The war with Russia has been going on for centuries, usually every 50 years and lasted between 6 to 25 years.

Russia's armed forces moved into Chechnya on 30 September, 1999 --just one week after its air force began bombing the Chechen capital Grozny. The Kremlin said the move was a reaction to Chechen participation in the invasion of Daghestan, and bombings in Moscow, Volgodonsk, and Buynaksk that left nearly 300 dead. The Kremlin has not yet responded to public accusations of masterminding the 1999 apartment explosions in Moscow and Volgodonsk. There are too many things that point to the Russian Federal Security Service, or FSB, complicity in those blasts.

In the case of the Moscow and Volgodonsk bombings, there has been no evidence that it was the Chechens. None. But there is some evidence that it was the FSB. Blaming the bombings in Russia on the FSB, is unfortunately justified by some evidence, inconclusive, to be sure, but inevitably so in the absence of a transparent investigation from the government. The evidence starts with the Ryazan incident, in which the FSB was caught planting bomb materials in an apartment block. This was later explained away as an exercise, which hardly fit the facts. The only explanation that made sense was the unmentionable one.

Then there is the test of plausibility: It is far more plausible that the FSB would murder its own citizens. A few hundred dead, for a specific practical purpose of the stability of the state and of the entire Russian Federation - this is light stuff, compared to the millions who were killed to satisfy a dictator's whims half a century ago . . . a dictator who was let off rather lightly in some recent remarks of President Vladimir Putin in Poland.

The coordination needed for bombing a few apartment buildings . Secrecy would is not so difficult for this low-tech operation.