Blowing Up Russia by Alexander Litvinenko

belongings (a fact which thieves later exploited) and gather in front of the dark, empty house.

Women, old men, and children shuffled about in front of the entrance, reluctant to set out into the unknown. Some of them were not wearing outer clothing, or were even barefooted& They hopped from one foot to the other in the freezing wind for several hours, and the invalids who had been brought down in their wheelchairs wept and cursed the entire world.

The house was cordoned off. It was cold. The director of the local cinema, the Oktyabr, took pity on the people and let them into the hall, and she also prepared tea for everyone.

The only people left in the building were several old invalids, who were in no physical condition to leave their apartments, including one old woman who was paralyzed and whose daughter stayed all night with the police cordon expecting an explosion. This is how she recalled the event: Between 10 and 11 p.m., police officers went to the apartments, asking people to get outside as quickly as possible. I ran out just as I was, in my nightshirt, with only my raincoat thrown over it. Outside in the yard, I learned there was a bomb in our house. I d left my mother behind in the flat, and she can t even get out of bed on her own. I dashed over to the policemen in horror: Let me into the house, help me bring my mother out!

They wouldn t let me back in. It was half past two before they started going to each of the flats with its occupants and checking them for signs of anything suspicious. They came to me too. I showed the policeman my sick mother and said I wouldn t go anywhere without her. He calmly wrote something down on his notepad and disappeared.

And I suddenly had this realization that my mother and I were probably the only two people in a house with a bomb in it. I felt quite unbearably afraid& But then suddenly there was a ring at the door. Standing on the doorstep were two senior police officers.

They asked me sternly: Have you decided you want to be buried alive, then, woman? I was so scared my legs were giving way under me, but I stood my ground, I wouldn t go without my mother. And then they suddenly took pity on me: All right then, stay here, your house has already been made safe. It turned out they d removed the detonators from the charge even before they inspected the flats. Then I just dashed straight outside&

All kinds of emergency services and managers turned up at the house. In addition, since analysis had determined the presence of hexogene, the cordon was ordered to expand the exclusion zone, in case there was an explosion. The head of the local UFSB, Major49 General Alexander Sergeiev, congratulated the inhabitants of the building on being granted a second life. Hero of the hour Kartofelnikov was told that he must have been born under a lucky star (a few days later, he was presented with a valuable gift from the municipal authorities for finding the bomb-a Russian-made color television). One of the Russian telegraph agencies informed the world of his fortunate discovery as follows: Terrorist bombing thwarted in Ryazan: sacks containing a mixture of sugar and hexogene found by police in apartment house basement.

First deputy staff officer for civil defense and emergencies in the Ryazan Region, Colonel Yury Karpeiev, has informed an ITAR-TASS correspondent that the substance found in the sacks is undergoing analysis. According to the operations duty officer of the Ministry of Emergencies of the Russian Federation in Moscow, the detonating device discovered was set for 5.30 Moscow time on Thursday morning. Acting head of the UVD of the Ryazan Region, Alexei Savin, told the ITAR-TASS correspondent that the make, color, and number of the car in which the explosive was brought to the scene had been identified. According to Savin, specialists were carrying out a series of tests to determine the composition and explosion hazard posed by the mixture discovered in the sacks&

First deputy