Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford · Pushkin Industries

Explosives or Sugar? The Deadly Art of Distraction in Putin’s Russia - with Helena Merriman

March 6, 2026·42 min·3 clips

A Russian dad spots a suspicious car, finds a bomb in his basement — and Vladimir Putin uses it to launch a war.

The night begins at half past nine on September 22, 1999, as Alexei comes home in Ryazan and finds Russia already on edge. Four apartment blocks have exploded. Some 300 people have been killed. Volunteers are keeping watch, and for some residents, sleeping outside feels safer than sleeping in bed. Chechen militants are blamed, though no one has claimed responsibility. The host sets that accusation against Chechnya's violent fight for independence, then lets the doubt sit there. Alexei spots the white Lada. The covered final digits, the bang from the basement, and the man hurrying back to the car are enough for him to call police. In the basement, officers find three sacks of white powder and a ticking timer set for dawn. Suddenly this is not abstract politics. It is a question of whether another home has almost become a crater. The story then moves ahead. By December 31, Boris Yeltsin has resigned early, Vladimir Putin is acting president, and Putin is running for a stronger office. A television studio turns into a kind of courtroom. Three days before the presidential election, Ryazan residents sit across from FSB men in suits and ask the obvious question. Was this really a training exercise? The guest describes an hour of television that sounds almost trashy, except the accusation is an attempted bombing. No one seems convinced. Residents keep asking why anyone would drag people from their homes at night for a drill. The evidence stays out of view. One official holds up a taped brown cardboard bag, says the evidence is inside, and refuses to show it.

As heard by us

A suspicious car in Ryazan opens into a tense story about fear and power.

A suspicious car in Ryazan opens into a tense story about fear and power. Cautionary Tales uses the 1999 apartment-bombing panic to show how quickly uncertainty can outrun facts, and how thin the official explanation looks once the details start to pile up.

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Why you'd press play

You want a chilling state-power story with real-time panic and a very public denial.

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