Russia recorded a conversation between Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, "vaguely discussing" the concept of Jihad. The conversation did not mention any specific attack on the U.S., but did discuss the possibility of Tamerlan traveling to Pakistan to get involved with militant groups.
This recorded call is perhaps what led Russia to ask U.S. authorities to investigate Tamerlan, who was living in the United States at the time. The FBI asked Russia for more information, but never heard back. In 2011, the Russians again requested an investigation, but again provided no further information to the FBI.
Newsday is reporting that Russia also found text messages in which the mother discussed how Tamerlan "is ready to die for Islam."
Both Tamerlan and his mother were put on the TIDE database, which contains more than 700,000 names of people suspected of being connected to terrorism.