9 May 2002
A bomb exploded in the Dagestani city of Kaspiysk on May 9, killing at least 32 people and injuring 100. The bomb detonated as marines marched past a bus ferrying a military band to a Victory Day parade.
A bomb exploded in the Dagestani city of Kaspiysk on May 9, killing at least 32 people and injuring 100. The bomb detonated as marines marched past a bus ferrying a military band to a Victory Day parade.
Local and federal authorites immediately blamed the attack on Chechen separatists, and it does indeed fit the Chechen modus operandi. Not content to merely condemn the attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin used the significance of Victory Day to compare
terrorism with Nazism, equating the World War II coalition that defeated Nazi Germany to Russia's current political alignment with the United States in the war against terrorism. Despite initial support for the separatists, the United States has tarred many Chechen leaders with the al Qaeda brush since Sept. 11.
Dagestan is the Russian republic that shares the longest border with the breakaway republic of Chechnya, where Russian forces have been locked in bloody conflict with local militants and foreign mujahideen since August 1998.
Dagestan is the Russian republic that shares the longest border with the breakaway republic of Chechnya, where Russian forces have been locked in bloody conflict with local militants and foreign mujahideen since August 1998.