Russian leader Vladimir Putin's line (is) that Chechen terrorists were responsible for the explosions that killed more than 200 Russians (in 1999). Two bombs went off in Moscow, but a third bomb planted in Ryazan, 100 miles south, was defused ...

The third bomb did not go off because the bombers were caught red-handed. They were Russian, not Chechen, and when they were arrested by local police they flashed identity cards from the FSB - the new styling for the KGB, the secret police Putin headed before he became Russia's acting President. Two days later the FSB announced that the third bomb had only been 'a training exercise'. The Kremlin's evidence that Chechen terrorists bombed Moscow is extremely thin. After the bomb outrages, secret police in the FSB handed out pictures of unnamed Chechens. No suspects were arrested and no convincing explanation was given to the public.

The third bomb was found in the basement of the flats on the night of 22 September at around 9 pm ...

The local police arrested two men ... They showed FSB identity cards.' Then, the headquarters of the FSB in Moscow intervened, the two men were quietly let go.

The following day, on 24 September, the FSB, Moscow announced that there had never been a bomb, only a training exercise. (A resident) .said: 'I heard the official version on the radio ... It felt extremely unpleasant'.