A PEOPLE WHO THINK THEMSELVES A NATION ARE ONE:

Chechen forces kill Moscow-bound suicide bomber suspects (Luke Harding, 9/05/09, The Guardian)

Russia is facing a major insurgency by Islamist radicals across the north Caucasus. In recent months they have successfully launched spectacular attacks, including an assassination attempt on Ingushetia's Kremlin-appointed president, Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, and the devastating bombing of a police station in the town of Nazran.

Most ominously the militants appear to have revived the suicide bombings used extensively during the Kremlin's brutal second Chechen war from 1999 to 2005. This spring, the veteran Chechen guerrilla leader Doku Umarov said he was reviving the notorious Riyadus Salikhin group, a suicide battalion of "Chechen martyrs".

On 22 June a suicide bomber rammed into Yevkurov's heavily armoured Mercedes, leaving him seriously injured. Officials say Dzortov was behind the attack. In July another bomber blew himself up outside Grozny's theatre. Last month four suicide bombers on bicycles killing four policemen in Grozny.

Yesterday human rights activists said a new generation of radicalised teenage fighters had gone off to join the rebels in the forests and mountains of Chechnya. They said the wanton behaviour of local law enforcement agencies, responsible for a string of "disappearances", and for reprisals against the rebels' families had made the situation worse.