This is a worrying escalation of the long running conflict. For years war, kidnapings and attacks on civillians have been a normal part of life in Chechnya and surrounding regions.
The allegation that Chechen terrorists are operarting at the heart of the Russian federation will be used by Mr Putin, infamous Butcher of Grony, to up the ante in his very own "war on terror". And yes, he too has an axis of evil. It includes several southern states, including Georgia. It is from Georgia that these latest terrorists are alledged to have come. Since he came to power, Putin has been consistently representing Georia as something of a rogue or enemy state, home to terrorist groups and in need of Russian miltary "assistance".

As Moscow bows its head in rememberance for those who died at the Krylya festival, it would do well to remember those whose deaths were not deemed worthy of official redognition. The trainload of corpses found by a station worker disturbed by the increasingly unpleasent smell- they were not the bodies of "renegade terrorists" but of Russian conscripts. Had they survived, they would probably be, like their comrades in arms, roaming the streets of Moscow, a drunk, drugged and menacing presence, brandishing their passports and veteran's papers. At 25 many have witnessed and participated in appaling acts of violence, and it is not for nothing that Anna Politkovskaya speaks of "Chechen War Syndrome": when a soldier cannot stop killing. This syndrome seems to have infected those at the top of Government. What is this then, when a state cannot stop killing? Putin's answer to everything is blood and money. This is not a statesman seeking a solution, this is a spy somewhat too accustomed to killing. When at one of his first press conferences he let slif that oft repeated phrase "Mochit v sortire" (wipe'em out in the sh*t house)it seems he was stating his whole manifesto of government. "They will all be wiped out" he promises ernestly on TV night after night.

Not just the terrorists will be wiped out, but "non-right-thinking" businessmen, satirists, critical press in print on radio and TV, authors of detective stories: all these have been targets of official scorn.

Meanwhile- BP buys Russian oil companies, France sells its old equipment to furnish the controversial MOX nuclear fuel conversion plant in Tomsk and Russia is a strong and confident player on the world stage.

Watch this space folks, something is happening here, in the last 2-3 weeks the heads of many of Russia's largest firms have been called in for questioning, there has been a selective swoop on Police Offices in Moscow and the Federation and an equally selective cull of "corrupt" officials. Officials and especially the police are corrupt, the police are responsible for a large proportion of human rights abuses in cities throughout the federation, and some are even active in drug trafficking. But we are not seeing the sytem purified by an enlightened autocrat, this is more sinister.

The investigation continues...