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Moscow Times
September 3, 2004
Leadership Is Paralyzed in Face of Terror: Press
By Valeria Korchagina
Staff Writer

The country's entire population has been taken hostage and its leaders cannot do anything about it, Russian newspapers concluded Thursday in their coverage of the recent terrorist attacks.

"We need to change the way law enforcement and the security services operate," Izvestia managing editor Georgy Bovt wrote in a front-page commentary titled "The Moment of Truth for Putin's Presidency."

"Throwing money at the problem won't help," he said. "These agencies must be held publicly accountable for their performance."

Bovt said that unless hostage-takers at a school in North Ossetia miraculously release everyone, President Vladimir Putin is facing a lose-lose situation: to strike a deal to free the hostages, which would show that the authorities are weak, or storm the school and risk the lives of hundreds of people.

While devoting extensive coverage to the details of the unfolding hostage drama, many newspapers questioned the nation's ability to counter terrorism.

Gazeta, which dedicated nearly its entire issue to the recent terror attacks, called for Russia to adopt the tactics of Israeli special services -- "hunting down" and "destroying" all people linked to terrorism.

"145 Million Hostages" read a headline in Russky Kuryer, which wrote that no one is safe in Russia any more.

The newspaper said the authorities can do nothing to protect citizens because they lack a clear and workable strategy to counter terrorism.

A number of newspapers polled politicians about what should be done to stop terrorism, but none was able to provide any particularly helpful advice.

Vitaly Tretykov, a former Nezavisimaya Gazeta editor who now writes a column for Rossiiskaya Gazeta, expressed concern over the public's general ignorance about terrorism and reluctance to personalize the recent events.

"There is a feeling that if Russian media did not cover the terrorist attack in such detail, no one but the relatives would care," he said.

Tretykov suggested that Russia look to France, where large protests spilled into the streets this week after two French journalists were taken hostage in Iraq. That hostage-taking has unified a nation divided over a controversial law banning Muslim headscarves in schools.

"Russian society appears to have fully accepted the inevitability of terrorism and the fact that 100 or 200 people must be sacrificed once every three months," Tretykov said.

"Indeed, there is no panic. But there is also no readiness to stop the growing evil."

Bovt cautioned that even though there are signs of indifference, "this doesn't mean that a huge wave of protest isn't building up that sooner or later will spill out to the street, first as pogroms against people from the Caucasus and then as anti-government protests."

"No presidential job approval numbers will stem that tide," he added, referring to Putin's consistently high ratings.

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