Introducing The History Bureau - Putin and the Apartment Bombs
History's Heroes
BBC
4.8 • 824 Ratings
🗓️ 16 January 2026
⏱️ 4 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In September 1999, just weeks after a 46-year-old Vladimir Putin became Prime Minister, four bombs blew up four apartment buildings across Russia, killing hundreds of people while they slept. The attacks plunged the country into panic. Families fled their homes. Residents patrolled their blocks around the clock. An entire nation paralyzed by fear.
But who did it? It's a mystery that has fuelled some chilling theories.
The government blamed Chechen militants. Many reporters agreed. But then the whispers started. Was something even more sinister going on?
Over 25 years later, journalists who covered the bombings still can’t agree on who planted the explosives or why.
Presenter Helena Merriman returns to the story with the reporters who were there on the ground. What did they get right first time around? And, in the chaos and confusion of unfolding events, what did they miss?
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:05.6 | Hi, I'm Helena Merriman, and I'm jumping on this fee to tell you about a new BBC podcast, The History Bureau. |
| 0:14.3 | In our first series, Putin and the apartment bombs, we explore one of the most contested and consequential stories in modern Russia. |
| 0:23.4 | Here's the trailer. And if you like what you hear, you can hear the full series now, |
| 0:28.2 | first on BBC Sounds. This is a story about four bombs. Four bombs that blew up four apartments in Russia in 1999, killing some 300 people. |
| 0:43.6 | Old news, you might think. Except, here's the thing. This story, it's never quite made sense. |
| 0:52.4 | What's your take on it now? |
| 0:55.9 | Who do you think plotted the bombs? |
| 1:00.5 | I think the more you look at it, the more you kind of wonder. |
| 1:07.3 | A lot of what we should know has been classified or buried or covered up. |
| 1:16.4 | If it's true, it's a story for the ages. Even now, journalists who covered the bomb still disagree deeply about who killed all of those people. Was it the militants the Russian government |
| 1:23.7 | blamed? Or was there something more sinister at play? |
| 1:33.6 | I am convinced that there was a lot of foul play. |
| 1:35.9 | I would say that's a conspiracy theory. |
| 1:37.7 | And I've read the evidence, believe me. |
| 1:40.4 | I'm very, very wary of conspiracies. |
| 1:47.3 | But when it comes to the Kremlin, they've often proved to be true. |
| 1:56.9 | Because these bombs, they set the stage for perhaps the most consequential rise to power in modern history. It's part of the origin story of Vladimir Putin. |
| 2:04.6 | It's part of the origin story of Vladimir Putin. It's not just a historical detail, a historical mystery. |
| 2:08.6 | It's something which explains Putin and the rise of Putin or might do. |
| 2:13.6 | And I think in that sense, it's a mystery which matters. |
| 2:16.6 | But asking questions about the apartment bombs, it's proven to be dangerous. |
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