An Accident?

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By Newsweek Editors

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The presence of a high-powered oilman--a Chechen--as well as one of Moscow's top investigative journalists on the YAK 40 that crashed at Sheremetyevo Airport last week has prompted investigators to consider the possibility of foul play. The spokesman for Russia's FSB--formerly the KGB--said that Chechen rebels had pressured oil executive Ziya Bazhayev to fund weapons purchases since the outbreak of war last August. He refused and, the spokesman said, had since been threatened. Separately, the father of 37-year-old Artyom Borovik, the journalist who was killed, said his son had been threatened because of various stories his media properties have published and aired. Russian authorities say their working premise is that the crash of the 24-year-old aircraft was an accident--but they were not willing to say so definitively until an investigation is complete.

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