Chechnya, recently overtaken by its Caucasus neighours North Ossetia and Ingushetia in the terrorism headlines, is back in the news for the most tragic of reasons.
Witnesses report hearing a loud bang, followed by silence and the sight of blood collecting on the pavement where several people were lying.
While authorities have played down any connection between the Chechen performance and the blast, Gazeta ru reports speculation that it was a reprisal act targeting the Chechen artists for performing in Russia.
It is not yet clear who was behind the bomb, but two things stand out.
1. Among the injured are Russians, Armenians and Chechens. Only 15 years ago, they fought on the same side against Azerbaijan in the Nagorno Karabakh war.
2. Ramzan Kadyrov, the brutal and autocratic Kremlin strongman in charge of Chechnya has frequently used the decrease in Chechen terrorism to excuse his human rights abuses and hard line rule. He routinely claims that the number of fighters based in his republic is lower than FSB figures and epeatedly insisted that only a few dozen fighters remain in Chechnya, and “that it is only a matter of weeks, or at most months, before they are killed or captured”.
Events like this may begin to dispel or even invert the tenuous argument in favour of a connection between authoritarianism and security.
I’ll try to post more as details emerge.