Russia says it underplayed school crisis

‘‘At such moments,’’ anchor Sergei Brilyov declared, ‘‘society needs the truth.’’ The admission of an effort to minimise the magnitude of a hostage crisis that ensnared about 1,200 people—most of them children—marked a sharp turnabout for the government of President Vladimir Putin.

‘‘It doesn’t suit our President,’’ a Kremlin political consultant, Gleb Pavlovsky, said on the show. ‘‘Lies, which really acted in the terrorists’ favour, did not suit him at all. Lies were weakening us and making the terrorists more violent.’’

The broadcast included no apology and referred only to the most blatant misstatement by officials, the claim that 354 hostages were inside the school.

It did not acknowledge the hostage takers had demanded an end to the war in Chechnya or that the government continues to give conflicting information about whether any of the guerrillas remain at large, who they were and how many were killed.

Nor did it mention that many residents of Beslan have been outraged that the government now appears to be understating the death toll, which stood officially at 338 Sunday night although nearly 200 people are still unaccounted for.

As for the hostage-takers, Deputy Prosecutor General Sergei Fridinsky said authoritatively on Saturday there were 26 of them, and all had been killed.

Yesterday, Fridinsky said there were 32—30 of them dead—and bragged about the capture of one ‘‘member of the gang’’ to be charged in court today. Two days after the President vowed in a televised address to take unspecified new security measures in response to the killing of ‘‘defenceless children,’’ the Kremlin was silent on what those steps would be.

Sergei Markov, a political analyst close to the Kremlin, said it had been clear that the government had engaged in a clumsy cover-up. ‘‘Everybody understands they are lying,’’ he said. ‘‘Everybody can do the math and know there were more than 1,000 people inside the school.’’

Pavlovsky said Putin had given Russia’s political system ‘‘a no-confidence vote’’ for its handling of the crisis.

Such statements could never be aired unless the Kremlin directly ordered them, according to political analysts here. ‘‘Nothing happens on Rossiya television without the permission of the Kremlin,’’ said commentator Andrei Piontkovsky.

In Beslan, many residents have directed their anger not only at Putin but at regional leader Alexander Dzasokhov.

‘‘I fully understand my responsibility,’’ said Dzasokhov, the president of North Ossetia, the region near Chechnya where Beslan is located.

‘‘I want to beg your pardon for failing to protect children, teachers and parents.’’

At the Beslan House of Culture, a gathering point for families throughout the crisis, volunteers taking names said the list of missing stood at 190 as of Sunday afternoon.

Many families have left not only names but snapshots, such as one of a little girl celebrating New Year’s wearing a snow princess dress and surrounded by boys in white rabbit costumes.

All along Beslan’s Pervomaiskaya (1st of May) Street, they were burying the dead yesterday. —(LAT-WP)