Truck Bomb in Chechnya Kills at Least 36 and Wounds Scores

The continuing separatist movement in the southern region of Russian territory certainly suggests that the breakup of the Soviet Union over 10 years ago is not quite over. Chechen rebels, fighting for independence from the Russian state, claim that the Russians are denying their right to sovereignty over their own nation, while Russian officials consider the rebels to be a fringe terrorist organization. Several post-Soviet states have been fraught with independence movements of this sort, largely a consequence of the historically complicated federal structure of the Soviet Union. The new states are still trying to agree on who has legitimate claims to what territory, but it's not an issue likely to be resolved any time soon. – YaleGlobal