Russia bites back after siege

By Steven Eke
BBC correspondent in Moscow

The showing by the NTV channel of the video footage from Beslan's School Number One came as a complete surprise.

The images of the hostages in the school gym have heightened the profound sense of outrage. The sense of horror could hardly be stronger than it already is.

Did the Kremlin sanction the showing of the video?

There are questions about NTV's showing of the recording. How did a television channel - and not state investigators - come to be in possession of it? Was the decision to screen it taken on editorial merit? Or because an instruction to do so had come "from above"?

There are no answers yet. But some have already concluded that, given the degree of state control over television, such images would not have appeared, had they not received official sanction.

If that is the case, how do they fit into the general picture of the government's attempt to shape coverage of the aftermath of the siege?

The huge turnout at Tuesday's rallies was a big boost to the Kremlin. Questions about the roots of terrorism and the clumsy handling of the siege were put aside. The nation wanted to show its solidarity and to share a common grief.

Even though the demonstrations were officially staged, and a proportion of those present told to attend by their places of work or study, emotions were both raw and genuine.

Hope for results

Now, attention is switching to the "concrete measures" to boost national security promised by Vladimir Putin.

The FSB, Russia's internal security service, has offered a $10m reward for anyone providing information that leads to the arrest of Chechnya's former president, Aslan Maskhadov, and the field commander, Shamil Basayev.

Russia has been searching for Basayev and Maskhadov for years

This country has one of the biggest armies, and some of the most bloated police forces and intelligence services in the world. And yet, apparently, they have spent nearly five years of the "anti-terror operation" in Chechnya (in other words, the second Chechen war) searching, fruitlessly, for these two individuals.

Perhaps this time, the reward will bring results.

At the same time, the Russian Chief of Staff, General Yuri Baluyevsky, has revived the notion of Russia carrying out "preventive strikes".

Car bomb

President Putin has promised them before - after the Moscow theatre siege of October 2002.

One "pilot" preventive strike has already been carried out, with the assassination in Qatar earlier this year by Russian intelligence agents of Zelimkhan Yanderbiyev.

Mr Yanderbiyev was once the "acting president" of separatist Chechnya, who oversaw its radicalisation and helped forge links with the Taleban.

Mr Yanderbiyev was despatched by car bomb. But the operation went partly wrong - two agents got caught and were subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment by a local court.

Russians have rarely been blessed with leaders who valued the opinion of the man in the street. Despite the Soviet-style demonstration and articles on the "heroic" special forces, not one senior official in Moscow, from the president down, has said sorry to the parents of Beslan.

But the tough talk goes down well with ordinary Russians. They are deeply upset and disturbed by the massacre in North Ossetia. They distrust their own government. But many are also furious at what they say is the West's refusal to believe Russia when it comes to questions of international terrorism.