The four men, three of whom were said to be ethnic Chechens armed with submachine-guns and a grenade, hijacked the bus, taking 23 adults and 15 children hostage.

Pankisi is an area populated by Kists, the ethnic Chechens of Georgia.

As of 2009, most of the bombers appear to be ethnic Chechens, with a few known exceptions.

The police restored calm to southeastern villages after two weeks of sporadic street fighting between Kazakhs and ethnic Chechens.

Nationalism may be one motivation; before the Soviets carved up the area, parts of Dagestan were Chechen territory, and ethnic Chechens still live there.

The lead singer, Artur Atsalamov, 28, is a Radiohead devotee and an ethnic Chechen who fled the republic after the first war in 1996.

She was not an ethnic Chechen.

Many ethnic Chechens have also moved to Moscow and other Russian cities.

Numerous clashes between Kazakhs and ethnic Chechens have broken out in the village, notably in March-April 2007.

A Russian human rights group charged that ethnic Chechens in Samara were being targeted in indiscriminate police raids.