They repeatedly expressed approval of terrorism in the abstract to their American friends —no one considered it especially noteworthy.
That’s cuz in the academic environment of Boston sometimes it ambivalence about violence that is specifically anti-American stands as a mark of sophistication.
So what do the Russians think about US encouragement of Chechen islamists? Moscow has a moslem problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3sjnU_YFR8