The Russian guy I work with said based on their first and last names they are from Kyrgyzstan. I said they are from Chechnya. He said there family probably moved 40 or 50 years ago. He said all this like it was important.
Fennis, if convenient:
Would you mind asking the Russian fellow if he meant that the brothers are Kyrgyzstani because they've adopted the Russian ending "-ev" to the original Chechen name "Tsarni" (Uncle Ruslan's last name). From what I can gather, the Kyrgyz have mostly adopted Russian endings for their surnames.
TIA
So I got a 30 minute history explanation.

Ill see if I can summarize:
The -ev was added during the early days of the Soviet Union it was to make it more Russian. He said the Uncles name is very Muslim. He said if someone (during Soviet days) was named Tsarni and in Moscow without his passport he would be arrested, because they would be illegal. But if they were named Tsarnaev they would be "more Russian". They probably would speak Russian and be Russian educated.
He also said they are from Kyrgyzstan or maybe ("where the funny guy is from") Kurdistan. His only real explanation was that's where those names like Dzhok- and Tsarn come from. I think its kind of like in the US if someone is named Sally Mae we all assume she is from the south. Or maybe a better example is
we know Jose is a Mexican name.