Tamerlan And Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Father Claims Sons Were ‘Framed’; Chechen Leader Denies Any Link To His Country

The man who claims to be the father of the two young men accused of perpetrating the devastating bomb attack on the Boston Marathon on Monday said Friday that his sons are being framed.

According to a story in Russia & Indian Report, or RIR, a man named Anzor spoke to a correspondent for Russia’s Interfax agency claiming he is the father of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Tamerlan, 26, was killed in a shooting on Thursday night, while his younger brother, Dzhokhar, 19, remains at large and is now the target of huge police manhunt in the Boston area.

"I learned about the incident from TV,” Anzor told Interfax. “My opinion is: The special services have framed my children, because they are practicing Muslims. Why did they kill Tamerlan? He was supposed to be caught alive. The younger is on the run now. He was a sophomore at a medical school in the U.S. We expected him to come home for vacation. Now I don't know what's going to happen. Tell you once again: I believe special services have framed my children.”

While Western media is reporting that the Tsarnaevs are Chechens, that determination remains unclear.

RIR reported that in 2001 the Tsarnaev family moved to Dagestan from Kyrgyzstan, where Dzokhar was born. In Dagestan, Dzhokhar attended the Makhachkala’s School No.1 for one year, where he did not make much of an impression.

“He arrived at our school in the first form and departed in the second,” Irina Bandurina, the school’s secretary told RIR. “They arrived from Kyrgyzstan and departed to the U.S. I’m telling you they lived here for a year, not the whole year. They arrived at the school in 2001 and departed in March 2002. ... There were four of them -- two sisters and two brothers.”

The sisters are named Bella and Amina. Their current whereabouts are unknown.

RIR also noted that the woman who is believed to be the brothers’ mother, 45-year-old Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, also lives in the U.S. and is no stranger to crime.

On June 13, 2012, Zubeidat was arrested by the police in the Massachusetts town of Natick (about 22 miles west of Boston) and charged with larceny for stealing about $1,600 of women's clothing, as well as two counts of malicious damage to property.

Separately, the leader of the Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov, denied that the Tsarnaev brothers have any connection to his country. "We do not know Tsarnaevs; they did not live in Chechnya. They lived and studied in the USA. What happened in Boston is the [the fault of U.S. intelligence]," Kadyrov told reporters.

Kadyrov added that "it has become customary to link everything that happens in the world with the Chechens, blaming the Chechens even for a tsunami. But the accusation is not a proof that the persons are involved in the incident. Anyway, [the Tsarnaevs] were brought up in America, and it is their education.”

Kadyrov also expressed his condolences for the deaths of civilians at the Boston Marathon.