One of the most striking features of the Beslan atrocity and its aftermath has been the unwillingness of Russia's top leadership to state clearly and candidly what it knows, or even what it thinks it knows. Though officials have repeatedly made with an air of... MORE

In a September 9 analysis for Gazeta.ru, the Moscow political scientist and former Yeltsin adviser Georgi Satarov suggested that the Russian and North Ossetian authorities' repeated falsehoods about the Beslan crisis during the period from September 1 to September 3 were literally murderous. The public... MORE

In the September 11 issue of Moskovski komsomolets, Aleksandr Khinshtein published a version of the Beslan events with details that apparently have not appeared elsewhere. He was vague about his sources, whom he simply called "eyewitnesses and participants," but his article took a favorable view... MORE

It is becoming increasingly difficult to doubt that there were connections between the June raid in Ingushetia and the Beslan attack—despite the latter's far harsher tactics. Grani.ru on September 9 quoted sources in the Russian security agencies as saying that the weapons used by the... MORE

Last week's political demonstrations "against terrorism," both in Moscow and in the North Ossetia capital of Vladikavkaz, were somewhat similar to Soviet-era rallies—planned and organized by the government itself for the purpose of showcasing support for its own policies. This was especially true of the... MORE

Vladimir Putin has not inspired greater confidence in himself or in his government by his response to the Beslan crisis, but he has won more freedom of maneuver to use even harsher methods against the Chechen separatists and their supporters. Such would seem to be... MORE

Last week's vague threats by Russia's defense establishment to launch pre-emptive attacks against foreign terrorist bases may be intended to lay the groundwork for military strikes, or at least heightened political pressure, against Georgia. Ivan Yartsev observed in a September 10 commentary for the Politcom.ru... MORE

The Beslan horror marks a threefold escalation in Russia's civil war. First, the terrorists who seized that North Ossetian town's School No. 1 used new, gratuitously cruel tactics, not only deliberately targeting children but withholding food and drink from them and firing into their backs... MORE

The Chechen terrorist warlord Shamil Basayev, whom some think is more likely to claim responsibility for the terrorist actions of others than to deny responsibility for his own, stated firmly that he had nothing to do with the Beslan raid. In a statement published on... MORE

A curious detail about the hostage crisis was noted by the Grani.ru website in a September 2 report. The pediatrician Leonid Roshal, whom the Beslan hostage-takers specifically sought by name as a negotiator, played an ambiguous role in the 2002 Dubrovka hostage crisis. On the... MORE