter)
- The Moscow Bombings of September 1999 (John B. Dunlop) ibidem Press
- Russia Election / Bombings Voice of America (via FAS)
- Who Blew Up Moscow Apartment Buildings in 1999? RFE/RL
- The Case of Mikhail Trepashkin U.S. Helsinki Commission
- Vladimir Putin and the 1999 Russian Apartment House Bombings: Was Putin Responsible? Hudson Institute (David Satter)
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