However in the latest report on WaPo, I noticed the following:
‘Also Friday, the FBI confirmed that its agents in Boston had interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011 at the request of a foreign government. A law enforcement official said the request came from the Russian government, concerned about Tsarnaevs potential ties to Chechen terrorists. But, after that interview, the FBI did not follow him further, officials said.’
.....which seems to suggest that despite their ages, there were some obvious links - to the Russians, anyway, then missed or just ignored our end. I doubt the Russian government makes requests such as this to the FBI on a routine basis or without some kind of evidence to support it.
I may be wrong, but my impression is that the Russian mentality is that they will ask for your papers not because you're suspicious, but just because they can make you comply. We get some of that here, but it's pervasive in Russia, in a way that had nothing to do with Bolshevism.