Beslan school siege#Long-term effects

File:RussiaNorthOssetia-Highlight.png on a map of Russia]]

School No. 1 was one of seven schools in Beslan, a town of about 35,000 people in the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania in Russia's Caucasus. The school, located next to the district police station, housed approximately 60 teachers and more than 800 students. Its gymnasium, where most of the hostages were held for 52 hours, was a recent addition, measuring {{Convert|10|m|ft}} wide and {{Convert|25|m|ft}} long. There were reports that men disguised as repairmen had smuggled weapons and explosives into the school during July 2004, a fact that the authorities later denied; however, several witnesses have since testified they were forced to help their captors remove the weapons from caches hidden in the school.[http://www.jamestown.org/programs/chinabrief/single/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=30567&tx_ttnews[backPid]=195&no_cache=1 Kulaev trial further erodes official version of Beslan] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130929131328/http://www.jamestown.org/programs/chinabrief/single/?tx_ttnews& |date=29 September 2013}}, The Jamestown Foundation, 22 June 2005.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5302448.stm Beslan still a raw nerve for Russia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120520112414/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5302448.stm |date=20 May 2012}}, BBC News, 1 September 2006. There were also claims that a "sniper's nest" on the sports-hall roof had been set up in advance.[https://web.archive.org/web/20081228051450/http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=7575 The 2002 Dubrovka and 2004 Beslan Hostage Crises: A Critique of Russian Counter-Terrorism], Prospect, July 2006.

{{See also|Timeline of the Beslan school siege}}

File:Chechnya and Caucasus.png]]

The attack on the school took place on 1 September, the traditional start of the Russian school year, referred to as "First Bell" or Knowledge Day.{{cite web|url=http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/stories/stories.cfm?psid=166&sid=2 |title=Mr. John and the Day of Knowledge |publisher=Peace Corps |access-date=27 March 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061003160656/http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/stories/stories.cfm?psid=166&sid=2 |archive-date=3 October 2006}} On this day, children, accompanied by their parents and other relatives, attend ceremonies hosted by their school.[http://petersburgcity.com/city/photos/holidays/1september/ St. Petersburg in Pictures: The First of September – the Day of Knowledge] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928051701/http://petersburgcity.com/city/photos/holidays/1september/ |date=28 September 2007}}, City of St. Petersburg Because of the Knowledge Day festivities, the number of people in the schools was considerably higher than normal. Early in the morning, a group of several dozen heavily armed Islamic nationalist guerrillas left a forest encampment located in the vicinity of the village of Psedakh in the neighbouring Republic of Ingushetia, east of North Ossetia and west of war-torn Chechnya. The terrorists wore green military camouflage and black balaclava masks, and in some cases were also wearing explosive belts and explosive underwear. On the way to Beslan, on a country road near the North Ossetian village of Khurikau, they captured an Ingush police officer, Major Sultan Gurazhev.[https://web.archive.org/web/20120910131207/http://www.jamestown.org/programs/nca/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D%3D2032%26tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D%3D186%26no_cache%3D1#91;tt_news]=2032&tx_ttnews[backPid]=186&no_cache=1 Officials evade responsibility as death toll remains in doubt], The Jamestown Foundation, 6 October 2004. Gurazhev was left in a vehicle after the terrorists had reached Beslan and then ran toward the schoolyardBeslan: The Tragedy of School No. 1 {{ISBN|978-1-862-07993-9}} p. 23 and went to the district police department to inform them of the situation, adding that his duty handgun and badge had been taken.[http://www.kommersant.com/p502645/r_1/Storm_Warnings/ Storm Warnings // Relatives of the Hostages Swear They Won’t Let the Special Forces into the School] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090103061443/http://www.kommersant.com/p502645/r_1/Storm_Warnings/ |date=3 January 2009}}, Kommersant, 3 September 2004.

