Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Chechen terrorists responded in kind, with smaller-scale insurgencies taking place regu-
larly over the next several years. Between 2002 and 2005, suicide bombers in Moscow
made strikes near Red Square, on the metro, on airplanes and at rock concerts, leaving hun-
dreds of people dead and injured.
Things settled down for a few years, but the terror was not over. Towards the end of the
decade, attacks resumed in full force, occurring on an annual basis in and around the capital.
Again, the metro, the airport and other means of transportation were key targets.
The capital has been relatively quiet since 2011, but nothing has been resolved and
nobody believes that this is over. Newspapers regularly report on Federal Security Service
(FSB) successes at foiling terrorist plots. Federal officials promise retribution, city officials
increase security, and the violence continues.
Moscow is estimated to be the world's seventh-largest city by population. In 2011 Moscow
negotiated a land deal, whereby the city acquired a huge tract of sparsely populated land,
more than doubling its size and making it the world's seventh-largest city by geographic
area, too.
Since the beginning of the Second Chechen War in 1999, nearly 900 people have been
killed by terrorist attacks in and around Moscow.
