Putin: Government cannot completely protect citizens
President Vladimir Putin acknowledged to a group of mothers from Beslan today that the Russian government could not guarantee complete security for its people in the face of terrorism.
But he said that was no excuse for government officials to have allowed such a terrible tragedy as last year’s school hostage seizure to take place.
In brief televised remarks, he told a delegation of mothers and other relatives of victims from the grief-stricken southern town that no country in the world could provide such protection – much less one, like Russia, that has undergone so many wrenching changes in the past few decades.
“I must say immediately, I agree with those who believe that the state is not in a condition to provide for the security of its citizens to the necessary degree,” Putin said.
He noted that other countries, such as the US and Britain, have also suffered huge terrorist attacks and suggested that their law enforcement bodies, too, were in part responsible for attacks on their own territory.
