The Invisible War.(Editorial)

Suicide bombings are now threatening to become a fixture of Russia's war against the Chechens. Two weekends ago two suicide bombers killed 14 and wounded dozens of others at a Moscow rock concert. Then last week a member of the Moscow bomb squad died attempting to disarm an explosive device taken from the backpack of a young Chechen woman as she entered a restaurant in the city center.

Indeed, the war in the separatist republic is as brutal as ever-- despite Moscow's proclamations to the contrary. Vladimir Putin's generals long ago declared the conflict over, yet every week about a dozen Russian soldiers die in Chechnya in ambushes or remote-controlled mine attacks. Moscow's security forces counter by detaining anyone suspected of cooperating with the guerillas--and the detainees often end up missing for good. According to the Russian human-rights organization Memorial, Russian troops removed four young men from the village of Chechen Aul last week; they haven't been heard from since. Indeed, the Russian prosecutor's office says there have been 1,896 abduction and kidnapping cases in Chechnya since 1999. But that's nothing compared to the total losses: since the conflict began in 1994 (broken by a brief peace from 1996 to 1999), some 25,000 Russian soldiers--and far more civilians--have lost their lives.

You'd never know it by listening to Putin's allies. Even those who have a bone to pick with Putin over Iraq--chiefly Tony Blair and George W. Bush--have bought into the Kremlin line that the Chechen war has simmered down to a minor police action and a smoothly unfolding "political process." When President Bush met with the Russian leader in St. Petersburg in May, he assured Putin that "the United States and Russia face a common threat from terrorism." And during Putin's state visit to Britain last month, Prime Minister Blair only had words of praise for Russia's efforts to find "a political solution"-- disregarding the fact that there are still some 80,000 Russian troops stationed in and around Chechnya.

So why the silence? For one thing, Putin's men have been highly successful at cracking down on unfavorable coverage from the war zone. Journalists who have attempted to report from there ...