Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev has claimed responsibility for a massive power outage that caused chaos in Moscow two days earlier, plunging entire neighborhoods into darkness and stranding thousands of subway passengers, according to a rebel-linked Web site.
Russian officials insist the power failure, which began with an explosion and fire at a 40-year-old substation and affected the Russian capital and surrounding region, was caused by worn-out equipment. But Basayev has a history of striking at new and spectacular targets in his terrorist campaign.
"Our sabotage units delivered a major blow to one of the most important life-support systems of the Russian empire," the Kavkazcenter site quoted the Chechen rebel leader as saying in an E-mail.
The Federal Security Service, or FSB, declined comment on Friday's claim and telephone calls to the Industry and Energy Ministry were not answered.
But Industry and Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko was quoted earlier in the day as rejecting speculation that a terrorist act was responsible for the blackout.
"I think that this is not a terrorist act. We are just using old equipment, from 1958, which needs to be replaced," Khristenko told the RIA-Novosti news agency, the Gazeta.ru news Web site reported.
Wednesday's blackout happened during an unseasonal heatwave with temperatures of 30?C. The shutdown of subways and trolley buses forced tens of thousands of people to reach their destinations on foot, jamming sidewalks.
According to media reports, the power failure caused some apartment buildings to lose their water supply and forced suspension of trading on both of Moscow's stock exchanges, as well as an explosion at a chemical factory in the Tula region, sending nitric oxide into the air.
"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.
The head of the nation's electricity monopoly, Anatoly Chubais, has borne the brunt of criticism over the power outage. Moscow prosecutors interrogated Chubais, head of Unified Energy Systems, about the blackout for several hours Thursday as a witness in a criminal case into alleged negligence.
Basayev is Russia's most wanted man, and is seen as the driving force behind the decade-old insurgency in the breakaway republic of Chechnya since Russian security forces killed guerrilla leader Aslan Maskhadov on March 8.
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