A man places a candle in memory of the subway blasts victims outside the Lubyanka Subway station, which was earlier hit by an explosion, in Moscow, Monday, March 29, 2010. Two explosions blasted Moscow's subway system Monday morning as it was jam-packed with rush-hour passengers, killing at least 37 people, emergency officials and news agencies said. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)

By Sarah Butrymowicz and Jennifer Brookland

On a rainy Tuesday afternoon, less than 48 hours after suicide bombers attacked a Moscow subway, it was business as usual at Premiere Food, a Russian grocery  in Pelham Parkway. Customers took their time browsing the pickles and fresh baked bread, sometimes stopping to read the signs in Russian for bass lessons or apartments for rent, or to pick up a newspaper.

Although many of them have lived in this country for years, they were still following the news of the attack. But with miles and sometimes years between them and their homeland, they also viewed the situation with perspective.

Although no group has claimed responsibility for the Monday attack that killed 39 and injured more than 80, Russian authorities suspect Muslim extremists from the Caucusus region, an area that includes Chechnya. Chechen rebels carried out terrorist attacks against Russian civilians as recently as November 2009, bombing a passenger train traveling between Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Tensions between Muslim Chechen separatists and Russian nationalists go back decades, if not centuries, and both sides have committed atrocities.

“Both of them are right, both of them are guilty,” said Vladimir, a Russian customer who did not want his last name printed.

While critical of the government, people were compassionate for those who were killed or injured. “It’s awful for people,” said Alexandra Ablavsky, who left Russia in 1989. It’s “like I’m here but my heart is there.”

But no one viewed the Russian government as a victim; many customers acknowledged that it had long fueled the conflict. Shop owner Alex Porokhin wondered if Russian military officials even had a reason to prolong the clashes with Chechnya, lining their pockets with money meant to finance the campaign.

Svetlana Prokhorov, who has lived in the United States for 15 years, thought Russia should take a political lesson from the most recent attacks about its relationships with the Muslim world and America. “The government has to understand who is their friend,” she said. “They smile to America but give a hand to Iran.” She couldn’t understand why Russia would continue to support a Muslim country when Muslims were suspected of continued attacks. Prokhorov also worried people would retaliate unfairly against innocent Muslims in Russia.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin used harsh rhetoric Tuesday to decry the terrorists, promising that the government will “dredge them from the bottom of the sewers” and destroy them.

Russians in the Bronx believed him.

“Forget about justice in Russia,” Porokhin said. “If the government promises to find someone, they will find someone.”

Even if Putin tracks down the terrorists responsible for Monday’s attacks, Ablavsky was doubtful that it would resolve anything. It’s a “big problem,” she said, comparing the situation to the protracted conflict between Israel and Palestine. “It will be for a long, long time.”