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If journalism is the first draft of history, what happens if that draft is flawed?
In 1999, four Russian apartment buildings were bombed, hundreds killed,
but even now we still don't know for sure who did it.
It's a mystery that sparked chilling theories.
I'm Helena Merriman and in a new BBC series,
I'm talking to the reporters who first covered this story.
What did they miss the first time?
The history bureau, Putin and the apartment bombs.
Listen on bbc.com or wherever you get your podcasts.
When you're trying to make sense of the world in this moment,
one person central to it all is Vladimir Putin.
And although here on this show, we have looked at Putin's backstory and how it informs Russia today,
There remains a pivotal series of events during his rise to power that is still shrouded in confusion and controversy.
In September 1999, just weeks after Putin became Prime Minister,
four bombs blew up four apartment buildings across Russia.
The bombs exploded in the middle of the night, killing hundreds of people while they slept.
In the aftermath of the bombings, many strange things happened,
and that led to several different theories about who could have been behind those attacks.
The Russian government blamed militants from Chechnya, a rebellious region in the south of Russia.