make it closer to the accepted Western legal definition. The post-
Stalin KGB had to cope with some political terrorism in the Cauca-
sus and Central Asia. In the late 1970s three young Armenians were
executed for planting a bomb on the Moscow subway.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Moscow has had
to face terrorism from Chechnya and other Muslim enclaves, and
Russia has faced a plague of terrorist incidents since 1994. Incidents
have included the bombing of buses, bus stations, and schools,
hostage taking, and the suicide bombing of Russian aircraft. Civilian
casualties have been heavy. TheFSBhas primary responsibility for
the field of counterterrorism in Russia. It has also broadened its
search for international allies in the fight against terrorism. In Janu-
ary 2005, the FSB signed an agreement with the Federal Bureau of
Investigation.
In June 2000, the Russian government created the Antiterroristich-
eskiy tsentr(Anti-Terrorist Center), or ATTs, of the Commonwealth
of Independent States, drawing its cadre from many of the republics
of the Soviet Union. The Russian component of the ATTs is under the
National Security Council. The first head of the center, Colonel Gen-
eral Boris Melnikov, and his two chief subordinates were KGB vet-
erans from Kazakhstan and Kirghizstan. The center has both opera-
tional and analyticalcomponents and is headquartered in Moscow.
Special force components (Spetznaz) of the security services and mil-
itary also have responsibility for counterterrorism operations. The
ATTs website proudly notes that the combined services have sought
assistance from Germany, Japan, and Austria, as well as the “special
services” of the United States.
Presidents Boris Yeltsinand Vladimir Putin have been critical of
their country’s counterterrorism operations. In the first of the Chechen
Wars, Chechen rebels seized towns inside Russia and held buildings
against determined assaults by Spetznazunits before withdrawing to
safe havens in Chechnya. Russian special forces also badly botched a
hostage situation in a school in southern Russia in 2004, suggesting
that the service needs to expend more resources for additional training
and equipment.CRIMEAN WAR.Russian diplomacy in the early 1850s played a crit-
ical role in isolating Russia in the first general European war sinceCRIMEAN WAR •5906-313 A-G.qxd 7/27/06 7:55 AM Page 59