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KOMMERSANT Vlast, JUNE 24, 2005 http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.html?docId=585981 Crime and Evidence // Crime and Evidence The ongoing trial for Nurpasha Kulaev, the only survivor among terrorists captured the Beslan school, is gradually growing into a sensation. Kulaev has practically retracted his testimony, and is now shattering the theory of the Beslan tragedy imposed by the Prosecutor's Office. He Will Say What He's been Told to Say When Russian deputy prosecutor general Nikolay Shepel announced the date of the first court hearing, i.e. May 17, no one hold any illusions that the investigation's official version may be impugned: Nurpasha Kulaev was such a sorry sight when he was on TV news. Women of Beslan kept on saying that they would not get the truth from Kulaev as "he will say what he was told to say". "When we saw him on TV, one could see that he had been repeatedly beaten up," Zara Kasaeva, one of Beslan mothers, says. "They do so for him not to blurt out anything at the trial." The investigation theory was strictly limited. 32 terrorist arrived in Beslan on Gaz-66 truck and seized the school. They did not make any demands. But later they demanded that the Northern Ossetian president Alexander Dzasokhov, Ingush president Murat Zyazikov, doctor Leonid Roshal and presidential advisor Aslanbek Aslakhanov come to the school. The terrirorts wanted to meet all of them at the same time. Evidence of hostages testifying to the fact that terrorists demanded something else more was ignored. There were many Arabs and a Negro among the militants, Shepel claimed in October. The case files have it that the military men did not initiate the attack and did not fire at the school, but something exploded inside the building. The insulation tape that fixed an explosive device under the sport hall's ceiling came off because of the heat, the bomb falling down to explode. The blast wave threw off the militant who held his foot on another homemade explosive device, and the bomb set off too. Self-made mines exploded because of the detonation. The panic of the terrorist resulted in all ensuing events: they started firing and setting off bombs. One could judge by Shepel's categorical statement made in January that the investigators were not going to give away any of their conclusions. The prosecutor claimed that there were 32 militants. The statement enraged the entire Beslan, and the head of the parliamentary commission on the investigation into the terrorist attack Alexander Torshin even recommended Shepel not to make final statements. The figure of 32 came to stay, though. Residents of Beslan often recollect how investigators questioned them. They say many things they recalled were not included into the indictment. "When Karnaukhov [head of the investigation team] came from Moscow, I visited him," Ella Kesaeva, one of the victims, recalls. "I told him: `They fired at our children from flame throwers, that's why they got burnt.' Flame throwers were found near the school and on the roof, we don't need to look fro anything to prove it. I told him we have a video tape showing the way the sports hall looked like after the assault. You could see it all there. Children who were burnt were sitting there: they died as they sat there. Shmel flame throwers burnt the children. There was a storming too – everyone knows it. Karnaukhov shouted at me: `Why are you lying?' That's the way they questioned all witnesses." Tell the Truth and We'll Demand You Be Pardonned It seemed that the Kulaev trial would be a mere technicality. The prosecutors charged him with terrorism, murder, participation in illegal armed group, purchase, storage, carrying and application of weapon. No one but one victim recalled they had seen Kulaev among the militants. All the more, no one could say if he had fired at all. Even state prosecutors would not declare that Kulaev performed any function in the gang. The most important thing he is charged with is his presence at the school with the militants. Basically, he found himself on the dock only because there is no one else to try. The victims realized it, and were least satisfied with it. "We need real culprits, not this Kulaev who is like a scapegoat," Emma Betrozova said. The first hearing when victims rushed to the terrorist's cage screaming "I will snuff him out!" promised no surprises. But as the interrogation of the accused proceeded, the case got dashed to pieces. It happened after judge Tamerlan Aguzarov permitted the victims to ask the defendant questions. Obviously, the investigation was not ready for it. One of the questions was: is it true that the militants demanded all the negotiators coming together, and could they let go several children for the presence of Dzasokhov? They already knew the answer from the hostages. But Kulaev's reply was unexpected. "I heard the Colonel [the leader of the terrorists] talking to somebody on phone saying he has an order: if Dzasokhov and Zyazikov come, he could let go 150 people for each of them." These words opened the "voluntary confession" of Kulaev that representatives of the prosecution had to interrupt several times trying to convince the victims that this was Kulaev's "defending line". But few listened to them. The victims' attitude towards Kulaev changed before our very eyes. "Tell the truth and we will strive for your pardoning," the women pleaded the accused. At the fourth hearing, Susanna Dudieva, one of the victims and the chairperson of Beslan's Mothers committee, loudly declared she did not believe the investigation team and would rather cooperate with "Kulaeva than with those who