During this morning’s rush hour, two female suicide bombers boarded subway trains in Moscow and detonated explosive devices that killed at least 37 commuters and injured 100 more. The first attack, which killed 23, occurred in the crowded Lubyanka station of the vast and efficient Metro system. That location is near the headquarters of the FSB, the modern version of the KGB, and officials have taken that connection as a sign that the attacks may be related to a recent crackdown by the FSB on Islamic extremism in Chechnya and other areas of the Caucusus in Russia’s southern region. This is all too familiar to Muscovites, who saw their subway system get attacked in the previous decade during the separatist war in Chechnya, and it has already renewed fears that the Muslim insurgency in that area of the country will again be a threat to the heart of Russia.
