Putin makes televised address to people of Russia

ITAR-TASS, Russia
Sept 4 2004

MOSCOW, September 4 (Itar-Tass) – President Vladimir Putin has
addressed the people of Russia on major radio and television channels
in the aftermath of the brutal hostage-taking in Beslan, North
Ossetia, that ended in the deaths of about 350 people.

Following is the full text of the address.

“A horrendous tragedy has befallen our country. We all of us deeply
suffered in the past few days, letting through our hearts all the
developments in the town of Beslan.

“It was not mere murderers whom we had to face; we encountered the
ones who had taken up arms against defenseless children.

“First and foremost, I would like to give the words of support to the
people who lost the dearest of all the treasures one can have –
children, family members, close friends. I share their grief with
them.

“I would like to ask you to recall all those who fell at the hands of
terrorists in the past few days.

“Russian history has had many tragic pages and has seen many tragic
events. We are living in a situation that took shape after the
disintegration of a giant state that turned out unviable in the
conditions of a rapidly changing world. But in spite of all the
difficulties, we managed to keep up the kernel of that giant and
called it the Russian Federation.

“We expected a change – a change for the better, but we found
ourselves unprepared for many of the things that came upon us. Why
did it happen?

“We are living in a transitional economy, which does not meet the
requirements or the level of development of society and its political
system. Internal conflicts and ethnic contradictions, so toughly
suppressed by the dominating ideology in the previous epoch, are
mounting now.

“Our attention to the issues of defense and security started
flagging, and we let corruption mute our judiciary and law
enforcement systems. Our country used to have a most potent system of
border defenses, and yet it became defenseless both in the West and
in the East virtually overnight.

“Creation of tangible border defenses will take years and billions of
rubles, but even there our performance could be more efficient if we
reacted timely and professionally.

“I must admit that we did not give a close look to the processes
unfolding in our own country and abroad, or anyway we failed to react
to them properly.

“We winked at our own weakness, and it is the weak who are always
beaten up. Some want to tear away saucy piece of our wealth, while
others help these aspirants in so doing. They still believe that
Russia poses a threat to them as a nuclear power. That is why this
threat must be eliminated, and terrorism is just another instrument
in implementing their designs.

“As I said, we encountered crises, revolts, and terrorist acts on
many occasions, but what happened this time is a terrorist crime, the
cruelty of which stands beyond precedence. This is not a challenge to
the President, Parliament, or cabinet of ministers; this is a
challenge to the entire Russian state and its people. This is
aggression against us.

“The terrorists believe they are stronger than ourselves, that their
cruelty will intimidate us, paralyze our will and degenerate our
society. Here we have a seeming alternative – to rebuff them or to
begin obeying their orders. The second means to give in and to let
them partition Russia in a hope that they will somehow let us alone.

“As President of the Russian state, a person who gave an oath to
defend the nation and its territorial integrity, and last but not
least, as a Russian citizen, I am confident that we have no such
alternative.

“The moment we give in to their blackmail and succumb to panic, we
will plunge millions of people into an endless chain of bloodletting
conflicts, like Karabakh [an enclave of Azerbaijan predominantly
populated by Armenians – Itar-Tass] or the Dniester region [a part of
Moldova that proclaimed itself independent in the early 1990’s –
Itar-Tass] or other tragedies of the kind. One cannot but see that
this is obvious.

“What we have on our hands is not the scattered acts of intimidation
or odd terrorist sorties. This is direct intervention on the part of
international terrorism in Russia. It is a total and full-blown war
that keeps claiming the lives of our compatriots.

“But world experience proves that such wars do not end quickly. Given
this situation, we cannot afford complacent treatment of it anymore.

“We must set up a much more efficient system of security and make
demands to our law enforcement system that its actions become
proportionate to the size of new threats.

“The main thing, however, is to mobilize the consciousness of the
nation in the face of a common threat. Events in other countries show
that terrorists get the most adequate responses in the places where
they run into the power of the state, on the one hand, and organized
and united civic society, on the other.

“Dear fellow countrymen,

The people who sent the terrorists to commit that utterly heinous
crime harbored a hope to set on our peoples to fight with one another
and unleash a bloody feud in Northern Caucasus.

“I would like to tell you the following in that connection.

“First, an expansive set of measures aimed at strengthening the
country’s unity will be prepared shortly.

“Second, I believe it is vital that we set up a new system of
interaction between the forces controlling situations in Northern
Caucasus.

“Third, we need a new efficient system of crisis management, based on
completely novel approaches to the activity of law enforcement
agencies.

“I would like make special stress on the intention to implement those
measures in strict conformity with the Constitution”.

“My dear friends, all of us are living through mournful and painful
hours now, and I would like to thank all of you for your
self-restraint and civic responsibility.

“We have always been stronger than them and will remain so. I mean
our morals, courage, and human solidarity. I saw it again this early
morning.

“Beslan is literally imbued with grief and pain, but people there
were so much caring for one another, so much cooperative.

“They were not afraid to risk their lives for the sake of others.
They remained real people even in the most inhumane conditions.

“It is hard to reconcile oneself with bitter losses, but the ordeal
has made us closer to one another and compelled us to reassess many
things. We must be together nowadays, because that is the only way to
defeat the enemy”.