are cheating" her. It all ended up with the women starting calling Kulaev victim for the truth. Last week, Dudieva asked the prosecution for guarantees that Kulaev would not be beaten up between the hearings and would not "suddenly die of heart failure or accidentally fall down the stairs". The prosecution would not give any guarantees. But Kulaeva kept on making one ringing declaration after another. He recounted that a policeman, who the investigators deemed a hostage, helped them to go through police posts. He said when the Gaz-66 with the policeman on drove up to the school, "there already was firing on the second floor". This contradicted the official theory, under which all 32 militants arrived together. "We were sure from the very beginning that there were much more militants," the victims said. "They drove in several cars, and not all of them were eliminated. Some 20 terrorists escaped." Kulaev also said that of all the participants of the seizure "only four were Chechens, all the rest were Ingush". The hostages claimed as early as last September there had been no Negroes or Arabs. Kulaev's testimony is at variance with the investigation theory concerning the time of the assault as well. Kulaev recounted that after the first explosion that had prompted the attack the Colonel had screamed somebody on phone: "What have you done? Do you want to storm the school? Don't you know how many women and children are here?" Finally, Kulaev said "a sniper had shot the man who was standing "on the button". Generally, his testimony boils down to the assumption that it was military men who launched the attack on the building. This is what the women of Beslan have been trying to prove for nine months already. Kulaev's declarations seem to have come a surprise for his counsel Albert Pliev. The lawyer got the case by chance, faced unrelenting pressure of friends and relatives and now declines to discuss the details of the trial. Representatives of the Federal Security Service [no other has the access to Kulaev] decline answering the question whether Kulaev is being beaten up between the hearings. Answering the question why the testimony of the accused differs from the information of the investigation the lawyer says "Kulaev's testimonies at the inquest and at the trial are the same, except for some insignificant details." No One Was Going To Let Terrorists Go These "insignificant" variations may alter not only Kulaev's fate but also those of the entire Beslan. The protest atmosphere is now so strong in the town that the authorities prefer to keep away from contacts with the residents. But Beslan's people will not put up with the presentation of the tragedy imposed on them, and are carrying out their own investigation. They have video tapes showing the assault, testimony of witnesses and some officials who contacted the staff. This information is sometimes shocking. For instance, they say the FSB director Nikolay Patrushev and interior minister Rashid Nurgaliev in fact arrived in Beslan by Putin's order and were only at the airport blocked by OMON special forces. It is from where, Beslan residents claim, that they commanded the operation, therefore no one was in charge of anything in the centre of Beslan. Why generals were not there? Why the head of the North Ossetian FSB Valery Andreev headed the operation, while there were senior experts reputed for the hostage releases? Why all these generals have still kept silence? All these questions are repeatedly asked in Beslan. "If Kulaev tells the truth, you'll understand that both he and we are speaking about the things the authorities want to hide," Ella Kesaeva says. "No one was going to let the terrorists go, they decided to eliminate them together with the children." "Five tanks fired at the one side of the school alone," Emma Betrozova continues. "Who could have had a chance to leave the school?! I can't understand how anyone managed to survive there. How could this have been allowed? Everyone was promoted for Beslan. Everyone who lied us. But we never learnt who had given an order to fire at our children. We have been trying to prove for nine months that there the assault occurred: here are the Shmels [flamethrowers], here are the witnesses. But the witnesses were either intimidated or something else. Anyway, the case files do not include their testimony. We are being blatantly ignored." by Zaur Farniev, Olga Allenova KOMMERSANT Vlast, JUNE 24, 2005 http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.html?docId=585982 Photo: Valery Melnikov Vice-chairman of the Northern Ossetia parliament Stanislav Kesaev (left) and Russian President's plenipotentiary in the Southern Federal District Dmitry Kozak (right) at the session of the Northern Ossetia's parliament The Investigation Doesn't Want to See This //The Investigation Doesn't Want to See This// The parliamentary commission on probing into the Beslan terrorist attack is currently working in the Northern Ossetia. Its head, vice-speaker of the republic's parliament Stanislav Kesaev tells Kommersant Vlast correspondent Olga Allenova what he does not like about the prosecution's theory of the tragedy. I Personally Saw Tanks Fire - The name of your commission says that it has tried to find out "causes and circumstances of the Beslan tragedy". What did you manage to find out after all? - We tackle the questions that the people have asked from the very beginning. For instance, why Beslan was chosen as the scene of the attack? Many things do become clear only an interview with the Federation Council member from Ingushetia Kostoev who said if there had not been Ingush non-returnees, the terrorist attack would not have happened. Our