Three days after the event, an explanation has been offered for Friday night's raid by armed, masked men on the former Comecon building on Novy Arbat. The presidential guard, responding to a breach of Boris Yeltsin's motorcade, had pursued the intruders to the building, which they surrounded before arresting several employees of MOST-Bank.


At least we know now who was responsible, which is an improvement over the utter confusion that reigned throughout the weekend as each law enforcement authority in turn denied any kind of involvement.


MOST-Bank officials, however, tell an entirely different story than the Kremlin guard. On the contrary, say MOST, it was the security of their vehicles, as they swept the bank's chairman Vladimir Gusinsky into Moscow, that was breached by armed men who subsequently turned out to be members of the presidential guard.


Whatever the truth of the matter, the authorities ostensibly responsible for law and order -- the Interior Ministry and Moscow police -- were clueless as to what was going on and forced to stand on the sidelines.


On a matter of the president's personal security, a degree of reticence is understandable and indeed advisable. If the presidential guard is to do its job properly, it cannot afford to go through complicated bureaucratic clearance procedures before acting. In the event of a terrorist attack, there is no time for procedural niceties.


But for several hours, unidentified men toting automatic rifles took over a key building in central Moscow, blocked all exits and threatened to shoot anyone who approached -- including the police.


For all the authorities knew at the time, the gun-toting paramilitaries could have been anyone. There are plenty of private security firms using armed guards in fatigues operating around Moscow, while the line between legal security and illegal protection is hazy to say the least. If the police were left in the dark about a security operation by the presidential guard, what could they do about a similar operation carried out by some freebooting criminal gang?


There is little enough regard for law and order in Russia today, without it being so blatantly flouted by the very people entrusted to ensure security at the highest level. The official explanation -- extracted only after Yeltsin announced an investigation into the affair -- gives little reassurance and begs too many questions.


At best, one wonders how many other heavily armed cavalcades ply the roads every day from downtown Moscow to the dachas of the rich and powerful? And with so many private armies on the streets, how long until two of them shoot it out in earnest?