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RIA Novosti
September 16, 2004
WHY PUNISH THE GOVERNORS FOR BESLAN?

PARIS (columnist Angela Charlton for RIA Novosti) -- Russians need
protection from the child-killers of Beslan. President Vladimir Putin wants
to protect them from their local governors.

Putin’s proposal Monday to appoint governors and purge the State Duma of
independent deputies puzzles observers. He already enjoys overwhelming
support in the Duma and the loyalty of most regional leaders; his new
reforms will radically alter the political landscape without gaining him
much personal ground.

More perplexing, however, is what this proposal has to do with fighting
terrorism. Russia is a vast, powerful country in mourning after its worst
terrorist attack, and needs strong leadership with bold security solutions.
It needs details about what happened at Beslan and aggressive investigation
of who seized the school and why.

Putin’s main solution so far is to shore up the “power vertical,” which he
calls key to keeping the country under control in the face of terrorism.
Yet his efforts at imposing control during his five years in power ­ which
have succeeded in most other spheres -- have only emboldened terrorists.
There is little reason to hope his latest reforms will subdue them.
Emasculating democratic institutions will not make hostage-takers vanish.

The horror of Beslan presents Russia with a rich opportunity to learn from
the mistakes of U.S. President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The mighty U.S. army’s failure to root out terrorism in Afghanistan and
Iraq should serve as a warning to the Russian generals who threaten to
strike terrorist bases abroad, even as their soldiers remain underfed.

Many of Bush’s domestic policies, such as installing prisoners at
Guantanamo, have deeply discredited him, and may cost him re-election. Bush
was more successful in increasing executive powers and police authority and
restricting immigration. Yet if he had proposed firing all U.S. governors,
he would have provoked a civil war.

Russians will not revolt against Putin’s latest reforms. Some will grumble,
but most will continue to support their president. And they will await the
next Beslan.

Most Russians believe their country’s deepest problem today lies not with
the governor of Chukotka or with vague “outside forces” seeking to rupture
Russia, as Putin suggested during the school hostage crisis. It lies in
Chechnya.

Clearly, Chechnya’s terrorists have international connections. Putin is
wise to seek international help and cooperation in severing those ties.

The president also rightly recognized that the North Caucasus region needs
help fighting poverty and promised more bureaucratic resources for the
region. Improving the economy of the North Caucasus is crucial, but it
should be just the beginning of a broader strategic shift.

Putin’s proposals stand little chance of success without a radical new
approach to Chechnya and the foreign terrorists who have joined the
republic’s fiercest fighters ­ an approach as radical as his political reform.

The world wants Russia to be safe from terrorism. Tearful American families
sat glued to their televisions as the school was taken hostage. Italians
took to the streets in solidarity with Beslan’s mourners. French mothers
fretted over the crisis as they waited for their children to emerge from
the first day of school.

Western voices continue to urge negotiations with Chechens, and a greater
degree of autonomy, but ultimately this is not a question for the West to
decide. This is Russia’s dilemma. And with power increasingly concentrated
in the hands of one man, Russia and the rest of the world will look to
Vladimir Putin for the solution.

(The comments of the author do not necessarily reflect those of this news
agency.)