neighbors easily explain that it was an act of retaliation: a great number of young people were brought up there being taught that Ossetins had seized the land from them. The older generation that once was afraid of the repression regime and kept silent, has now started speaking out. But, certainly, they came here not to revenge themselves. The first demand of the terrorists was to withdraw Russian troops from Chechnya and cease the war. There are people who came out of the school with this note. We have questioned them. - So, there was a note with demands after all? - This note was written in a clumsy hand-writing, on school's copy book. But it existed. Whether it was taken seriously or not - it is another question. - But the investigators do not have it. - That's because official investigation cannot and does not want to face the facts, but we do have this information. There was the note. The conclusions that the law enforcement system in all its structures failed and stood about gaping are obvious for me and need not to be proved. When armed formations move in the territory of the Russian Federation, it is a failure of the Federal Security Service [the FSB], the Interior Ministry, and whoever else. When a school is seized, and the seizure of the building situated 5 minutes walk from the district's police department takes 25 minutes - this means that the district's department failed too. When the head of the counterterrorist operation [head of the Federal Security department for the Northern Ossetia Andreev] is being appointed by a telephone message two days after - this is not a success either. Even if the second explosion occurred by chance, why were not a great number of special forces officers on the scene but were training somewhere? I have not gone into details where the sports hall caught fire from: from the above or below, though the survived paint is evidence that the ceiling was burning. It fell down killing people. But why did it catch fire? This is the question. - I have heard a definite theory from the Beslan people: those who entered the building after the storm first saw the bodies of the children that had got burnt: they died sitting, crushed by the collapsed roof. Beslan residents say the fire broke out on the roof because the military men were firing at the school. - They did fire at the school from tanks - I personally saw it. Why? I asked the military men who were in the yard and the commander of the 58th army this question. The tanks fired eight times, if I'm not mistaken, which naturally surprises. All the more it was evening when they knew that the terrorists were encircled but the hostages were near them used as a shield. But the military fired at the hostages - and there was no possible explanation for this. There is no explanation for the use of grenade launchers and Shmel flame throwers either. We have to face the facts: it was not evil spirits that carried tubes from Shmels to the scene of the tragedy and left them there. Besides, the fire in the school is the evidence of the fact that it was a flame thrower that set everything on fire. By the way, the military confirm it. Though I have not seen and probably will never see the conclusions of the expert commission. - So, the ceiling caught fire collapsing because the shot from a flame thrower used by those storming the building? - Yes, definitely. This Can Be Called a Crisis of the Entire System - It means that some people died through the fault of those who were supposed to release them, does it? - Certainly. You see, as a lawyer I must say the following: we can assume that these are the victims of the unreasonable assault and unreasonable actions. Perhaps, we can try to understand special forces officers too. Ten people from Alfa and Vympel forces died. Such a loss could not but made them brutal. I know they reacted to any stir throwing grenades and the like. - So, whether children were running out or not - it did not matter? - They did not react to it, because a combat was in progress. When your friends, whose children you nursed, die, other instincts arise. - A part of the people died through the fault of the assaulters, a part - through the fault of the rescuers? - It is a fact too that firemen did not work as they should have. Quite on the contrary, many of them were given decorations. When fire detachments find themselves having incompatible fire-hoses, when they did not have any water or anything - well, that's a problem. It can be called a crisis of the entire system. Not much depends on the identities of the killers. Whether they were Ossetins, Ingush or Arabs. Though I'm not saying it does not matter. But when somebody tries to shift all the blame to the international terrorism, and suggest considering a burnt corpse [of a terrorist] a Negro - I do not agree with it. When I am unambiguously told that there were 32 bandits and one survived [Nurpasha Kulaev], while all the others had been killed, it does not convince me. But the Prosecutor's Office has embarked on the path of cutting off all other testimony. It looks like everything has been clear for them from the first day. They need to find scapegoats, and the scapegoats are these wretched policemen from the district's police department. They did display professional impropriety at the outset but there are much more questions for the heads of the operation, not for the policemen. For instance, why, did it take them so long to decide on the assault since the mining took first two hours? - I heard some officers say that if it had not been for volunteers, there would have been order. - Even the heads of Alfa [special forces group] said that if it had not been for the