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From Chechnya to Boston: Bombing Suspects and a Trail of Homegrown Radicalism and Terror

Two young men—brothers Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev with origins in Russia’s volatile North Caucasus regions—have been connected to this week’s bomb attacks at the Boston Marathon. They lived, for a time, in Dagestan, which is recognized as the epicenter of the Islamic insurgency that spilled over from Chechnya. Senior Fellow Fiona Hill, director of the Center on the United States and Europe, says Chechnya and Russia have spent centuries at war and it isn’t surprising that this conflict, which has spanned generations, would provide fertile ground to incite and radicalize sympathizers wherever they happen to live.