was not unaware of that but it makes perfect sense.
‘Under President Putin, Russian citizens in Chechnya have suffered crimes against humanity at the hands of Russian military forces. It was during Mr. Putins tenure as Prime Minister in 1999 that he launched the Second Chechen War following the Moscow apartment bombings. There remain credible allegations that Russia’s FSB had a hand in carrying out these attacks. Mr. Putin ascended to the presidency in 2000 by pointing a finger at the Chechens for committing these crimes, launching a new military campaign in Chechnya, and riding a frenzy of public anger into office. Since then, between 10 and 20 thousand Chechen civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced by Russian security forces. At Putin’s direction, the Kremlin recently stage-managed an “election” in Chechnya that put Moscow’s hand-picked candidate in power.’
Not from some conspiracy nut, but John McCain.
http://www.friendsofmccain.com/news/dspnews.cfm?id=81