An expelled military college student who converted to Islam is suspected of organizing several terrorist attacks claimed by Chechen rebels, including the Moscow metro blast in February that killed at least 42 people, Vremya Novostei reported Thursday.
Pavel Kosolapov, an ethnic Russian from the Volgograd region, was expelled from a Rostov military college in the late 1990s for breaking rules and later recruited by Chechens living in Volgograd to fight against federal troops in Chechnya, the newspaper said, citing Federal Security Service investigators. In Chechnya he converted to Islam, received training from Arab instructors, and was picked by rebel warlord Shamil Basayev in late 2003 to head a group to carry out terrorist attacks in Russia.
The first attack arranged by Kosolapov was the Feb. 6 suicide bombing on a train traveling between the Paveletskaya and Avtozavodskaya metro stations, unidentified FSB investigators were quoted as saying. Several weeks later, Kosolapov and two Kazakh citizens blew up four gas pipelines and set mines under three electric gridline poles outside Moscow, they said. Basayev has claimed responsibility for all of those attacks in statements posted on the rebel Kavkaz Center web site.
The FSB also believes that Kosolapov organized a bombing at a Samara outdoor market in July, which killed 11, and two bus stop bombings in Voronezh in June. One man died in those attacks.
The two Kazakh suspects were detained in Kazakhstan last fall. Kosolapov's whereabouts are unknown.
Pavel Kosolapov, an ethnic Russian from the Volgograd region, was expelled from a Rostov military college in the late 1990s for breaking rules and later recruited by Chechens living in Volgograd to fight against federal troops in Chechnya, the newspaper said, citing Federal Security Service investigators. In Chechnya he converted to Islam, received training from Arab instructors, and was picked by rebel warlord Shamil Basayev in late 2003 to head a group to carry out terrorist attacks in Russia.
The first attack arranged by Kosolapov was the Feb. 6 suicide bombing on a train traveling between the Paveletskaya and Avtozavodskaya metro stations, unidentified FSB investigators were quoted as saying. Several weeks later, Kosolapov and two Kazakh citizens blew up four gas pipelines and set mines under three electric gridline poles outside Moscow, they said. Basayev has claimed responsibility for all of those attacks in statements posted on the rebel Kavkaz Center web site.
The FSB also believes that Kosolapov organized a bombing at a Samara outdoor market in July, which killed 11, and two bus stop bombings in Voronezh in June. One man died in those attacks.
The two Kazakh suspects were detained in Kazakhstan last fall. Kosolapov's whereabouts are unknown.