Putin Tells the Russians: ‘We Shall Be Stronger’
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
New York Times, NY
Sept 4 2004
OSCOW, Sept. 4 – Following is a transcript of President Vladimir V.
Putin’s televised remarks at the Kremlin on Saturday night, as
translated by The New York Times:
It is a difficult and bitter task for me to speak. A horrible
tragedy happened in our land. During these last few days, each one
of us suffered immensely, having all that happened in the Russian
city of Beslan run through our hearts. We were confronted not just
by murderers, but those who used their weapons against defenseless
children.
In the first place, I am addressing today those who lost the dearest
in their life, their children, their kin, their closest. I want you
to remember all those who died at the hands of terrorists in the last
few days.
There have been many tragic pages and difficult trials in the
history of Russia. Today we are living in conditions formed after
the disintegration of a huge, great country, the country which
unfortunately turned out to be nonviable in the conditions of rapidly
changing world.
Today, however, despite all difficulties, we managed to preserve the
nucleus of that giant, the Soviet Union. We called the new country
the Russian Federation.
We all expected changes, changes for the better, but found ourselves
absolutely unprepared for much that changed in our lives. The question
is why. We live in conditions of a transitional economy and a political
system that do not correspond to the development of society. We live
in conditions of aggravated internal conflicts and ethnic conflicts
that before were harshly suppressed by the governing ideology.
We stopped paying due attention to issues of defense and security. We
allowed corruption to affect the judiciary and law enforcement
systems. In addition to that, our country, which once had one of the
mightiest systems of protecting its borders, suddenly found itself
unprotected either from West or East.
It would take many years and billions of rubles to create new, modern
and truly protected borders. But even so, we could have been more
effective if we had acted in timely and professional fashion. We have
to admit that we failed to recognize the complexity and danger of the
processes going on in our own country and the world as a whole. At any
rate, we failed to react to them adequately. We demonstrated weakness,
and the weak are beaten.
Some want to tear off a big chunk of our country. Others help them
to do it. They help because they think that Russia, as one of the
greatest nuclear powers of the world, is still a threat, and this
threat has to be eliminated. And terrorism is only an instrument to
achieve these goals.
As I have said on many occasions, we have faced crises, rebellions
and terrorist acts many times. But what has happened now –
the unprecedented crime committed by terrorists, inhuman in its
cruelty – is not a challenge to the president, the Parliament or the
government. This is a challenge to all of Russia, to all our people.
This is an attack against all of us.
Terrorists think that they are stronger, that they will be able to
intimidate us, to paralyze our will, to erode our society. It seems
that we have a choice: to resist or to cave in and agree with their
claims; to give up and allow them to destroy and to take Russia apart,
in hope that eventually they would leave us alone.
As president, as the head of the Russian state, as a man who gave
an oath to protect the country and its integrity, as a citizen
of Russia, I am convinced that in fact we do not have any choice,
because as soon as we allow ourselves to be blackmailed and to panic,
we shall immerse millions of people in a series of bloody conflicts,
similar to Karabakh, Trans-Dnestria and other well known tragedies.
We cannot but see the evident: we are dealing not with separate acts of
intimidation, not with individual forays of terrorists. We are dealing
with the direct intervention of international terror against Russia,
with total and full-scale war, which again and again is taking away
the lives of our compatriots.
All the world’s experience shows that such wars do not end quickly.
In these conditions, we simply cannot, we should not, live as
carelessly as before.
We must create a more effective security system, and demand from our
law enforcement agencies actions adequate in level and scale to the
new threats.
But what is more important is a mobilization of the nation before the
general threat. Events in other countries prove that terrorists meet
the most effective rebuff where they confront not only the power of
the state but also an organized and united civil society.
Dear fellow citizens, those who sent terrorists to commit this horrible
crime had the goal of setting our peoples against one another, to
intimidate citizens of Russia, to unleash a bloody feud in the North
Caucasus. In this connection, I would like to say the following:
First, in the near future, a complex of measures aimed at strengthening
the unity of our country will be prepared.
Second, I consider it necessary to create a new system of forces and
means for exercising control over the situation in the North Caucasus.
Third, it is necessary to create an affective crisis management system,
including entirely new approaches to the work of law enforcement
agencies.
I would like to stress that all these measures will be implemented
in full accordance with the Constitution.
Dear friends: Together we live through very hard, mournful hours. I
would like to thank all those who demonstrated patience and civic
responsibility. We shall always be stronger than they, by our morale,
courage and our humane solidarity.
One could see it today and the night before. In Beslan, soaked
with pain and grief, people expressed even more care and support to
each other and were not afraid of jeopardizing their lives for the
sake of the lives and safety of others. Even in the most inhuman
conditions, they remained human. It is impossible to reconcile the
pain of the losses. The trial has brought us even closer together,
made us re-evaluate many things. Today, we have to be together. Only
thus we shall defeat the enemy.