June 30, 2001
***
At 4 o'clock in the morning, up to 20 Russian military men in masks burst into the courtyard at 145 on Zapadnaya Street in the regional center Kurchaloy, having broken the gate with an armored personnel carrier No. L-119. Without introducing themselves or explaining their actions, they threatened to open the door to the living quarters and quickly occupied them.

In one of the rooms was Moula (Movla) Azievich Usumov, born in 1960, the father of four minor children. He woke up from the noise and finished dressing. After making sure that this was really the one they had come for, the military handcuffed him and forced him to climb into an armored personnel carrier standing in the yard. In front of the eyes of the wife of the captured man and his children, as well as the neighbors who had gathered on the street, valuables began to be taken out of the rooms. In total, they were loaded into an armored vehicle for a total amount of 200 thousand rubles. After that, having taken all the documents of the owner of the house (passport, driver's license, military ID, vehicle registration certificate), they left.

On that day, seven more people were detained in Kurchaloy: the Bikhoev brothers - 25-year-old Imam-Shamil, 20-year-old Shamil-Khadzhi and 18-year-old Ramzan, as well as Khamzat Shakhmagomedovich Masaipov, born in 1981, Magomed Saydamievich Abdulkadyrov, 1977 b.b. and brothers Yusup and Umar Kovraev, born in 1971 and 1977, respectively.

When they were detained, the military committed robberies, beaten and insulted people. Khamzat Masaipov, who stood up for his son, was beaten, and 14-year-old Markha, the sister of Magomed Abdulkadyrov, was shot in the leg. About 10 thousand rubles and gold jewelry were stolen from the house where the Kovraev brothers were.

Relatives of the detainees learned that the "operation" was carried out by servicemen of one of the units of the 33rd operational brigade of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, stationed on the eastern outskirts of the district center (on the territory of the former DRSU). Already in the morning of the next day, they turned to the military commandant of the district, Colonel Shkuro, and the head of the FSB, a colonel named Viktor Ivanovich (surname unknown).

The leaders of the law enforcement agencies did not really answer the questions about what the captives are accused of and why the military are using illegal methods. They only said that they must "deal with each detainee individually."

A firm promise was given only to Malika Magomedovna Usumova, whose husband allegedly "was taken by mistake." The heads of the commandant's office and the district FSB said they knew Moula (Movla) Usumov well and were “shocked themselves” by what happened to him. He, according to them, should be released by 16 o'clock.

In the evening, among the relatives of other detained people, this woman returned to the building of these institutions, but now she was told that her husband would be released later - within three days.

The case of the illegal capture of the inhabitants of Kurchaloy, meanwhile, received some public outcry. The relatives filed applications with the military and civil prosecutor's offices, the administration and the government of the Chechen Republic. This led to certain results: eight people from this locality were soon released. Beaten, barely on their feet, the military threw them out in different regions of the republic on different days in groups of two or three people. Seven of them were captured on June 30, the eighth was a man abducted from his home a few months ago, about whose fate relatives did not know anything until that day. Among the released people of Moula (Movla) Usumov was not.

In early July, the wife again turned to the commandant's office and the FSB district. This time, employees of these institutions began to assert that he had not been detained at all. Moreover, they said they did not know who could have done it. Referring to her previous conversations with the military, the woman began to prove that he had been captured by them and that no one had previously denied this. Then she was told: “Yes, indeed, we had such a person, but we released him along with other detainees.”

With a request to assist in the search for her husband, she turned to the HRC "Memorial". In her statement, dated November 14, 2003, the wife of a missing person, in particular, stated: “I went around all eight of the released guys. They confirmed that my husband was with them but was not released. From June 30, 2001 to the present, I have applied to all instances, including the military prosecutor's office in Khankala. But no one can say anything about my husband.”

On July 9, 2001, the Argun inter-district prosecutor's office opened criminal case No. 39038 on the fact of the abduction (Article 126 part 2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) of Moula (Movly) Azievich Usumov. On July 20, it was transferred to the military prosecutor's office. Nothing is known about the results of the Memorial HRC investigation.

***
A rally was held on the Theater Square in Grozny, in which several hundred people took part. The action was organized. The rally participants were holding slogans demanding to end the war and start peace talks with CRI President Aslan Maskhadov. At the end, people marched in a column for more than 500 meters along the avenue.

***
At the end of June, on the territory of the circus in the Leninsky district of Grozny, fragments of a human body were found in a crater left from the time of the last assault on the Chechen capital by Russian troops.

They were discovered by employees of the construction department of the city administration during a routine survey of destroyed buildings. According to their testimonies, a strong putrid smell is felt in the cellars of the circus and the Arena Hotel located nearby. For a long time these buildings were occupied by the Internal Affairs Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation for the Chechen Republic, which was headed by General Sergei Arenin.

ATC officers left the area a week before the discovery of human remains.

From the book "People Live Here", Usam Baisaev, Dmitry Grushkin, 2006