Reviewing Chechyan History for Clues About Suspects’ Motives

Early reports about the profiles of the two suspects sought in the Boston Marathon bombings case indicate their family lived for a time in the city of Makhachkala, the capital of the Dagestan region, near Chechnya, before moving to the United States. The Tsarnaev family reportedly left Dagestan for the United States in 2002 after living there for about a year.  
Stephen Dalziel, former Russian analyst for the BBC recaps some of the historic events that these young men may have lived through in the 1990s. “You had a very bloody– and very nasty, very nasty on both sides– war from December 1994 to June 1996,” he explained. “It’s a region in the last twenty years that’s seen dreadful violence.   Whether it’s had a mark on these young men, who knows.”
“The big question here is the motivation. There’s no history of Chechyan insurgents or Chechyan nationals attacking foreigners on foreign grounds,” Aslan Doukaev, North Caucasus Service Director for Radio Free Europe said. “I am to be honest a little baffled,” Doukaev added, noting that there is no historical precedent for an attack like this.

Early reports on the two suspects indicate their family lived briefly in the city of Makhachkala, the capital of the Dagestan region, near Chechnya, before moving to the United States. The Tsarnaev family reportedly left Dagestan for the United States in 2002 after living there for about a year.  

Stephen Dalziel, former Russian analyst for the BBC, and Aslan Doukaev, North Caucasus Service Director for Radio Free Europe retrace the recent history of the region to describe what historical forces may have shaped these two young men. “I am to be honest a little baffled,” Doukaev says, noting that there is no historical precedent for an attack like this.