Putin: Beslan and Dubrovka hostage crises were greatest experienced tragedies
VLADIVOSTOK. April 26 (Interfax) - President Vladimir Putin regards the hostage crises at Dubrovka theater center in Moscow and in Beslan the gravest moments of his presidency.
"They were horrible terrorist acts, of course. Beslan, the Dubrovka center. If you are asking about the tragedies, these are probably the very gravest [moments] that our people as a whole had to go through," he said on "President", a film aired by Russia 1 TV channel.
The seizure of the Dubrovka theater center "was an unprecedented terror attack," Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said in the film. "I kept Putin informed round-the-clock. He did not leave his office all this time," Patrushev recalled.
"Many thought that neutralizing the terrorists was the main task. No. What mattered most to us was saving the people," he said.
Ex-prime minister Yevgeny Primakov recalled that he met with the terrorists' leader Barayev after he arrived at the Dubrovka theater center and asked him to free women and children.
"He said to me, 'If no order is issued to remove the troops from Chechnya I will kill one hostage every half hour, starting 10 a.m.," Primakov said.
Primakov then met with the president. "Of course, he was anxious. But he did not tell me that an assault would be launched at 4 a.m.," he said.
Putin was going through very many dramatic moments for someone in office for such a short time, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said.
"No president in any other country has ever gone through such a trial. Each such trial was a heavy burden on the president's shoulders, and on his heart and mind," Shoigu said.