Helena Merriman

And people want to make friends with this new leader who they think is someone they can do business with.

Meanwhile, in Russia, a lot of Russian journalists are asking very uncomfortable questions still.

But in a way, those questions get sidelined because there's this new distraction, which is Putin sending fighter jets to bomb the Chechen capital, Grozny.

It's the start of the second Chechen war.

Those pictures are now flooding into the newsrooms of TV stations around the world.

And journalists at the time draw a direct line between the apartment bombs and this new war.

What's so interesting about the effect of that war is that at the same time, Vladimir Putin is undergoing this huge transformation from being this rather forgettable former KGB guy in a suit.

People in Russia called him the Syrian misker, which is the gray mouse.

And he's now swapped those suits for military uniform.

He's jumping on planes.

He's giving heart-thumping speeches to soldiers on the front line.

And his popularity ratings soar.

I mean, when you look at his ratings back in August, before the bombs, only 2% of Russians thought that Putin would make a good president.

Just a few months later, after the bombs, after this new war in Chechnya, Putin being all over the news, his ratings have soared to over 40%.

It's that quick.

And as a result of that war, did Russian authorities arrest any suspects related to the bombings?

So here's where it gets interesting.

So you have these apartments are blown up in September over a matter of just a few weeks.

You then have this new war in Chechnya.

But at the same time, Putin is now campaigning to become president.