Russia Names New Suspect in Bombings

As Russian warplanes pounded Chechen villages in pursuit of the rebel leaders who officials believe ordered a series of shocking apartment house bombings in Moscow and southern Russia, authorities here claimed to be making headway Saturday in pursuit of the man they suspect organized and carried out the blasts.

With public sentiment running high after the wave of attacks, Russian officials are eager to convince a frightened populace that they are hot on the trail of the terrorists, particularly given the government’s poor record for solving bombings and other violent crimes.

The authorities say at least 329 people have been killed in the unprecedented sequence of bombings. They blame two Islamic rebel leaders based in Chechnya, Shamil Basayev and Khattab, who are leading a guerrilla campaign to split the neighboring republic of Dagestan from Russia.

But the Interior Ministry has also named Achemez Gochiyayev, 28, as the organizer of the Moscow blasts Sept. 9 and last Monday, which killed 130 and 118 people, respectively. The toll from the earlier attack was initially thought to be about 90, but that figure has since increased.

Interior Ministry officials believe that Gochiyayev used the identification papers of a dead man, Mukhit Laipanov, to rent space in two apartment buildings in Moscow. Gochiyayev and an accomplice, Denis Saitakov, allegedly smuggled explosives into the buildings in sugar sacks and blew up the apartments during the night, when most residents were sleeping.

Gochiyayev was born in the southern city of Karachayevsk. Neither Gochiyayev nor Saitakov has been arrested, but officials say two of their accomplices are being held.

Saturday in Moscow, authorities blew up two apartment blocks that were badly damaged in the two explosions and were judged to be uninhabitable.

With the mood hardening in the wake of the blasts, Russia appears to be sliding toward a new war against Chechnya, where its forces waged a bloody campaign earlier this decade against rebels bent on achieving independence. The bombings have triggered an anti-Chechen mood in the country, with sentiment favoring a ruthless new military campaign to wipe out the rebels and their bases.

Russian warplanes continued a fierce bombing campaign against Chechnya on Saturday, and troops were concentrating near the Chechen border, sparking rumors that Russian forces had invaded the separatist republic.

The rumors were disputed by the Chechen presidential press service and Russian military officials.

Chechen officials say 200 civilians have been killed by bombing attacks on villages in the last two weeks. But Russian Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin said Friday that only rebels were being hit. He said that if civilians had been killed, the cause must have been internecine Chechen fighting.

Chechen rebels defeated the Russian military in the 1994-96 war over secession, but Chechen independence has not been recognized. However, the republic acts as an independent state; it issues its own passports, has introduced traditional Islamic law and carries out public executions.