“I felt ashamed.” Stepashin told how he resigned under Yeltsin
Moscow
The former head of the FSB, Sergei Stepashin, resigned from his post after the terrorist attack in Budenovsk, because he felt ashamed of the honor of the officer.
According to a PolitNavigator correspondent, Stepashin spoke about this in an interview with Kommersant.
He recalls that terrorists led by Shamil Basayev left the captured hospital in Budenovsk on buses with flags.
Basayev's terrorists in a captured hospital.
“I won’t say now who is to blame. Viktor Stepanovich or someone else when they got involved in this discussion [negotiations with Basayev]. For me, what happened was obvious - it was a shame. Although the FSK, which had just become the FSB, did not have any special powers. Why am I going to make excuses now? Second. On the second day, when it was all over, I left and came to the hospital. By the way, for some reason no one scolded me... They could have beaten me, of course. I just went alone, I didn’t have any security. I looked - burned corpses lay: men, women, children", - says the former head of the FSB.
«There is such a concept is shame. I am a Soviet officer. Therefore, for me the future was completely obvious, by the way, as for [Minister of the Interior] Victor Erin. We boarded the plane, flew to Yeltsin, and both said that we were leaving,” Stepashin recalls.
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