Vladimir Putin came to power in 1999 promising to impose control in the North Caucasus where the Russian army had been humiliated in a war against Chechen rebels in 1994-96.

He carpet-bombed Grozny, the Chechen capital, ignored torture and murders by Russian soldiers and paid off local warlords to achieve this stability and, for the past 15 years, Chechnya and neighbouring Ingushetia and Dagestan have been relatively peaceful and terrorist attacks in Moscow limited.

But now even Kremlin loyalist commentators have begun to warn that this control is beginning to slip.

“It is clear that there is a problem with Islamist terrorism, and it is very serious. We need action from the authorities,” said Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser.

Stability in Dagestan has also become more important to Putin since he made a deal with Iran in 2022 to receive drones. Many of these drone shipments are sent across the Caspian Sea to Makhachkala.