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09/09/2004
Vladimir Putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday, September 4,
following the slaughter at Beslan. Putin admits his nation has
shortcomings, but a strengthening of Russia’s security apparatus,
as he envisions it, may not necessarily be in the best interests of
the people over the long haul. For more on the situation, see my
9/11 edition of “Week in Review.”
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It is a difficult and bitter task for me to speak. A horrible tragedy
happened in our land. During these last few days, each one of us
suffered immensely, having all that happened in the Russian city
of Beslan run through our hearts. We were confronted not just
by murderers, but those who used their weapons against
defenseless children.
In the first place, I am addressing today those who lost the
dearest in their life, their children, their kin, their closest. I want
you to remember all those who died at the hands of terrorists in
the last few days.
There have been many tragic pages and difficult trials in the
history of Russia. Today we are living in conditions formed after
the disintegration of a huge, great country, the country which
unfortunately turned out to be nonviable in the conditions of
rapidly changing world.
Today, however, despite all difficulties, we managed to preserve
the nucleus of that giant, the Soviet Union. We called the new
country the Russian Federation.
We all expected changes, changes for the better, but found
ourselves absolutely unprepared for much that changed in our
lives. The question is why. We live in conditions of a
transitional economy and a political system that do not
correspond to the development of society. We live in conditions
of aggravated internal conflicts and ethnic conflicts that before
were harshly suppressed by the governing ideology.
We stopped paying due attention to issues of defense and
security. We allowed corruption to affect the judiciary and law
enforcement systems. In addition to that, our country, which
once had one of the mightiest systems of protecting its borders,
suddenly found itself unprotected either from West or East.
It would take many years and billions of rubles to create new,
modern and truly protected borders. But even so, we could have
been more effective if we had acted in timely and professional
fashion. We have to admit that we failed to recognize the
complexity and danger of the processes going on in our own
country and the world as a whole. At any rate, we failed to react
to them adequately. We demonstrated weakness, and the weak
are beaten.
Some want to tear off a big chunk of our country. Others help
them to do it. They help because they think that Russia, as one
of the greatest nuclear powers of the world, is still a threat, and
this threat has to be eliminated. And terrorism is only an
instrument to achieve these goals.
As I have said on many occasions, we have faced crises,
rebellions and terrorist acts many times. But what has happened
now – the unprecedented crime committed by terrorists, inhuman
in its cruelty – is not a challenge to the president, the Parliament
or the government. This is a challenge to all of Russia, to all our
people. This is an attack against all of us.
Terrorists think that they are stronger, that they will be able to
intimidate us, to paralyze our will, to erode our society. It seems
that we have a choice: to resist or to cave in and agree with their
claims; to give up and allow them to destroy and to take Russia
apart, in hope that eventually they would leave us alone.
As president, as the head of the Russian state, as a man who gave
an oath to protect the country and its integrity, as a citizen of
Russia, I am convinced that in fact we do not have any choice,
because as soon as we allow ourselves to be blackmailed and to
panic, we shall immerse millions of people in a series of bloody
conflicts, similar to Karabakh, Trans-Dnestria and other well
known tragedies.
We cannot but see the evident: we are dealing not with separate
acts of intimidation, not with individual forays of terrorists. We
are dealing with the direct intervention of international terror
against Russia, with total and full-scale war, which again and
again is taking away the lives of our compatriots.
All the world’s experience shows that such wars do not end
quickly. In these conditions, we simply cannot, we should not,
live as carelessly as before.
We must create a more effective security system, and demand
from our law enforcement agencies actions adequate in level and
scale to the new threats.
But what is more important is a mobilization of the nation before
the general threat. Events in other countries prove that terrorists
meet the most effective rebuff where they confront not only the
power of the state but also an organized and united civil society.
Dear fellow citizens, those who sent terrorists to commit this
horrible crime had the goal of setting our peoples against one
another, to intimidate citizens of Russia, to unleash a bloody feud
in the North Caucasus. In this connection, I would like to say the
following:
First, in the near future, a complex of measures aimed at
strengthening the unity of our country will be prepared.
Second, I consider it necessary to create a new system of forces
and means for exercising control over the situation in the North
Caucasus.
Third, it is necessary to create an affective crisis management
system, including entirely new approaches to the work of law
enforcement agencies.
I would like to stress that all these measures will be implemented
in full accordance with the Constitution.
Dear friends: Together we live through very hard, mournful
hours. I would like to thank all those who demonstrated patience
and civic responsibility. We shall always be stronger than they,
by our morale, courage and our humane solidarity.
One could see it today and the night before. In Beslan, soaked
with pain and grief, people expressed even more care and support
to each other and were not afraid of jeopardizing their lives for
the sake of the lives and safety of others. Even in the most
inhuman conditions, they remained human. It is impossible to
reconcile the pain of the losses. The trial has brought us even
closer together, made us re-evaluate many things. Today, we
have to be together. Only thus we shall defeat the enemy.
[Translated by the New York Times]
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Hott Spotts will return September 16.
Brian Trumbore
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