volunteers, the evacuation would have taken much more time. The figure is impressive indeed: the people took away from the scene four corpses per several seconds, which neither special forces or emergency situations ministry officers could not have done. Do you remember how much equipment they had on them? Plus, (if I may say so) they felt differently towards the victims. It is one thing when you know your relatives are there and quite another thing when you just do your job. I do not doubt the general conscientiousness of the rescuers, though. The Investigation Worked on Only One Theory - Have the findings of the investigation satisfied you? - I did not hide it from the beginning. As a lawyer I know that the golden rule of the investigation is to work on various theories. But the investigation has chosen one theory from the start: they say we know for certain from Kulaev's testimony that there were 32 terrorists, two of them were women. Well, it is like a bad pupil who does not know how to do a sum, look up for the answer on the last page, and then writes a fitting solution. I am convinced that somebody's bureaucratic interests must not act against the citizens' interests. - Do you think that a group of the terrorists escaped? - For example, there is a description of a terrorist everyone saw at the school: he was diminutive, he had a beard and a scar crossing his throat – but he was not found among those killed. There is another fact. Policemen exchanged remarks during the combat saying that the militants were changing into sports outfits and were escaping. There were many nuances which make it possible to say that the investigation has worked on only one theory. - Do you also doubt an accidental explosion? - I very much doubt it. As far as I know there are no results of the ballistic and explosive examinations. Many victims say the terrorist who was sitting on the button made a fling and pushed it. A circuit broke, and the bomb set off. Later another one exploded. The first two set off almost at the same time, a big explosion happened some twenty minutes after. - Is this big explosion the one that set fire? But was it initiated from the outside, not from the terrorists? - Surely. Something exploded above, on the roof. A major fire broke out after the third explosion. - I would like to specify: is it the explosion that could have been caused by a shot from a flame thrower? Is it after it that the fire started killing many people? - Exactly. - Have the results of the examination been presented to you personally. - Since we do not have anything to do with federal agencies, they do not give us the results. We use what we have, what we gathered and what the federal commission gives us. Former KGBists Will Defend Their People, Interiors – Theirs - What is next? - We should wait for the conclusions of the big commission [that of the Russian Federal Assembly]. But they take their time. They have approached the sorest subject. Now it seems easier to find and highlight the drawbacks of the people who were in charge of the operation, since each of them is considered separately. However, in reality it is a matter of the leaders' common sense or the lack of it. If somebody who is heading the staff spends all the time before TV-cameras giving interviews, when does he have time to lead? And wherever did these important generals disappear? - Do you mean deputy directors of the Federal Security Service Vladimir Anisimov and Vladimir Pronichev? The head of the chief department of the Interior Ministry for the Southern Federal district Mikhail Pankov? - I do. They were there, but we knew nothing about their actions. Premier Chernomyrdin talked to Shamil Basaev [in 1995 in Budenovsk]. But no one spoke to those terrorists – at any rate, none of the top officials were on the scene. Perhaps, it was a kind of tactics, but the past has shown that this is an unsuccessful tactics of the war on terrorism and the attitude to citizens. It may make sense in Israel. The skills of terrorists are higher there, and the circumstances are different. It is under the Israelis' skin: hey know that the Palestinian terrorist is Israel's enemy. But what about this country? On the contrary, we are trying to say that the international terrorism is to blame, with some Chechen or Ingush factor. But it is indeed the continuation of the policy of the recognition or non-recognition of Chechnya, the form of protest and attempt to disrupt the current system. - Consequently, the Chechen question must be resolved so that nothing of the kind repeat? - Everyone has to be professional. Starting from ordinary bureaucrat up to the president and prime minister, and, mainly, defense and law enforcement agencies. Since neither Rashid Nurgaliev, nor Nikolay Patrushev [the interior minister and the FSB director, respectively] said a word – this is a failure of the system as well. - The same with Chechnya? - It goes without saying that we must give up the coercive approach to tacking the Chechnya problem. We must try and look for sound forces in all layers of society, but do not treat them as the federal centre treated Maskhadov. They either said he was the sole legitimate politician, or called him a bandit and eliminated him as a terrorist as a result. - You said the federal commission is dragging out the announcement of the probe's results … - It is not. It has approached the stage when one has to draw conclusions not about the technical process, but about the organization and politics. But different political forces are represented in the commission: former KGB and FSB officers would defend their subordinates, while people from the Interior Ministry will try and protect