An Open Secret

Above all, what the people of Beslan crave is answers to the countless questions that followed hard on the heels of the grief and shock. Who were these people who were prepared to turn a school into a charnel house? Why Beslan? Why our school? Why was the siege so catastrophically mismanaged? How on earth did it come to this?

Nick Paton Walsh in The Guardian




It is an open secret what is “the civil society” according to Putin. The other day his semi-official “mouthpiece” on the central Russian television, journalist Mikhail Leontyev discoursed on this issue: the “civil society” which accepts all the initiatives of the former KGB lieutenant colonel in excitement – is good. Those who dare to have an opinion of their own, which differs from the official one – are traitors and the “fifth column.” Such part of the society needs “emancipation of ”consciousness, in which, as Surkov puts it, “civil unions, the education system, mass media and law enforcement bodies” must take part. I shall also add, aviation and tanks – if necessary.

Sergei Karpov in The Chechen Times




The West has a clear choice. It can continue to support the KGB dictatorship of Mr. Putin, which sooner or later will turn against the West and side with its enemies through its strategic goal of undermining the "unipolar" world order and keeping oil prices high. Or it can change course and insist on resolving the Chechen conflict through negotiated settlement. This would stabilize the Caucasus, rid international terrorists of a powerful propaganda tool, and bring Russian democratic reform back on track.

This would also probably mean the collapse of Mr. Putin's regime. But what's wrong with that if it's good for Chechnya, for Russia, and for the rest of the world?


Ahmed Zakayev, in The Wall Street Journal




......How the face of the sky changes,
when the darkness roared with tanks in Beslan,
and with a premonition of the end
in that school, in that basketball hoop
trembled explosives, hung by Stalin.

Yevgeny Yevtushenko