Free Republic

For the last two and a half years, a specter has haunted the government of Vladimir Putin. This is the possibility of a serious examination of the strange apartment-house bombings that took place in September, 1999 in Moscow, Buinaksk, and Volgodonsk and cost 300 lives. The bombings terrorized Russia. The Russian authorities immediately accused Chechen rebels of responsibility for the attacks and this galvanized public opinion in support of a second war in Chechnya. The war, in turn, made Putin, the former head of the Federal Security Bureau (FSB), an overnight hero and the leading candidate for the Russian presidency....

A Russian court has sentenced two men to life in prison for their involvement in a series of apartment block bombings in Moscow and Volgodonsk in 1999. Yusuf Krymshamkhalov and Adam Dekkushev were convicted of murder and terrorism in relation to the attacks, which killed 246 people and injured 1,000. Prosecutors said they carried out the attacks on the order of Chechen rebels. But critics said Russian security services planned the attacks to justify a new military campaign in Chechnya. The two-month trial was closed to the public, but reporters were let in to hear the final verdict. Russian media...