Putin blamed over Chechen terror
'Nobody doubts by now those [Moscow bombings] were special operations of the Russian secret service aimed at launching the second military campaign and bringing to power a completely unknown FSB colonel Vladimir Putin. That was the purpose of these operations... The main issue that stops Putin ending this [Chechen] war is his fear he'll be blamed for the crimes of the last three years. A huge number of people were kidnapped and killed... They [the Moscow theater terrorists] were shot. Why? Somebody found their evidence uncomfortable. They'd have said who supplied them, where they stayed, who got them to the Nord Ost, who armed them, how they met in Moscow, and the FSB involvement would have emerged. That's why they were killed. Because they weren't killed as terrorists, the FSB killed them as witnesses.'

As a rule one must shy away from conspiracy theories because of the essential lack of evidence and the fact that there is no real need of conspiracy for the worst crimes to be normal part of life - but in Russia perhaps such things are possible. This affair is reminiscent of the Stolypin assasination or the Kirov murder.

Putin blamed over Chechen terror
'Nobody doubts by now those [Moscow bombings] were special operations of the Russian secret service aimed at launching the second military campaign and bringing to power a completely unknown FSB colonel Vladimir Putin. That was the purpose of these operations... The main issue that stops Putin ending this [Chechen] war is his fear he'll be blamed for the crimes of the last three years. A huge number of people were kidnapped and killed... They [the Moscow theater terrorists] were shot. Why? Somebody found their evidence uncomfortable. They'd have said who supplied them, where they stayed, who got them to the Nord Ost, who armed them, how they met in Moscow, and the FSB involvement would have emerged. That's why they were killed. Because they weren't killed as terrorists, the FSB killed them as witnesses.'

As a rule one must shy away from conspiracy theories because of the essential lack of evidence and the fact that there is no real need of conspiracy for the worst crimes to be normal part of life - but in Russia perhaps such things are possible. This affair is reminiscent of the Stolypin assasination or the Kirov murder.