U.S. Department of State Country Reports on Terrorism 2004 - Russia

Russia pursued several major domestic and global counterterrorism initiatives in 2004, expanding its role in the global war on terrorism. Russia's leadership and public assigned increasing importance to counterterrorism following a series of deadly terrorist attacks in 2004. Separatist terrorists based in the North Caucasus were responsible for the murder of hundreds of Russian citizens. There is evidence of a foreign terrorist presence in Chechnya and of international financial ties with Chechen groups, although much of the actual terrorist activity in the region and elsewhere in Russia is homegrown and linked to the Chechen separatist movement.

Throughout the year, Russia continued revamping its domestic counterterror legislation and restructuring its law enforcement and security services in response to the terrorist threat. It facilitated effective interdiction of terrorist finance flows as a full member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). In October, Russia fulfilled its pledge to create a Central Asian FATF-style regional body (FSRB) – the Eurasia Group – whose members include Belarus, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Russia. As chair of that new group, Russia declared its intention to create a training center in Moscow to bolster regional cooperation.

On September 13, immediately following the Beslan tragedy, President Putin announced political reforms (including the presidential nomination of governors) that the Government said would result in greater domestic security. Some Russians view those reforms as anti-democratic, and the United States expressed concerns about the nature of some of the proposals and the degree to which they would address Russia's counterterrorism efforts.

Examples of noteworthy law enforcement and judicial actions undertaken by Russia in 2004 include: Zarema Muzhikhoyeva, a failed Chechen suicide bomber, was convicted of terrorism by a Moscow court in April and sentenced to 20 years in prison. In November, Russian law enforcement officials arrested Alisher Usmanov, whom the Russian authorities allege was the leader of a terrorist cell. Usmanov was reportedly carrying explosives and al-Qa'ida training manuals at the time of his arrest. Abdulla Aliyev, an aide to Chechen terrorist Shamil Basayev, was convicted of involvement in Basayev's 1999 incursion into Dagestan after returning to Dagestan from self-imposed exile in Turkey and confessing to prosecutors. He was given an eight-year suspended sentence.

Russia increasingly oriented its foreign policy to strengthening efforts to fight terrorism and engaged in bilateral counterterrorism cooperation with numerous countries, including the United Kingdom, India, France, Pakistan, Japan, and Germany. President Putin created the post of Special Envoy for International Counterterrorism Cooperation and appointed former Deputy Foreign Minister Anatoliy Safonov to fill that role. Safonov co-chaired many of the bilateral meetings.

The US-Russia Counterterrorism Group met in March and October, fostering cooperative operational links between numerous US agencies and their counterparts in Russia. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) regularly exchanged operational counterterrorism information, and several joint investigations were underway in 2004. The FSB and Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) have provided information to US agencies that has helped identify potential terrorism financing flows and suspect bank accounts and transactions. During FBI Director Mueller's December 2004 visit to Moscow, he and FSB Chief Patrushev signed a comprehensive memorandum of cooperation between the two agencies on counterterrorism, specifically committing them to the timely sharing of terrorist threat information. The FSB and FBI agreed to expand their cooperative exchange program to include information on weapons of mass destruction. Russia also cooperated extensively with the DHS Transportation Security Agency to increase airport security following terrorists' downing of two Russian airliners in August. The US Department of Treasury and Russia's Federal Service for Financial Monitoring (FSFM) submitted a joint report to Presidents Bush and Putin in July 2004 on Cooperative Strategies for Countering Terrorist Finance.

Russia was the chief sponsor of UN Security Council Resolution 1566, passed October 8, which created a working group to explore ways to sanction terrorist groups not covered by the al-Qa'ida/Taliban Sanctions Committee and strengthened the UN's Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC). Russia chaired the CTC in the latter half of 2004 and was active in numerous other international fora in building cooperative mechanisms and programs to counter terror. For example, Russia led efforts in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to focus those organizations on counterterrorism cooperation. Russia signed a joint declaration on international counterterrorism cooperation with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Jakarta in July, and has pushed that organization's members to create a Russia-ASEAN counterterrorism task force. Russia has urged the OSCE and other organizations to orient their missions and goals to the global counterterrorist fight. The NATO-Russia Council adopted a joint counterterrorism plan at its December meeting in Brussels. Russia signed an agreement at the same meeting to begin permanent participation in 2005 in NATO's Operation Active Endeavor by providing naval assets to the ongoing sea interdiction operation in the Mediterranean.

Major terrorist acts perpetrated against Russia during 2004 included, in chronological order:

• On February 6, suicide bombers blew up a Moscow subway train, killing at least 41 and wounding more than 100.
• On April 6, a suicide bomber tried to assassinate Ingush President Murat Zyazikov by ramming an explosive-laden vehicle into Zyazikov's motorcade. The blast wounded four of Zyazikov's bodyguards and two civilians. Zyazikov was lightly wounded.
• On May 9, Chechen President Akhmed Kadyrov was assassinated during Victory Day celebrations in a Grozny stadium.
• On June 22, armed militants seized a Ministry of Interior building in Ingushetia, killing at least 92 people.
• On August 24, suicide bombers simultaneously brought down two Russian airliners, killing 88 passengers and crew.
• On August 31, a female suicide bomber killed at least eight persons and wounded more than 50 others when she detonated explosives outside a Moscow subway station.
• September 1-3, terrorists seized approximately 1,200 hostages, more than half children, at a school in Beslan, North Ossetia. Two days later, an explosion inside the gymnasium where hostages were held sparked a fierce gun battle between terrorists and security forces. According to official figures, 331 people were killed, 172 of them children, though many believe the actual number of deaths was higher. Hundreds of others were injured.