theirs. They have come up to the stage whey one has to call a spade spade. But how are they going to do it? It is unclear so far. - So you assume that the conclusions of the committee may be objective? - Yes, they may be objective. But the result depends on the testimony of Kulaev and what kind of questions the victims will ask him. The investigation team handed the court a kind of already-made case but it has already started to fall apart by the sole testimony of Kulaev. The victims pose the questions most painful for them, the ones the prosecutors did not ask. But one cannot establish the issue within a few days. - Has the tragedy in Beslan crossed out everything Dzasokhov did? - Not everything. It was rather that Beslan made it possible for Alexander Dzasokhov to resign with dignity. Dzasokhov is not to blame for the Beslan events. - Do you support the reproaches for Dzasokhov who did not enter the school as the terrorists demanded? - It is clear for me that he was banned from going there. It was done for him not to enter the list of hostages at least. Besides, the terrorists' position was that if officials start negotiating with them, then they are considered recognized as a state-important force. There was little Dzasokhov could do as an official. Yes, he is being reproached: you could have gone there and saved two lives. He had these thoughts too. I was a witness of it, I was near him. But he was told a firm "no", as this what the position of the state was. I would like to repeat that it was not his fault. - People in Beslan say that the state sacrificed the hostages for the sake of ideology. They say the state was not going to negotiate with terrorists, even if it was for the children. - I would not like to be more certain of it than I am now – yes, I believe so. It contradicts constitution principles, but I have little doubt it may have happened in this country. It does the state no credit that its citizens feel defenseless. by Olga Allenova KOMMERSANT Vlast, JUNE 24, 2005 http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.html?docId=585983 No One Is Admitting Responsibility Yury Savelyev, a member of the Federal Parliamentary Commission and State Duma deputy from the Rodina party, told Vlast correspondent Viktor Khamraev that parliamentarians have still not been able to find answers to the key questions [about the Beslan tragedy]. "Could the tragedy have been averted?" "You're asking about a key question that is still unanswered. We still don't know the real cause of the explosions that provoked the assault. It's unclear whether it was the first explosion or the second, which caused the roof to collapse, that took the lives of most of those who died on September 3. The information available to the commission is very contradictory. The investigation has still not established why the explosive device the terrorists suspended from the ceiling in the center of the gym went off. We've questioned two witnesses who were hostages and have seen one of the terrorists taking aim and shooting at the suspended explosives. At the same time, the only captured terrorist, Nurpasha Kulaev, told the court the explosion allegedly occurred because a sniper outside the school shot at the device. There is testimony that the explosive device was activated by a pedal the terrorists pressed as soon as they realized the assault had started." "But why does the commission need to know how they exploded it? Is this really the task of the parliamentary investigation?" "Yes, that too." "Many deputies believe that the purpose of the investigation is to establish a direct connection between the event and the actions of the authorities." "We are actually working on that – we're trying to identify a direct connection. We have the testimony of witnesses about an explosion. But we have other evidence, for example, on the use of a flame thrower against the terrorists. Either the explosion or the flame thrower could have caused the school to collapse, either from the blast wave or from a fire. At the same time, the official investigation has established two facts. First, the majority of people died because they were buried under the collapsed roof. Second, most died from burns, not from the blast. "So was a flame thrower used?" "The commission is inclined to believe that one was used. Our task now is to answer the question of the appropriateness of using flame throwers. It seems to me that this will be the only answer to questions that Beslan residents never stop asking us at each meeting." "What are these questions?" "Residents are convinced that preparatory work for the hostage-taking was going on during repairs at the school in August. Specifically, boxes with weapons were brought in and hidden in two locations – under the stage in the assembly hall and under the floor in the library. The terrorists armed themselves after bursting into the school. Four boys were witnesses; the Mothers' Committee of Beslan gave us their names. But only one gave evidence – the others refused. He told how the terrorists drove them into the assembly hall, how they tore up the floorboards and ordered the boys to crawl under the stage and retrieve the boxes. He told how the terrorists opened the boxes and described the contents in detail." "How old is the boy?" "He's young – 11 years old." "Can you trust his testimony?" "Judge for yourself. There were three of us from the commission. We talked with the boy in the presence of his father. Rather, Federation Council member Valery Fedorov, a former deputy interior minister, did most of the talking, and the conversation was conducted according to all the rules questioning. He repeatedly asked the boy; he asked him