WASHINGTON, April 19 (UPI) -- The identification of two Chechen brothers as Boston bombing suspects has put the spotlight on a conflict U.S. leaders have said is an internal Russian matter.
Chechnya, a Muslim majority area in the North Caucasus, went from being part of a Soviet republic to a republic in the Russian Federation in the early 1990s. But the transition has not been peaceful, with Russia fighting two wars in Chechnya and Chechen nationalists carrying out terrorist attacks in Moscow as well as in their homeland.