Vladimir Ustinov: Vladimir Vladimirovich, good day. I would like to begin with the materials that we have today.
Vladimir Putin: That were gathered recently.
Vladimir Ustinov: Yes. They are based on the testimonies of victims, testimony of the arrested terrorist Kulaev, and the expert examinations that we have already carried out in part today. They have not been completed yet, but the picture we have is as follows.
Immediately before the attack on the school, the band of terrorists near a village in the forest. According to Kulaev’s estimate, there were about 30 people. Two of them were women. In three vehicles – a GAZ-66, a UAZ and a VAZ-2110 – they drove to Beslan, where they arrived early in the morning. Before they arrived, they already had a clash with a district police officer, which we already reported (this was reported in the media). They arrived in Beslan, and drove into the schoolyard, where on the command of their leader, known as the “colonel”, they got out of the vehicles, and surrounded the schoolchildren and adults there. Then, at the command of the “colonel”, they unloaded the weapons and explosives that they had brought with them in these vehicles. There was a very large amount of explosions and weapons. Then one of the rebels, known as Abdul-Malek, took several people and put them on stools in the gymnasium. Some rebels were unhappy about this and asked: “Why did we capture a school?” According to testimony by Kulaev, the “colonel” shot one of the rebels to frighten them, and said that he would do this to anyone who did not obey – hostages and terrorists alike. Later on that day, 1 September, the “colonel” blew up the two female suicide bombers by pressing a button, in order to frighten both the terrorists and hostages.
Vladimir Putin: Did he do this himself?
Vladimir Ustinov: Yes. This is confirmed both by witnesses and Kulaev. Later that day, the school was thoroughly mined. Three people took part in this, the “colonel” and two of his assistants. The mining was carried out with a good knowledge of engineering, which is shown by the enormous area that they mined. The explosion button was put under a terrorist’s foot, i.e. if he stepped off this button there would automatically be an explosion. This shows that they were very ready to commit this terrorist act. There were constant threats made to the hostages and terrorists, that they would die anyway and that there was one goal – to carry out this terrorist act. And eventually, after two days, when they began to re-organise the system of explosives – they changed it for some reason – there was an explosion. Panic began inside, and many hostages tried to escape. The rebels opened fire. The courage of our soldiers who stood between the rebels and children and adults is incredible.
The losses that we have from this terrorist act are huge. According to our information, there were over 1,200 hostages. 727 people have undergone treatment, or are still undergoing treatment. The figure for the number of dead is so far 326, of which 210 have been identified. 32 body parts have also been found, and experts are currently working on this. Unfortunately, the information on the losses is not final, and this figure may increase.
As for the rebels, they have been completely destroyed. One of them is alive, and is currently under investigation. Investigate measures are being conducted with him. One body was blown up, and we found small fragments of it. So all 32 rebels have now been neutralized, and eight of them have been identified. There are now 60 investigators and over 130 expert examinations. There are ballistic, explosion, fire and examinations. There are also 180 medical examinations underway. That is all that I can say at the moment about the investigation.