Putin defiant in wake of slaughter

A SHAKEN President Vladimir Putin went on national television this weekend to make a rare and candid admission of Russian weakness in the face of an "all-out war" by terrorists.

Speaking in the wake of the school siege in Beslan that left more than 350 people dead, he told the Russian people that they must mobilise against terrorism and promised wide-ranging reforms to toughen security forces and purge corruption.

Putin took a defiant tone, acknowledging Russia's weaknesses, but blaming it on the fall of the Soviet Union, foreign foes seeking to tear Russia apart and on corrupt officials. He said Russians could no longer live "carefree" and must all confront terrorism.

Measures would be taken to overhaul the law enforcement organs, which he acknowledged had been infected by corruption, and tighten borders.

"We showed weakness, and weak people are beaten," he said in a speech aimed at addressing the grief, shock and anger felt by many after a string of terrorist attacks that have killed some 450 people in the past two weeks, apparently in connection with the war in Chechnya.

"What happened was a terrorist act that was inhuman and unprecedented in its cruelty," Putin said in his televised speech. "It is a challenge not to the president, the parliament and the government but to all of Russia. It is an attack on our nation.

"We are obliged to create a much more effective security system and to demand action from our law enforcement organs that would be adequate to the level and scale of the new threats," he said.

Putin told Russians the security forces needed to rethink their approach to tackling such emergencies.

The former KGB spy, whose get-tough policy in the war against Chechen rebels vaulted him to the presidency five years ago, took no personal responsibility for the bloodbath that left more than 350 dead - more than half of them children.

Many of the casualties came as Russian forces stormed the school after, according to most accounts, rebels inside set off massive explosions and opened fire. Russian and North Ossetian authorities said there were 10 Arabs among the rebel force that numbered about 30.

The absence of television coverage of the hostage tragedy prompted Izvestia newspaper commentator Irina Petrovskaya to slam state-controlled Channel One and Rossiya television for continuing to broadcast as normal for the first hour during the storming of the school.

Channel One finally broke the silence by reporting on the situation for just 10 minutes.

"After which, as if nothing had happened, it started showing the latest episode of Women in Love," Ms Petrovskaya wrote.

Even as the death toll climbed, analysts doubted that the huge loss of life would force Putin to rethink his policy of refusing to enter into negotiations with rebel representatives to end the 10-year war in the breakaway Russian republic of Chechnya. Instead, Putin pledged to wipe the insurgents out.