http://news.bbc.co.uk/

At least 37 dead.

As far as I'm aware, no-one I know was there, but still. FFS.

In mother Russia, we terrorize bombs!

Sucks, hope they do more about terrorists than we do, mess 'em up soviet style.

No, Russians are terrible at handling terroists. Remember that thing a few years ago with the schoolchildren being held hostage in the gymnasium?

And yeah.

Now what are they supposed to do in 3 years?

What are you talking about? All of the terrorists were killed!

And so were over 300 hostages.

The FSB has a bad habit of killing many of the hostages themselves. (See: Moscow Theater, Beslan School, Budyonnovsk Hospital)


Also, it's fortunate that only 38 (so far) have been killed. While 38 deaths is tragic, I've been on the Red Line in Moscow at 8am. It's crowded with hundreds or even thousands of people.

True. Moscow metros are crowded to the brim. Sometimes by the time you get from point A to point B, you're already so tired you wish you haven't left home. But it's even harder to get somewhere by car - you'd just end up spending half your day stuck in traffic.

This is important, remember this.
Also what's with the world recently, it seems to be more on fire then usual.

Seems about par for the course to me.

North Korea is being a bit more assholish then usual, these terrorist attacks in Russia... and that's it actually.
Probably nothing, just two minor events coinciding.

I love how Putin comes out and more or less says "The mother****ers who did this will all die!"

Yea, we need Obama did get all ganksta and **** and say some more stuff like that.

That would be awesome.

Annoys the hell out of me how the Western media keeps calling Chechen terrorists "rebels."

I never heard Russian TV refer to any terrorist attack on the US as "performed - or blamed on - by the Iraqi rebels."

Isn't the cold war over yet?

Well..Iraq isn't a part of the US. But I get what you're saying.

Quick Edit: I get it, but also "iraqi" terrorist attacks in the US aren't independence-related.

Quick edit #2:

Only kind of?

The US doing petty things to annoy the Russians has become a hobby.

I'm pretty sure we invaded two countries afterward.

Russia is hardly innocent. Look at Kosovo, South Ossetia, Abkhazia, etc...

Oh I know, but poking a bear isn't really a good plan.

Just out of curiosity, what poking exactly are you referring to? This is not an area about which I am particularly knowledgeable.

...Turkish Empire, Napoleon's France, Nazi Germany.

Abkhazia? South Ossetia? Surely you mean Georgia. Also - Kosovo? Didn't NATO bomb Yugoslavia?

I believe the reality of the matter is that at the end of the day, people are killed in the name of all the wrong reasons, and it doesn't really matter who's doing the killing.

hahahahaha bet Putin's pissed

(note: not laughing at the attack. I'm heartless, but not quite that heartless)

American news constantly, or as far as I've seen, makes fun of everything Russia does. They also make it seem like they still drive lada's from 1986, don't have running water, and have planes made of ducttape.
Also they are evil and out to destroy freedom, only Jack Bauer can stop them!

(delete)

Well, Tibby, that's because they are evil.

Duh

Every Russian I know is absolutely crazy.
I don't know about evil... but definitely crazy.

Especially seeing as how both of those were on the Russian side of the war:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_South_Ossetia_war

I think you guys misunderstand me. I'm not trying to say Russia is evil or deserves it or anything like that. Not at all, the opposite in fact. I just think that the viewpoint that the US is "picking on" Russia is counter to both reality and to Russia's own interests and views. I deliberately picked out a set of related incidents in which Russia was on different sides of what is effectively the same issue politically.

The point I was trying to make is that the "cold war" is over, but political rivalry between states is not, and in reference to the cold war specifically, NATO vs. Russia is still a very real political issue. Saying the US is poking the Russian bear is missing out on more than half the issue, like, the rest of NATO plus Russia's half.

There's still a lot of posturing and both parties are to "blame" (if you want to call it that). Russia wants to prove it is still a world power militarily, and it also wants to protect its political interests. So when NATO supports the independence of a state from Russia's ally, Russia is opposed, and when that state gains recognition, then it's only fair that NATO "allied" states like Georgia lose states that wish independence from it, and so Russia SUPPORTS those causes. And finally, When Chechen "rebels" (terrorists) fight for independence from Russia, they are OPPOSED to that. Can you blame them for any of this, on a purely political level? And to lead into my point: can you blame them any more or less than their political rivals, the western countries?

300 hostages killed? Russia needs sniper training 101.

I'm still amazed we had 4 guys (or was it 5) taken out at the same time, while both the targets and the shooters were on BOATS. Not to mention the targets were each probably less than a foot from a hostage.

Except the storm began after the terrorists started blowing up the school...

This was on the third day. Keep in mind that the children locked in the school were refused food, water, and medicine for three days now, and corpses still rotted in the school. Then, the terrorists started blowing up the building - this is when the storm began. Most people who were killed were killed in the explosions, not under gunfire.

I don't really know much about Russia. Just thought they were quite ruthless, especially in matters like this.

(nvm)

Hey, Koobie, I was hoping you would have some thoughts on what I said...like I said, this is far from my expertise, so I was hoping to see if my understanding was appropriate, and how someone in closer proximity saw it. (So I don't go blabbing around like I know what I'm talking about if I really don't)

What I heard was that they stormed the school and in the process killed the guy that was standing on a dead man's switch then the whole thing went up in smoke most literally.

I agree with you about the NATO vs. Russia political situation. It's "you're against them, so we're for them," pretty much.

However, I was talking more about the media. IMO, the Russian media doesn't paint the US in nearly as negative a light as the mainstream Western media does Russia.

Ah. Well, that may be true, but there's not a lot that can be done. The media does what the media wants, and slant on news stories is definitely a problem in the US in regards to pretty much everything.

Not only that, but the collapse of the Soviet Union was not really that long ago, relatively speaking. While there was a collapse of a system over there, we had no such major turning point in our culture, just the echos of Russia's. I think it's tough for a lot of people to go from "they're evil" to "hey, they're good guys!" especially when the political rivalry still exists, albeit on a much different level with regards to relative power.