Politically and religiously motivated attacks on civilians in Russia have been traced to separatist sentiment among the largely Muslim population of its North Caucasus region , particularly in Chechnya , where the central government of the Russian Federation has waged two bloody wars against the local secular separatist government since 1994 . In the Moscow theater hostage crisis in October 2002 , three Chechen separatist groups took an estimated 850 people hostage in the Russian capital ; at least 129 hostages died during the storming by Russian special forces , all but one killed by the chemicals used to subdue the attackers ( whether this attack would more properly be called a nationalist rather than an Islamist attack is in question ) . In the September 2004 Beslan school hostage crisis more than 1,000 people were taken hostage after a school in the Russian republic of North Ossetia – Alania was seized by a pro-Chechen multi-ethnic group aligned to Riyad-us Saliheen Brigade of Martyrs ; hundreds of people died during the storming by Russian forces
Moscow theater hostage crisis
Moscow theater hostage crisis
Islamic terrorism