After reading this morning about the horrible, horrible murder of Justice Aza Gazgireeva in Nazran, North Caucasus (a merciless shooting in front of her childrens’ kingergarten, with even a 1-year-old receiving a bullet wound), I knew that it wouldn’t be long before Moscow made some grand gestures toward the troubled region.  Then I saw in the Associated Press that President Dmitry Medvedev was actually just there yesterday:

That killing prompted Mr. Medvedev to make an unannounced visit to Dagestan Tuesday, visiting police bases and reviewing troops — a visit that was covered lavishly by state-controlled TV. Mr. Medvedev blamed foreign “freaks” for inciting the violence, “extremism supplied to us from abroad.”