A senior lieutenant of the GRU, Alexei Galkin said, whilst being tortured by Chechen separatists, commanded by Abu Movsaev, that the apartment bombing in Buynaksk were organized by a team of twelve GRU officers and ordered by GRU director Valentin Korabelnikov[1][2][3] The interview of Galkin was conducted by journalist Robert Young Pelton, who was also interviewing Abu Movsaev, who wrote about it in his book Hunter, Hammer, Heaven, Dangerous Journeys Through Three Worlds Gone Mad.
[5] Together with Colonel Ivanov Zariko Amiranovich and senior lieutenant Vladimir Pachomov they insisted they were attempting to evacuate the relatives of Chechen, Russian Army collaborator Visani, who asked the Russian Army to evacuate his younger brother.
[5] After crossing the border to place explosives, they were ambushed and surrounded by separatists, after which they were repeatedly beaten, with amongst other things rifle butts.
Robert Young Pelton reported that no evidence of Galkin's torture were present when he was interviewed, although, he was thin, emaciated and his bore bruises from being bound for so long.
Galkin was nervous, and when Pelton asked him why, he said with humor that he had never been on CNN before referring to his career as a spy.