Posted on 09/03/2004 1:29:43 AM PDT by Happy2BMe
Terror Attacks Prompt Tough Talk From Kremlin
By Sergei Blagov
CNSNews.com Correspondent
September 02, 2004
Moscow (CNSNews.com) - A series of terrorist outrages in Russia have resulted in hard-line rhetoric from the Kremlin, but it remains to be seen whether the attacks eventually could lead to a foreign policy rethink, with possible implications for Iraq.
President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday his government was prepared to destroy terrorists and separatists.
"There can be no dialogue with those who wanted to fight and who made war a way of earning money," he told journalists. "We shall fight against them, throw them in prisons and destroy them.
Putin also called on the world community to consolidate efforts in tackling the problem.
Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov went further, announcing Wednesday that Russia viewed the attacks as a declaration of war by terrorists.
The remarks came as Russia faced a standoff with a group of heavily-armed terrorists who seized control of a school in the republic of North Ossetia, near Chechnya.
Around 17 suspected Chechen rebels, some strapped with explosives, were holding up to 400 hostages, many of them children, and demanding the release of insurgents captured last June.
They also threatened to kill 50 hostages for each of their number killed. The terrorists and government officials reportedly maintained contact through the night, but it was unclear whether that contact could be considered negotiating.
The latest incident comes at a time Russians were already jittery about terrorism. On Tuesday evening, a female suicide bomber blew herself up outside a subway station in Moscow, killing at least 10 people and injuring more than 50 others.
One week earlier, 89 passengers and crew were killed when two Russian passenger airliners crashed almost simultaneously. Investigators said traces of explosive have been found on at the wreckage.
The series of serious terrorist blows have observers here wondering whether Moscow may consider taking a more pro-active approach in the war on terror outside Russia.
Russia has been reluctant to do so up until now, repeatedly declining to provide peacekeeping troops to the U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq.
Coinciding with the latest terrorist attacks, Putin was holding a summit at the Black Sea with two other leaders who, like himself, strongly opposed last year's war against Saddam Hussein.
Putin, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac voiced concerns about the troubled security situation in Iraq, but none of the three has changed stance on sending troops.
France and Germany have said they would help train Iraqi officers, but only outside the country, while Russia has offered to help train civilian personnel. Moscow is also planning to renew arms sales -- banned under a 1991 U.N. embargo -- to the Iraqi government and multinational forces.
The Kremlin argues that the war against Iraq simply unleashed more terrorism, but in Russia's case, that argument could eventually see a change its position on sending troops as terrorists strike at home.
The Russian government is traditionally unconcerned about combat losses, and domestic opposition would not affect any decision to dispatch a military force to Iraq.
On the other hand, analysts say Russian military involvement in Iraq could further destabilize Chechnya and adversely affect Moscow's relations with Arab and Muslim countries -- outcomes Putin would want to avoid.
Meanwhile, the U.N. Security Council held an emergency session Wednesday after which it condemned "in the strongest terms" the seizing of the hostages in Russia.
It called in a statement for their immediate and unconditional release, and urged international cooperation to help Russian authorities "find and bring to justice the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of these terrorist attacks."
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That'll teach 'em.
Yep. Kofi gonna fix it. Kofi gonna fix everytang.
Unbelievable. Just unbelievable.
That is a lot of people , and I heard only one truck load of Terrorists....
They must be very ruthless and well organized.
...and when they came for you, nobody was left to help.
Unfortunately, a lot of innocent people are probably going to get slaughtered. Of course, the Old Media won't mention the fact that they're Moose-slums.
Are we talking prisons like the Gulag?
Let Russia refuse to take the war out of the country and let's see how many more attacks they undego.
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September 02, 2004
BESLAN, Russia (AP) - Heavily armed militants who seized a school three days ago are holding at least 1,000 students, teachers and parents hostage inside the building, far more than previously thought, a released hostage and a regional official said.
Russian officials had said that about 350 people were being held by raiders who seized the school in the North Ossetian city of Beslan on Wednesday. But a teacher who was among at least 26 women and children released on Thursday disputed that, according to a report published Friday.
"On television they say that there are 350 of us. That's not right. There's not less than 1,500 in the school," the respected newspaper Izvestia quoted the woman as saying on condition of anonymity.
In addition, local legislator Azamat Kadykov told a meeting packed with worried relatives and friends Friday that the number of hostages was "more or less 1,000."
The reports could not immediately be confirmed, but the woman who spoke with Izvestia said that some 1,000 children were enrolled at the school, and the militants had captured teachers and many parents as well when they invaded the building Tuesday during a ceremony to celebrate the start of the new school year.
The statements were a new blow to the morale of hostage relatives, who spent the night whipsawed by hope and dread - buoyed by the release of dozens of women and children but alarmed by grenades fired from the building.
Valery Andreyev, chief of the regional office of the Federal Security Service, meanwhile said that contacts with the hostage-takers had resumed in the morning, following an overnight suspension, but stopped again.
The release of at least 26 hostages on Thursday left some Beslan resident convulsed in joy, but many more wracked with disappointment. Men and women wept or hugged each other with relief as a man read the names of the freed hostages over a loudspeaker.
The released hostages included toddlers who were naked, apparently because of stifling heat in the school, where the hostage-takers have refused to allow authorities to deliver water, food and medicine for the captives. The refusal could indicate hostage-takers' suspicion of being poisoned.
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I suppose it never occurs to the armchair critics here that Russia has enough on her plate handling the chechens. And was fighting islamic terrorism a few years before we even knew what was headed our way.
And why is that?
Fools.
Make no mistake, Germany is headed for its own home grown terror chaos. It will not avoid the consequences Russia and France are undergoing. Spain will face the same, and so will every nation that shows weakness. We may well get hit again, but it won't be without severe retaliation. It makes the terrorists hesitate, they have no such hesitation at inflicting their will on France and Russia.
In 1995 Russia was a third world country. You couldn't even mail anything there.
What I find to be unbelievable, personally, are the number of freepers here who think Russia should get back on her feet from an 80 year occupation of communism, fight the chechens, restore the military, get rid of the gangsters who ran rampant under Yeltsin, try to pull an entirely new country together from almost nothing, and oh, yes, send the troops sitting around not being killed in chechnya to help in Iraq.
Kinda like asking you to pull off a small miracle achievement your first day on a new job.
Russia has never held back when it comes to chechen islamic terrorists.
In Russia they show the beheading videos (of Russian soldiers by chechens) on television.
You mean like building nuclear reactors and providing the fissile material in Iran?
Russia is arming the Islamic terrorists.
We will all suffer as a result.
It is past time for Putin to figure out which side he's on.
I haven't learned how to post yet, but the Russians have stormed the school, or something like that, as there is now heavy gunfire going 2 ways, plus loud explosions from inside the school, bad outcome here, I'll bet. All out assault. If someone knows how to post, do it now! It's on FOX now!
Yes, Fox is showing live video.
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