How Putin came to power: apartment bombings, the Kursk, and Ryazan sugar

Context: Russia in 1999

In August 1999, an unknown former KGB officer, Vladimir Putin, was appointed Prime Minister of Russia. His approval rating was 2%. Seven months later, he became president with over 50% support. What happened during those seven months?

The apartment bombings (September 1999)

Timeline

A series of explosions killed 293 people and wounded over 1,000:

Date	Location	Victims
September 4	Buynaksk (Dagestan)	62 killed
September 9	Moscow, Guryanova Street	106 killed
September 13	Moscow, Kashirskoye Highway	119 killed
September 16	Volgodonsk	17 killed

The explosions were carried out at night, while people slept. Entire apartment blocks collapsed. The country was gripped by panic.

The official version

The government blamed Chechen terrorists and used the bombings as the pretext for the Second Chechen War (launched October 1, 1999). Putin promised to “waste them in the outhouse.” His rating shot up from 2% to 45% within weeks.

Ryazan sugar

September 22, 1999 — the event that called the entire official narrative into question.

Residents of a building on Novosyolov Street in Ryazan noticed suspicious individuals carrying sacks into the basement. They called the police. Bomb disposal experts found an explosive device with a detonator and timer connected to sacks of a substance that field analysis identified as hexogen (RDX — the same explosive used in the previous bombings).

The city was evacuated. The suspects were detained — and turned out to be FSB agents.

The next day, FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev claimed it had been a “training exercise” and the sacks contained “sugar,” not hexogen.

Unanswered questions:

• Why did the FSB conduct “exercises” with a real detonator and timer in an occupied building, without informing local police?
• Why did the on-site analysis show hexogen, not sugar?
• Why were residents evacuated if it was just sugar?
• Why did the FSB call it a “training exercise” only after their agents were caught?

Those who investigated — and what happened to them

Journalists and politicians who tried to investigate the bombings systematically died:

• Anna Politkovskaya — journalist for Novaya Gazeta who investigated the Chechen war. Shot dead in her apartment building on October 7, 2006 (Putin’s birthday)
• Alexander Litvinenko — former FSB officer who publicly accused the FSB of the bombings. Poisoned with polonium-210 in London in 2006. Before dying he said: “You may be able to silence one person, but you cannot silence the cry of a whole nation”
• Yuri Shchekochikhin — journalist and Duma member who investigated the bombings. Died of a mysterious illness (suspected thallium poisoning) in 2003
• Sergei Yushenkov — Duma deputy, chair of the commission investigating the bombings. Shot dead near his home in 2003 — on the day his party received official registration

Researchers’ conclusions

David Satter (former Financial Times and Wall Street Journal correspondent) presented the most comprehensive case for FSB involvement in his book “Darkness at Dawn” (2003) and subsequent works.

John Dunlop (Stanford) in his monograph “The Moscow Bombings of September 1999” (2012) analyzed all available evidence in detail and concluded that the official version does not withstand critical analysis.

The submarine Kursk (August 2000)

August 12, 2000 — the nuclear submarine Kursk sank in the Barents Sea. 118 sailors died.

What the tragedy revealed

• Putin continued vacationing in Sochi for several days after the disaster, refusing to return
• Russia refused foreign assistance for 5 days — while sailors may still have been alive
• By the time Norwegian rescuers were granted access, it was too late
• Meeting with the relatives, Putin told a journalist who asked “what happened?” — “It sank” (with a smirk)
• Mothers of sailors who were screaming and crying were forcibly injected with sedatives in front of cameras

The Kursk tragedy showed: for Putin, image and control matter more than human lives.

The 1993 constitutional crisis: precursor to Putin’s authoritarianism

Understanding Putin’s Russia is impossible without the events of October 1993, when President Yeltsin ordered tanks to fire on parliament (the White House) in Moscow:

• Conflict between Yeltsin and the Supreme Soviet (parliament) over powers
• September 21 — Yeltsin issued a decree dissolving parliament (unconstitutional)
• Parliament refused to comply and declared Yeltsin removed
• October 3–4 — tanks shelled the parliament building. Estimates of deaths range from 150 to 2,000
• Afterward, Yeltsin adopted a new Constitution with super-presidential powers

It was this 1993 Constitution that created the “super-presidential” system that Putin then took to its extreme. Yeltsin showed: in Russia, a president can shell parliament and stay in power.

The destruction of democracy under Putin

2000s: establishing control

• 2000 — elected president (officially 52.9%)
• 2001 — destruction of NTV (the last independent TV channel)
• 2003 — arrest of Khodorkovsky (Russia’s richest businessman, who funded the opposition)
• 2004 — abolition of direct gubernatorial elections
• 2006 — murder of Politkovskaya, poisoning of Litvinenko
• 2008 — “castling” with Medvedev (formally not president, but retained power)

2010s: crushing protests

• 2011–2012 — mass protests after fraudulent elections. Dispersed, leaders sentenced
• 2014 — annexation of Crimea boosted ratings, “patriotic mobilization”
• 2017 — Navalny’s protests, mass arrests

2020s: complete dictatorship

• 2020 — “zeroing” of terms via constitutional amendment (voting during a pandemic, with no real oversight)
• 2024 — “elections” with no opposition candidates allowed

The 2024 “elections”

The presidential “election” of March 2024 — the pinnacle of simulated democracy:

• Navalny (the main opposition figure) — died in prison one month before the election (February 16, 2024)
• Boris Nadezhdin (moderate candidate who opposed the war) — barred by the Central Election Commission on fabricated grounds
• Spoiler candidates — Davankov, Slutsky, Kharitonov — system opposition that never criticizes Putin
• Observers: independent observers were either denied access or detained. Golos documented mass violations
• Voting lasted 3 days (for the first time), making oversight nearly impossible
• Electronic voting with no verification mechanism
• “Result”: Putin — 87.28%. For comparison: in North Korea, Kim Jong Un gets 99.9%

The OSCE did not send a full observation mission — only a limited “assessment mission” that noted the absence of genuine competition.

Conclusion

Putin came to power on a wave of fear (apartment bombings), consolidated power through war (Chechnya), destroyed the opposition (Politkovskaya, Litvinenko, Navalny), and turned Russia into a dictatorship.

A person who, on strong evidence, was involved in blowing up apartment buildings with his own citizens for the sake of ratings — is a person capable of anything. The full-scale invasion of Ukraine is not an anomaly. It is the logical result of 25 years of impunity.