Chechens: We Pulled Moscow's Plug

A rebel-linked Web site said Friday that Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev has claimed responsibility for a power outage that plunged Moscow into chaos two days earlier.

"Our diversionary units delivered a major blow to one of the most important life-support systems of the Russian empire," the Kavkazcenter site quoted Basayev as saying in an E-mail.

Russian officials have said the power failure, which began with an explosion and fire at a 40-year-old substation and affected the Russian capital as well as the surrounding region, was caused by worn-out equipment. The Federal Security Service declined comment on Friday's claim.

Wednesday's blackout affected millions of people, stranding subway riders and trolley passengers and leaving entire neighborhoods in the dark. Electricity was restored across the capital by about noon on Thursday.

"The Russian authorities are willfully lying, hiding the real reason for the 'technological catastrophe,' as well as trying to cover up the very serious consequences of this special operation we carried out," Basayev said according to the Web site, which he has used in the past to claim responsibility for terrorist acts.

Basayev is Russia's most wanted man, and is seen as the driving force behind the Chechen insurgency since Russian security forces killed guerrilla leader Aslan Maskhadov on March 8.
Basayev has claimed responsibility for many of Russia's most grisly terrorist attacks, including the 2002 Moscow theater hostage-taking and last September's school siege in southern Russia, in which more than 330 people died.

Russia's atomic energy agency issued a statement Friday denying that malfunctions had occurred at any nuclear facility on Wednesday or the following days. The statement apparently came in response to rumors of an accident at a reactor in Obninsk, about 60 miles southwest of Moscow.

"All Rosatom (state atomic energy agency) facilities, including at Obninsk ... are working normally," the statement said, adding that the power outage had no "substantial influence" on Rosatom enterprises.

The head of the nation's electricity monopoly, Anatoly Chubais, has come under heavy criticism over the massive power outage in Moscow and environs.

Prosecutors interrogated Chubais, the head of Unified Energy Systems, about the blackout for four hours Thursday, news agencies reported, stressing that he was called as a witness.

In March 2004, police discovered a powerful bomb in an apartment building near Moscow and disposed of it without casualties.

Russian newspapers at the time quoted security officials as saying that said that the flat had likely been leased by a group of terrorists headed by Basayev, with the purpose of blowing up gas pipes, power lines and other industrial infrastructure around the capital.

By Judith Ingram