I have heard that Putin gained power by arranging for the blowing up of an apartment building killing around 300 people and then using this as an excuse to attack terrorists, and make him look like the people’s savior. Anyone have more info on this story?
Studying Ryazan incident is a good place to start.
Here is a rather long article by John Dunlop (senior fellow emeritus at the Hoover Institution) about the whole thing - http://postsovietpost.stanford.edu/node/161
It goes into many details and also includes the story about how the FSB got caught by the local police in placing explosives in an apartment building in Ryazan.
That’s a very old story.......besides you’re not going to gain power by blowing up a building no matter what story is run around it.....this story was nothing more than an avenue to get the public engaged....it worked.