to repeat the same episode over and over again, deliberately frightening him. But the boy simply recounted what he had seen; he didn't notice the professionally laid traps and never once fell into them. What is most interesting is that Kulaev testified to the court that he had received weapons at the school." "What else do Beslan residents have doubts about?" "They don't believe that 32 terrorists could have arrived in one GAZ-66 car. Our commission asked the Prosecutor General's Office to conduct an investigative experiment. But unfortunately, none the residents were invited, which was justified by the fact the secrecy of the investigation did not permit the presence of outsiders was not allowed." "What did the experiment show?" "We have official assurances that 32 people in full military equipment can fit into one GAZ-66 if there are two benches inside. But the residents don't believe that. Just like they don't believe there were only 32 terrorists. In Beslan they claim that more than 20 terrorists left the school alive. And a number of facts that have no clear explanation play into their hands. For example, why did special forces, along with soldiers of the 58th army, go several dozen kilometers away at 3.00 in the morning to work out joint actions. So the road from the school towards the railway was unblocked. Residents suspected this was done especially so that the terrorists could get away. There's no direct proof, but there aren't any facts that would dispel these suspicions." "Why are Beslan residents disturbed about details such as the exact number of terrorists and what they arrived in?" "You have to understand that people don't believe the authorities, either local or supreme, and this is why they react sharply to any inaccuracy, vagueness, and incomplete information. To the people of Beslan, everything that seems like a minor detail to you is a sign of the authorities' insincerity. It's no accident that everyone who is now taking part in Kulaev's trial is asking him to tell only the truth, promising him to move for a pardon for this." "How did the authorities act during the terrorist attack?" "There were no coordinated actions at all on the first day. Aleksandr Dzasokhov, who was president of North Ossetia at the time, tried to do something on his own, the regional division of the Interior Ministry acted independently, and so did the FSB and the 58th army. An order from the government approved by FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev and the president arrived only at one o'clock in the afternoon on September 2; and then a unified headquarters commanded by Valery Andreev, the head of the regional FSB office appeared. Consultants arrived – generals Vladimir Anisimov and Vladimir Pronichev [the deputy director of the FSB] with experience in carrying out antiterrorist operations. Pronichev was the one in charge of the operation to free the hostages at Nord-Ost in the fall of 2002. But a unified headquarters should have appeared right on September 1, as the antiterrorist law requires. "Why was there more than a day's delay?" "We don't know yet. We're trying to find out." Have you been able to find out what the headquarters was preparing for – an assault or negotiations?" "I have the impression that the prospects of an assault were not discussed at the headquarters. They were working on the possibility of giving the terrorists passage so they could escape and leave the children. I know that Mikhail Gutseriev [the president of Russneft] held negotiations on this by telephone with the terrorists with the permission of the headquarters." "Why did everything end with an assault?" "It's not clear. The commission hasn't received intelligible explanations for the causes of the first explosion. There are suggestions that the insulation tape fastening the explosive device to the entrance to school was weakened by fire, which caused the explosion." "After the recent power outage in Moscow Anatoly Chubais, the CEO of RAO UES of Russia, immediately accepted responsibility for the emergency, and the Prosecutor General's Office instituted legal proceedings. No charges were brought against the heads of the power agencies after Beslan. Have any of them admitted responsibility or given testimony to the commission?" "We talked with everyone except the president, with whom we still have to meet. Not a single power structure has admitted or is admitting responsibility for what happened. During one of the meetings, Duma deputy General Arkady Baskaev, unable to contain himself, offered to personally drill holes in the dress uniforms of the siloviki under the decoration for Beslan." "Has anything struck you during the investigation?" "I was struck by the appalling brutality of the terrorists. I was struck by the fact that not a single terrorist was captured. Kulaev was caught and survived by accident. We have the testimony of one very respected person who claims that in Beslan, as at Nord-Ost, the order was given not to take a single terrorist alive. You would think it should be the reverse – take them alive in order to conduct an investigation. And I was also struck by the ease with which all the blame was attributed to international terrorism. Tell me, what motivation would international terrorism have for attacking the school in Beslan? None! The terrorists couldn't even make any demands." "Are you satisfied with the commission's work?" "No. Because the people in Beslan will be left extremely dissatisfied. They want to know the truth. And the truth for them is in only one question: who is guilty of killing the children? But our commission will probably not give an answer to that question." by Viktor Khamraev.