An Odd Reluctance To Call It Terrorism

For Russians, the Kremlin's initial response to last Tuesday's nearly simultaneous plane crashes seemed all too familiar: another example of President Vladimir Putin's state of denial over the unflattering reality of the war in Chechnya. The catastrophe, which killed 90 people, occurred just a few days before a disputed presidential election in that breakaway republic; the two flights had departed from the same Moscow airport; the planes crashed within a minute of each other; eyewitness reports suggested that an explosion had downed one of the planes; and a hijack distress call preceded the crash of the other plane. Yet Russia's Federal...