In 1999, a series of bombs explode in Russian apartments, killing hundreds and spreading panic. No one knows who is behind it. But when one device is spotted before it detonates, troubling questions emerge. Why is the FSB changing its story? Was it really a bomb? And why are the people who probe too closely turning up dead?
Tim Harford is joined by Helena Merriman, host of new BBC podcast The History Bureau: Putin and the Apartment Bombs, which charts the mysterious events surrounding the rise of Vladimir Putin, and asks why the real story sometimes gets missed.
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