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Valeriy AndreevDeputy Head of the FSB Academy, Lieutenant General
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 Russia |
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Biography of Valery Andreev
Valery Aleksandrovich Andreev was born in 1951 in Budennovsk, Stavropol Krai. After graduating from the Krasnodar Polytechnic Institute in 1974 with a degree in mechanical engineering, he worked at the Donskoy State Tobacco Factory in Rostov-on-Don. In 1980, Andreev joined the security forces and worked in the KGB-FSB department in the Rostov region. In 2001, he was transferred from the position of deputy chief to the head of the FSB department in the Astrakhan region.
Leading the Operation in Beslan
In 2003, Andreev became the head of the FSB regional department in North Ossetia. During the terrorist attack that took place from September 1st to 3rd, 2004 in Beslan, he led the operational headquarters for the release of hostages. On September 3rd, after two explosions inside the school and when the hostages started running out of the building while the terrorists opened fire on them, Andreev gave the order to conduct a combat operation to free the hostages. He later insisted that the decision to conduct a combat operation was made by the operational headquarters, not a storming.
According to Andreev's testimony in the case of Nurpashi Kulaev, the only detained participant in the seizure of the Beslan school, flamethrowers and tanks were only used by special forces on the evening of September 3rd when there were no more hostages in the school. Relatives of former hostages doubted the general's testimony, stating that they had evidence that heavy weapons were used during the day, which is why so many hostages died. According to the federal parliamentary commission investigating the terrorist attack under the leadership of Alexander Torshin, as the head of the operational headquarters, Andreev negotiated with the terrorists, personally escorted the MCHS (Ministry of Emergency Situations) personnel who went to retrieve the bodies of the slain hostages, informed the press about the work of the headquarters, and made statements to the population of Beslan.
However, the parliament commission of North Ossetia, led by Stanislav Kesayev, considered Andreev's role as the head of the operational headquarters to be merely formal. According to the commission, the actual leaders of the counter-terrorist operation were the deputy director of the FSB, Nikolay Patrushev, and the generals Vladimir Pronichev and Vladimir Anisimov, as well as the head of the FSB Special Purpose Center, Alexander Tikhonov. On September 11, 2004, Andreev was removed from his position as the head of the FSB department in North Ossetia. Some media outlets linked Valery Andreev's resignation to the terrorist attack that occurred.
According to the media, in November 2004, Andreev was transferred to Moscow to serve as the deputy chief of the FSB Academy and was awarded the rank of lieutenant general.
