Moscow bloodshed

Officials in Russia were quick to find culprits for Monday's bombings, which claimed the lives of at least 38 people at two Moscow subway stations.

Police said that two female suicide bombers from Chechnya - so-called "black widows" or wives of Chechen rebels killed by Russians or their allies - had carried out the attacks. In 2004, similar attacks that killed at least 50 people were blamed on women from Chechnya, the majority Muslim province where rebels have been seeking independence since the early 1990s.

Readers of the Internet newspaper www.gazeta.ru were equally quick to express their views. Most, however, were critical of the Kremlin. One user asked whether the attacks would give Russian President Dmitry Medvedev an excuse for postponing reforms of Russia's notoriously brutal and corrupt police forces.

And several others voiced suspicions that the Russian secret domestic security agency, the FSB, could have been behind the attacks in an attempt to distract attention from Russia's other problems and to brand all dissidents as terrorists.

Another user asked: "If we're told every month that all is calm in Chechnya, then who are the attackers?"

False peace

Chechnya is anything but calm or peaceful. A Chechen refugee who fled to Germany six months ago says that Chechnya's Kremlin-friendly president Ramzan Kadyrov rules the province as a virtual dictator.

"The situation is catastrophic," said the man, who did not want to be identified by name. "There are abductions every day. They frame random people, claiming they are either separatists or Islamist terrorists. People who denounce others receive a reward of between 500 and 6000 dollars. And there are still resistance fighters, battling against Russia and for Chechen independence."

Although Kadyrov inspires fear, Chechen separatists ultimately blame Moscow for the misery in that area of the world.

Akhmed Zakayev - the former foreign minister of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, who has lived in exile in London since 2002 - agrees.

"The Russian leadership bears responsibility for what is happening in Chechnya and the whole of the Northern Caucasus," Zakayev says. "Kadyrov wouldn't take a single step to make his patron Vladimir Putin doubt his loyalty. Kadyrov has been given the power to do whatever he wants in Chechnya, and in return he's sworn eternal friendship between Russia and Chechnya."

Zakayev says he wants to negotiate a peaceful settlement to the conflict. But the Kremlin views the exiled politician as a suspected terrorist and for many years sought his extradition.

Chechen diaspora

Nonetheless, last year, Zakayev held talks with representatives of the government. He broke off those discussions when the Kremlin refused to meet three demands.

"Firstly, the Russians should return the remains of prominent Chechens so we can bury them," Zakayev says. "Second, there is the matter of more than 20,000 Chechens who are being held prisoner in Russia - under terrible conditions, according to Russian human rights organizations. And third, we demand that Russia stop persecuting the relatives of Chechen resistance fighters."

Having broken off consultations with the Russian leadership, Zakayev is now trying to organize the Chechen diaspora in Western Europe. He hopes to use institutions like the Chechen World Congress to lend more weight to demands for an independent Chechnya.

But many Chechen exiles are politically passive and only want to get on with their lives in peace. And some are reluctant to speak because of fear of reprisals.

"The terror, violence and intimidation that those favored by the Kremlin use on Chechen territory are extended to Chechens living in Western Europe," the Chechen exile in Germany said.

So despite assertions to the contrary from the Kremlin, it seems the conflict in Chechnya is anything but over.

Author: Gesine Dornblueth (jef)
Editor: Michael Knigge