ymlevine

So would you describe the general sentiment as ambivalence about the brothers' guilt or, more in line with what their uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, angrily averred, that they "put a shame on the entire Chechen ethnicity"? It seems paradoxical to simultaneously believe that the perpetrators of this horrendous crime must be punished, while also positing that the brothers were framed and identifying with them as victims of a conspiracy. How do these ideas coexist? Uneasily, I'd imagine.

A variety of journalists have compiled evidence that the Russian secret services either planned or intentionally worsened the impact of several terrorist attacks within Russia that they then used as a pretext for further military action in Chechnya or for more centralized control in general. The father of the Tsarnaev's also contended that the secret services framed his sons. What do you personally believe about the allegations that Russian security agencies were involved in terrorist attacks in Russia over the last 15 years? What does the average Chechen (or, at this point perhaps more relevant, Muslim Russian living in the North Caucasus) think about the involvement of the Russian secret services in those prior incidents? Is the view that the Boston marathon bombing was a conspiracy widely held?