Video footage hurt Moscow really bad

Looks like the video footage of Commander Basayev’s speech in the building of pro-Moscow police in Ingushetia and the demonstration of how the seized weapons have been handed over to President Maskhadov dealt a pretty strong blow to the state of mind and self-esteem of the military and the secret services. At times their comments sound so absurd that sometimes they go overboard the concept of 'absurd'.

«These video materials have no proofs that Basayev was filmed right at the weapons storage of the Ingushetian police. And the demonstration of allegedly seized weapons being handed to Maskhadov looks more like a forgery too. Such a scene can be filmed in any woods, wherever 'president of Chechen caves' is hiding».

This comment was made by somebody named Vladimir Nosov, Colonel of Military Counterintelligence Department of the North Caucasus Military District. The comment was published in Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper.

Pretty strange arguments for a counterintelligence officer. It would not be a bad idea if he explained to us, who are unfamiliar with it, where can you build such a huge warehouse in the woods with enormous arsenal of weapons and with a police safe in it, and where you can park trucks and cars in front of it? And if there is such a warehouse, and the Mujahideen can freely transport weapons all across Chechnya, then where are the Russian troops, which according to Putin «have driven militants into caves and are now trying to dig them up out of there»?

Another commentator, member of Security Council of Russian State Duma (parliament) Gennady Gudkov is convinced that the publication of that video footage is only a part of informational warfare and is a forgery. This is what he said in his interview to Novye Izvestiya newspaper:

«In my point of view, the militants are trying to gain psychological advantage. Apparently, against the backdrop of the successful sortie into Ingushetia, the extremists decided to present the attack as being preplanned and well-thought-out action. I am 70% sure that the video footage is a forgery and a propagandistic trick».

The assurance of Russian State Duma member is pretty interesting: in his opinion, 70% of the footage is fake, so it must be assumed that 30% is truthful. Which means that Basayev organized something like Hollywood in the mountains of Chechnya and is now rubberstamping forgeries for the entire world by mixing the real footage with the shows put on by 'actors the militants' (70%). Presumably, the stage props for the studio came to the Chechen Commander from Afghanistan and were provided by Ben Laden personally, along with the 'Arab mercenaries', who recently arrived to Chechnya (read the latest press release by Shabalkin).

Another commentator, Igor Sundiyev, Police Colonel, Chief Research Officer at the Police Scientific Research Institute (under Russian Interior Ministry), President of Association of Criminologists of Russia, was trying to be funny in his conversation with Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper, instead of giving a professional evaluation of the incident. This is what he said:

«Basayev’s statement about his involvement in the attack on Ingushetia shows the evident ‘Raduyev syndrome’. Remember how he tried to claim responsibility for everything that was happening on the planet? But in this particular case, there is commercial interest present besides mental illness. If your name is resounding, then there is a guarantee to get another tranche from the sponsors on time».

The witticism was pretty dumb. First, Basayev’s name has been heard for 10 years already. Second, even Shabalkin (Russian spokesman for the war in the Caucasus) does not want to look like an idiot and is not taking a risk to ascribe any 'syndromes and diseases' to the Chechen Commander, in spite of Shabalkin’s own narrow-mindedness, since Commander Basayev’s statements and his promises have been implacably coming true throughout all of these 10 years. Third, mentioning the sponsors stands no criticism, because even every child in Chechnya knows how the Mujahideen earn their living.

And just as Commander Basayev showed on the video footage, the way they earn their living is by attacking the enemy and by seizing the enemy’s weapons and outfits (so far Chechens have no military factories). So the army of the Russian invaders is the main sponsor of the Mujahideen, there are no imaginary pennies from 'international terrorism', whose «financial flows were blocked tightly and long time ago», according to Shabalkin.

Russian police colonel Igor Sundiyev probably doesn’t know about it even though he is the Chief Research Officer at the Police Scientific Research Institute. But FSB of Russia knows it full well. This is exactly why the so-called chief of public relations center of the FSB Sergei Ignatchenko refused to make any comments because any comments in this situation would only aggravate the picture of failure of the Kremlin’s 'counterterrorist' scam in the Caucasus.

Countless comments and discussions of the video footage of Commander Basayev’s speech in the storage facilities of Ingushetian pro-Moscow police on the pages of Russian media can never disavow the very fact that it did happen. Even American special technologies of propaganda do not help, which Russian secret services and mass media are trying to copy in order to somewhat mitigate the strongest informational blow dealt to Moscow. There is a feeling of tender emotion coming when you hear phrases like «a man looking like Basayev…» or «the investigation is establishing whether the footage is authentic…» and other bologna.

A comment made by an NTV journalist was especially impressive. The TV channel’s editors claim that the journalist «deliberately studied the video footage, which was spread by the Chechen militants». NTV reporter Sergei Gaponov cast doubt on the authenticity (this word is pretty popular in Russia these days) of the videotape due to the fact that the shape of Basayev’s beard has been staying suspiciously the same and has not changed for quite a while. This is what the reporter said, quote:

«You can’t judge by Basayev’s outward appearance when this footage was filmed. The shape of the beard of the main terrorist has not changed in a while…»

Sergei Gaponov got so much carried away with the Sherlock Holmes game that it totally slipped from his memory that it is a man’s nature to take care of his appearance.

However, there is a simple explanation for this entire informational fuss: by all of the rules of propagandistic genre, which the Kremlin has strongly prescribed for the Russian media, Shamil Basayev is supposed to be hiding in the caves from Russian Spetznaz commandos (who have allegedly been ordered to kill him), or to be dying from gangrene. But this is no way he can show up right under the nose of the 58th Army in Ingushetia so easily, defeat entire outposts, seize a considerable arsenal of spoils and quietly leave.

Speaking about Commander Basayev, we are not underestimating the role of other Chechen and Ingushetian Commanders in any way, such as Dokka Umarov, Amir Magas, etc., or privates of Chechen and Ingushetian Armed Forces, who have shown real military talent and unexampled courage in this operation. Russian propaganda has just instilled the image of Commander Basayev into its own mind as Russia's main super-enemy, and this is where the painful reaction to anything tied to the name of this Chechen Commander comes from.

Vakha Hasanov,