Russia Denies Rocket Attack on Chechen Market

Russian officials asserted Friday that an explosion in a crowded market in Chechnya’s capital the day before was caused by the Chechens themselves, not a rocket attack by Russian troops entrenched outside the city.

While Chechen witnesses in Grozny described what appeared to be a rocket assault on an open-air food market packed with shoppers, Russian officials claimed that the spot was an arms bazaar and that the victims of the blast were terrorists.

In Helsinki, Finland, for a meeting with European leaders, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin said the explosion could have been caused by a clash between rival Chechen groups and asserted that the site of the blast was not “a market in the usual sense of the word. It’s a market of weapons, a storage of arms and a headquarters of bandit formations.”

Chechen authorities said as many as 140 people were killed and more than 300 wounded when at least three rockets struck the besieged capital Thursday evening. They said many of the victims were women and children who were out shopping at the market, one of the few places in the city where food remains available.

The Chechens said rockets also struck near a maternity hospital and close to the home of Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov, but Russian officials did not address those reports.

In Grozny, Chechen Prosecutor-General Salman Albakov said his office had opened a criminal investigation Friday into the blasts. “Investigators collected material proof, saved missile fragments and questioned witnesses,” he said.

Chechnya, a Russian republic that won de facto independence when its guerrillas defeated federal troops in a costly 1994-96 war, is now under attack by Russian forces who say their goal is to wipe out “terrorists” based in the republic.

Russians blame Chechens for a series of unsolved apartment bombings that killed about 300 civilians in Moscow and other Russian cities last month. During the summer, Russian troops battled Chechen-based rebels who had invaded a neighboring Russian republic, Dagestan, in an attempt to form an independent Islamic republic.

In the propaganda campaign that has accompanied the latest war, it is often impossible to determine who is telling the truth. Both sides claim they have inflicted great losses on their foes while suffering few casualties. Each accuses the other of seeking world sympathy by masterminding such dark conspiracies as planting bombs that kill hundreds of their own people.

On Friday, a chorus of Russian officials declared that their forces had not fired rockets on Grozny or bombed it from the air. Even the Federal Security Service issued a statement to the media:

“The Russian FSB possessed reports that active weapons trading was underway in the Grozny market and that explosives were stored in nearby buildings,” the agency said. “It is out of the question that the air force would carry out any strikes against a crowd of civilians.”

One Russian officer based in the region, however, said the carnage at the market was caused by federal forces, though he echoed charges that the victims were arms merchants and buyers. He hinted that the incident was an action carried out by undercover operatives.

“As a result of the special operation, the market was destroyed along with weapons, ammunition and arms traders,” said Col. Alexander Veklich, head of the Russian military’s North Caucasus media center. “The operation was not carried out by regular army troops and did not use artillery or aviation.”

With Russian troops now just seven miles from Grozny, not everyone was ready to accept the official Moscow line. Political analyst Viktor A. Kremenyuk, deputy director of the Moscow-based USA-Canada Institute, said it was “extremely unlikely” that the Chechens would blow up their own people.

“I am inclined to believe that the federal troops are intensifying their preparations for the storming of Grozny,” he said, “and last night’s explosions served the purpose of scaring the population still remaining there to leave town and not be in the way of the troops when the action begins.”