Russia's Putin Orders Crackdown After School Siege Sept. 4, 2004 — By Richard Ayton and Oliver Bullough BESLAN, Russia (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin ordered a crackdown in southern Russia after a school siege killed at least 250, and warned Chechen sympathizers on Saturday they would be seen as "accomplices of terrorism." The Kremlin leader paid a lightning early morning visit to the traumatized North Ossetia region close to Chechnya where the two-day hostage drama at the school ended on Friday in bloody mayhem with Russian forces battling Chechen militants. "One of the tasks pursued by the terrorists was to...