VLADIMIR PUTIN is facing the greatest crisis of confidence in his leadership since he came to power nearly five years ago, as a shocked nation demands to know why the authorities failed to prevent the Beslan tragedy.

As further details emerged that suggested corrupt and incompetent security forces may have contributed to the disaster, the normally confident Kremlin leader seemed uncharacteristically unsure of what to say and do. His confusion recalled his much-criticised leadership four years ago after the sinking of the submarine Kursk, when the Kremlin’s dithering cost the lives of Russian sailors.

Mr Putin fleetingly visited Beslan early on Saturday. He addressed the nation a full 24 hours after the chaotic storming of the school. He began: “It’s difficult to speak and it’s bitter . . . Each of us has suffered profoundly and experienced in our hearts everything which happened in the Russian town of Beslan.”

Mr Putin took some responsibility for the atrocity. “We showed weakness and weak people are trampled on,” he said, suggesting that security forces were planning yet another assault on the Chechen separatists blamed for the attack. But he failed to mention Chechnya at all in his brief remarks and suggested that Russia was now being confronted with an international terrorist threat rather than a simple Chechen rebellion.

Mr Putin has a huge task to win back public confidence rattled not only by the atrocities in Beslan, but also by explosions last week aboard two passenger jets and a third outside a Moscow metro station.

In his address Mr Putin said: “On the whole we have failed to recognise the complexity and dangerous nature of the processes taking place in our own country and the world in general. In any case we have failed to respond to them properly.

“We must create a more effective security system and demand from our law-enforcement bodies actions which are appropriate to the level and scale of the new threats that have emerged.”

He then announced a three-pronged plan to improve security, including a tightening of border controls, which he said had been left dangerously exposed after the Soviet Union’s collapse.

THE FACTS

Q What’s the death toll?
The first official statement said seven, adding that “all the hostages had been freed”. The latest figure is 350 and climbing. There are 434 still in hospital

Q How many hostages were there?
The Russian authorities spoke initially of 350. The true figure was more than 1,000

Q How many terrorists were involved?
The Russians say “all” 35 terrorists have been killed but there are fears that a few may have got away

Q Who were the terrorists?
Moscow claims that at least ten hostage-takers were Arabs, implying an al-Qaeda connection. But there is no proof that anyone other than Chechens were involved. The siege leaders were believed to be Doku Umarov and Magomet Yevloyiev, both Chechens

Q How did the terrorists get into Beslan so easily?
They boasted that they had bribed checkpoints and posed as builders to conceal bombs and guns under school floorboards earlier

Q What triggered the shoot-out on Friday?
Still unclear. Some of the children tried to escape when they saw a vehicle approaching

Q Were the bombs set off in error?
It is far more likely that it was a deliberate response from the terrorists to changing events

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