LATELY: Black Widows

In October 2002, a group of veiled woman seized a Moscow theater and took for hostage its 850 patrons. For more than two days, the women kept guard and demanded Russian forces be withdrawn from Chechnya; it was not until Special Agents pumped a sleep-inducing gas from the air ducts that the state regained control of the theater. As the agents entered the slumbering house, they shot and killed the captors, who were all dressed in black. Once their identities were uncovered, it was reported that all 40 women had lost their Chechen husbands at the hands of the Russians; they were named "The Black Widows."

Now, almost a decade later, Russia's fear of the Black Widows has been reawakened. The Associated Press reported today that one of the two female suicide bombers who attacked the Moscow subway system on March 29 was a 17-year old widow, from the province of Dagestan in the Northern Caucasus region. The other bomber, 20-years old, is also believed to have travelled to Moscow from Chechyna.

In his piece for the Times, Russian novelist Sergey Kuznetsov struck perhaps the most premonitory note of all: "After the bombings, it was said that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin was starting his next presidential campaign." Read it in full, here.