BESLAN, Russia – A shaken President Vladimir Putin made a rare and candid admission of Russian weakness Saturday in the face of an "all-out war" by terrorists after more than 340 people – nearly half of them children – were killed in a hostage-taking at a southern school.
Mr. Putin went on national television to tell Russians they must mobilize against terrorism. He promised broad reforms to toughen security forces and purge corruption.
"We showed weakness, and weak people are beaten," he said in a speech aimed at addressing the grief, shock and anger felt by many after a string of attacks that have killed 450 people in the last two weeks, apparently in connection with the war in Chechnya.
The Federal Security Service chief in North Ossetia, Valery Andreyev, said Saturday that investigators were looking into whether militants had smuggled explosives and weapons into the school and hid them during a renovation this summer.
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Mr. Putin took a defiant tone, acknowledging Russia's weaknesses but blaming it on the fall of the Soviet Union, foreign foes seeking to tear apart Russia and on corrupt officials. He said Russians could no longer live "carefree" and must all confront terrorism.
Measures would be taken, Putin promised, to overhaul the law enforcement organizations, which he acknowledged had been infected by corruption, and to tighten borders.
An unidentified intelligence official was quoted by the ITAR-Tass news agency as saying the school assault was financed by Abu Omar As-Seyf, an Arab who allegedly represents al-Qaeda in Chechnya, and masterminded by Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev.
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My heart is definitely with the victims of this heinous act & their families, but I have to say to Mr. Putin: Russians "can no longer live carefree & must confront terrorism"??? Don't you think an all out war against terrorism should have been launched by Russia after a seige on a Russian Hospital in 1995? How about the seige in the Moscow theatre in 2002? The one where the police fired the tear gas into the theater & ended up killing almost all of the hostages with it. What about when the Chechen rebels brought down 2 of Russia's aircraft a few weeks ago? Wait, how about the suicide bombing near a metro station in Moscow just the DAY BEFORE this latest terrorist act happened? Don't you think you should have done that a hell of a long time ago? I would think that your eyes would have been opened to the possible disasterous effects of terrorism after September 11, 2001, or did you think you were immune? What about after the attacks in Spain? Still immune? I find it hard to believe that the leader of a country as large as yours could have actually believed Al Queda wasn't going to come for them anytime soon. You're DAMN right you'd better confront terrorism! You lost at least 323 people yesterday, 156 of them innocent children. The carefree world ended September 11, 2001 and it's about time the rest of the world faced that unfortunate fact. (Read more about this here)
posted by Chris O. @ 9/04/2004 07:52:00 PM
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