Press outrage over hostage drama

As Russians count the cost of the bloody hostage drama in North Ossetia, the country's press dissects every angle of the tragedy.

Some commentators question the official version of events and criticise coverage on state television, while others urge a policy rethink on Chechnya.

Many papers fear that ethnic conflicts in the North Caucasus will gain a new momentum, with some arguing that the West has much to gain from instability in the region.

All are outraged by the actions of the hostage-takers and believe they should face the harshest punishment.

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The storming

The school hostage drama in the Ossetian town of Beslan has ended in a blood-soaked tragedy, the like of which Russia has never known.

Dmitry Sokolov-Mitrich and Yaroslav Zorin in Gazeta

Nobody planned to storm the building... The terrorists had given permission to take away the bodies of hostages they had killed earlier... The rebels standing by the doors started doing something with the explosive devices there. These hellish devices went off unexpectedly.

Timofei Borisov in government daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta

Information released by the authorities was very little and to me unsatisfactory. I did not believe the official number of hostages, there were clearly more. But I do believe the official account of the storming. I do think it was unplanned.

Former Federal Security Service press spokesman Yury Kobaladze in Kommersant

Although I often oppose Putin's policy in Chechnya, I was convinced that the building should not be stormed. And I believe the official version.

Ekho Moskvy radio station chief editor Alexei Venediktov in Kommersant

Too much was hidden from us... Officials were blatantly lying when they said there were 354 people in the school and not about 1,000 - such precision! I am positive that the storming was planned... in this country people are regarded as cattle and the authorities will do anything to hold onto power.

exiled businessman Boris Berezovsky in Kommersant

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Silence

My God, how our valiant state television channels took fright and lost their heads... The action started at 1305. Our major state TV channels stayed silent for nearly an hour... Both channels finally ran news bulletins at 1400... Channel One broke the record - 10 minutes! Then, as if nothing was happening, it went back to a film, A woman in love. Meanwhile, women in Ossetia were fainting from horror, caressing their saved children.

Irina Petrovskaya in Izvestiya

The leaders of the federal security structures made no comment or statement to the media... Even their whereabouts remained unknown.

Unattributed article in Kommersant

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Policy rethink

If the reaction to Moscow's policy in Chechnya is a wave of terror, that means there is something wrong with that policy... In politics, strength means not pretending that one is always right, but acknowledging mistakes and adjusting policy in time.

Unattributed article in Gazeta

We need to rethink policy not only in relation to Chechnya but to terrorism as such.

Georgy Satarov in Rossiyskaya Gazeta

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Communal strife

Given that many of the hostage-takers... were Ingush, some experts are already warning that yesterday's bloody climax could lead to another spiral of communal strife. Indeed, the tradition of blood feuds remains extraordinarily powerful among both Ingush and Ossetians. And relations between the two peoples have not always been blue skies, to put it mildly.

Ivan Perebrodov in Gazeta

Beslan is in Ossetia, and the terrorists included many Ingush. The risk is now higher than ever of a new and powerful outburst of the North Caucasus's long-running ethnic conflict.

Unattributed article in Gazeta

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Great Game

The situation in North Ossetia needs to be viewed in the context of the growing battle for control of the Transcaucasus between Russia and the Anglo-Saxon powers... The Anglo-Saxons need to squeeze Russia out of the Transcaucasus, and to do that they need to destabilise the situation in the North Caucasus and in Russia in general.

Mikhail Alexandrov in Defence Ministry daily Krasnaya Zvezda

The terrorists act for those who want Russia out of the Caucasus.

Sergei Yuryev in Komsomolskaya Pravda

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Retribution

Those who organise and carry out acts of terrorism should receive the most irreversible, the harshest punishment.

Sergei Bogdanov in Krasnaya Zvezda

The terrorists call themselves shakhids, fighters for the faith. As a Chechen, I can say that these subhumans have no faith or nationality... They will be damned for all generations, both in this life and the afterlife... This cancer must be cut out with a red-hot iron. No mercy for terrorists.

Lema Kasayev in Rossiyskaya Gazeta

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.