The massive beige-and-white building on Dakhdaev Street was probably the safest place the FBI could find to work this week in the southern Russian city of Makhachkala, where bombings and counterterrorism raids are a routine part of life for the locals. That building is the regional headquarters of the FSB, the state security service that replaced the KGB after the fall of the Soviet Union, and it is fenced off with tall iron bars, blocked from the street by concrete slabs and guarded day and night by surly special-forces troops in full combat gear. So when the American investigators arrived in the Russian region of Dagestan on Tuesday to interview the parents of the Tsarnaev brothers, the prime suspects in the bombing of the Boston Marathon last week, the questioning took place inside that building. In light of recent tensions between the U.S. and Russia, the FSB's hospitality seems remarkable, and it shows how much the Boston bombings have changed the tone between the secret services. On Wednesday morning, an official at the U.S. embassy in Moscow told TIME that the FBI "is receiving cooperation from the Russian government in its investigation of the Boston Marathon bombing." Speaking on customary condition of anonymity, the official added: "A group from the U.S. embassy in Moscow traveled to Dagestan yesterday [April 23] as part of this cooperation with the Russian government to interview the parents [of the Tsarnaev brothers]." That day, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, the mother of the suspected Boston bombers, was questioned for around eight hours by both the FSB and FBI and only allowed to go home around midnight, according to Heda Saratova, a local rights activist who has been working closely with the family. "The atmosphere was very cordial," Saratova told TIME after speaking with Tsarnaeva. "But she was exhausted afterwards, as if in a trance." For reasons of health, Anzor Tsarnaev, the father of the suspected bombers, stayed home on Tuesday, but the following day both of the parents were questioned for another eight hours. "The FBI and FSB(http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=world.time.com&blog=19871253&post=83737&subd=timeglobalspin&ref=&feed=1)
Via: TIME GlobalSpin