President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday compared Ukraine’s incursion into Russia to the 2004 Beslan school massacre, in which approximately 330 people died during a hostage siege.
Putin visited the site of the destroyed school for the first time in nearly 20 years, paying tribute at memorials, including a cemetery where Chechen militants held more than 1,000 people hostage.
Meeting with mothers who lost children in the siege, Putin claimed that Russia’s enemies are once again attempting to destabilise the country, referring specifically to Ukraine.
“Just as we fought the terrorists, today we must confront those committing crimes in the Kursk region,” Putin said, referring to Ukraine’s cross-border offensive that began two weeks ago.
“But just as we achieved our goals in the fight against terrorism, we will also achieve our goals in this new fight against neo-Nazis,” Putin added, speaking in front of three women from the Mothers of Beslan group.
“And we will undoubtedly bring the criminals to justice; there can be no doubt of that,” he continued.
The Mothers of Beslan group has long called for an impartial investigation into both the attack and the Russian authorities’ response.
The September 2004 siege lasted about 50 hours and ended with a gunfight when Russian special forces stormed the building after explosions in the school gym, where the hostages were being held.
The siege occurred in the North Ossetia region amid an insurgency by Islamist Chechen separatists, whom Putin branded “terrorists.”
Putin launched a major offensive against Chechnya’s armed bid for independence in late 1999, just weeks before he became president. This conflict bolstered Putin’s initial popularity, but by late 2019, he described the Beslan siege as a “personal pain” that would stay with him for life.
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