(Moscow) During his first visit to a Beslan school on Tuesday, Vladimir Putin compared the massacre to the ongoing Ukrainian military offensive in Russia’s Kursk region, where a bloody hostage-taking scene took place 20 years ago.
“Just as we fought against terrorists, today we must fight against those who commit crimes in the Kursk region, in the Donbass, in New Russia,” the Russian president said in a video posted on Telegram.
Donbass is an area in eastern Ukraine that today is largely controlled by Russian troops, and “New Russia” refers to the plan to create Russian territory in the south and belong to the same country.
“Just as we achieved our goals in the fight against terrorism, we will achieve them in the fight against neo-Nazis, and will undoubtedly punish the perpetrators,” Vladimir Putin said, resuming his argument for the “decimation” of Ukraine.
He made the comments as he visited Number One School in Beslan, his first school in the Russian Caucasus, the scene of the tragedy, to pay tribute to the victims of the bloody hostage-taking by a Chechen commando. Held there 20 years ago.
Photo by Sergey Karbukin, Agence France-Presse
Vladimir Putin
More than 1,000 people were taken hostageR September 2004 and held for 50 hours in brutal conditions. The experiment ended in bloodshed: 330 people died, including 186 children.
After visiting the school, Mr. Putin visited. He knelt at the foot of a monument and laid red roses, in pictures released by the Russian presidential news service.
According to the same source, he placed flowers near a monument to Russian special forces soldiers killed during the attack on the school.
“This tragedy will undoubtedly remain an incurable wound in the historical memory of all Russia,” Putin said.
His visit comes as Russia has been in the grip of an unprecedented two-week Ukrainian military offensive on its home soil.
After months of retreating in the face of Russian troop advances in the east of its territory, Ukraine took up the fight against Russia on August 6 by launching a cross-border offensive against the Kursk region.
On March 22, Russia suffered its worst attack since the Beslan attack in 2004.
Gunmen opened fire at the Crocus City Hall concert venue in the northwestern suburbs of the Russian capital. 145 people were killed and hundreds injured in the attack.
More than 20 people have been arrested, including four suspects from the former Soviet republic of Central Asia and neighboring Afghanistan, Tajikistan.
Although the attack was soon claimed by the jihadist group Islamic State (IS), Russian officials continued to see Ukraine’s hand in the February 2022 attack by Russia.
Kiev categorically denies any involvement.
