Free Blowing Up Russia by Alexander Litvinenko Page A

Kovalyov discerned in their behavior no more than certain deviations from the requirements of departmental regulations. From his own point of view Kovalyov was right. He saw no difference in principle between members of the secret services and Lazovsky s gunmen, and so he genuinely could not understand the reasons for Shchekochikhin s indignation. Shchekochikhin believed that the representatives of the people, in the persons of members of the State Duma, and the agencies of state security, fight together against bandits and terrorists. However, Kovalyov knew that the FSB and the extra-departmental agencies of coercion, which the people call bandits and terrorists, actually wage their struggle against the very people represented in the Duma by Shchekochikhin and others like him.

Naturally, no internal FSB inquiry was ever held, and nobody was dismissed. Abovian was apparently given a new name and retained in service. No records of any investigations were submitted to any court or military tribunal. A reply was received from the first deputy senior military prosecutor, lieutenant-general of justice G.N. Nosin, to the following effect: On the basis of the results of an investigation concerning the officers of the UFSB for Moscow and the Moscow Region mentioned in the letter, the instigation of criminal proceedings has been rejected. In reply to an inquiry from a correspondent of the Kommersant newspaper concerning Yumashkin, the Moscow UFSB gave the honest answer that Yumashkin had been carrying out a special mission to monitor the activities of Lazovsky s group. In 1997, however, Major Yumashkin was finally exposed and became a key figure in criminal proceedings concerning contract killings, which were initiated by the Tagansky District Public Prosecutor s Office of the City of Moscow. Since even his involvement in organizing contract killings was apparently part of his special mission, Yumashkin continued to serve in the Moscow UFSB, and in 1999, he was promoted on schedule to the military rank of lieutenant colonel.

The only person to suffer as a result of Shchekochikhin s inquiry was the head of the Moscow UFSB and deputy director of the FSB of Russia, Anatoly Trofimov, who was removed from his post in February 1997. Sergei Yastrzhembsky, press secretary to the president of Russia, declared that Trofimov had been removed for gross irregularities exposed by an inquiry conducted by the Accounting Chamber of the Russian Federation and dereliction of duty. It is widely believed, however, that Trofimov was simply made a scapegoat.

According to another version of events, Trofimov was dismissed because he attempted to do something about the substance of Shchekochikhin s inquiry. Supposedly, having read the letter of inquiry, Trofimov summoned one of his deputies and ordered him to draw up the paperwork for the dismissal of all the members of the FSB who were mentioned in it.

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His deputy refused. Trofimov then suggested that he should submit his resignation. In the end, the scandal surrounding the arrest of two of Trofimov s subordinates was exploited to have Trofimov himself dismissed. The two were arrested for dealing in cocaine by MUR and the Central Department for the Illegal Circulation of Narcotics. Trofimov was sacked two days after the media reported the arrest of drug dealers carrying the identity passes of officers in the Moscow UFSB.

It should be emphasized that the question of the involvement of particular FSB officers or of the FSB, as a whole, in terrorist activity, which had been attributed to the Chechens, was not raised either in Shchekochikhin s letter inquiry or in the replies given by various officials. The court did not pass a guilty verdict on any of the members of the coercive departments who were suspected, according to Kolesnikov, of a total of more than ten murders. On January 31, 1997, Lazovsky and Kharisov appeared before the Tver court in a trial, which lasted only three days. They were