At 09:11 local time, the terrorists arrived at Beslan in a GAZelle police van and a GAZ-66 military truck. Many witnesses and independent experts claim that there were two groups of attackers, and that the first group was already at the school when the second group arrived by truck. At first, some at the school mistook the militants for Russian special forces practicing a security drill.{{cite news|date=5 September 2004 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/09/05/wosse105.xml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060721081627/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2004%2F09%2F05%2Fwosse105.xml |archive-date=21 July 2006 |title=One little boy was shouting: 'Mama!' She couldn't hear him. She was dead |work=The Daily Telegraph |access-date=28 July 2006 |location=London |url-status=dead}} However, the attackers soon began shooting in the air and forcing everyone from the school grounds into the building. During the initial chaos, up to 50 people managed to flee and alert authorities about the situation.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3616868.stm Attackers storm Russian school] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120418113615/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3616868.stm |date=18 April 2012}}, BBC News, 1 September 2004. A number of people also managed to hide in the boiler room.[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/05/russia.chechnya When hell came calling at Beslan's School No 1] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726200904/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/05/russia.chechnya |date=26 July 2020}}, The Guardian, 5 September 2004. After an exchange of gunfire against the police and an armed local civilian, in which reportedly one attacker was killed and two were wounded, the militants seized the school building.[http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article309416.ece How Beslan is coping one year on] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930214032/http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article309416.ece |date=30 September 2007}}, The Independent, 10 September 2007. Reports of the death toll from this shootout ranged from two to eight people, while more than a dozen people were injured.

The attackers took approximately 1,100 hostages.[https://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-12-27-school-siege_x.htm Prosecutors clear authorities in Russian school siege] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110623060900/http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-12-27-school-siege_x.htm |date=23 June 2011}}, USA Today, 27 December 2005. The number of hostages was initially downplayed by the government to the 200–400 range, and then for an unknown reason announced to be exactly 354. In 2005, the government's total was put at 1,128. The militants herded their captives into the school's gym and confiscated all of their mobile phones under threat of death.{{cite news|date=26 August 2005 |url=http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=15341 |title=Beslan Children Testify |work=The St. Petersburg Times |access-date=28 July 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060519085616/http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=15341 |archive-date=19 May 2006}} They ordered the hostages to speak in Russian and only when first spoken to. When a father named Ruslan Betrozov stood to calm people and repeated the rules in the local language of Ossetic, a gunman approached him, asked Betrozov if he was done, and then shot him in the head. Another father named Vadim Bolloyev, who refused to kneel, was also shot by a captor and then bled to death. Their bodies were dragged from the sports hall, leaving a trail of blood later visible in the video made by the terrorists.

After gathering the hostages in the gym, the attackers singled out 15–20 adults who they thought were the strongest among the male teachers, school employees and fathers, and took them into a corridor next to the cafeteria on the second floor, where an explosive belt on one of the female bombers detonated, killing another female bomber (it was also claimed the second woman died from a bullet wound)[http://www.commersant.com/p-1753/r_500/Russians_are_Coming/ Russians are Coming] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722072648/http://www.commersant.com/p-1753/r_500/Russians_are_Coming/ |date=22 July 2011}}, Kommersant, 9 September 2004. and several of the selected hostages, as well as mortally injuring one male terrorist.{{cite news|date=1 June 2005|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/government-snipers-triggered-beslan-bloodbath-court-told-1.568416|title=Government snipers triggered Beslan bloodbath, court told|publisher=CBC News|access-date=14 February 2007|archive-date=31 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131231041442/http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/government-snipers-triggered-beslan-bloodbath-court-told-1.568416|url-status=live}} The surviving hostages from this group were then ordered to lie down and were shot with an automatic rifle by another gunman; all but one of them were killed.[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/27/AR2005082701157_pf.html School Is Symbol of Death for Haunted Children of Beslan] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304210441/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/27/AR2005082701157_pf.html |date=4 March 2016}}, The Washington Post, 28 August 2005.{{cite news|date=2 September 2004|url=http://www.utro.ru/news/2004/09/02/346560.shtml|title=The insurgents, who have taken a school in Beslan, have shot fifteen hostages|publisher=YTRU|access-date=13 August 2006|language=ru|archive-date=20 September 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050920142255/http://www.utro.ru/news/2004/09/02/346560.shtml|url-status=live}}{{cite web|date=3 September 2004|url=https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-kmurphy090304_latpul-story.html|title=Killers Set Terms, a Mother Chooses|work=Los Angeles Times/Pulitzer Prize|access-date=28 July 2006|url-status=live|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060925105631/http://www.pulitzer.org/year/2005/international-reporting/works/murphy3.html |archive-date = 25 September 2006}}[http://www.caucasustimes.com/article.asp?id=3849 Hostages murder detailed report] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040928200816/http://www.caucasustimes.com/article.asp?id=3849 |date=28 September 2004}}, Caucasus Times, 2 September 2004. Karen Mdinaradze, the FC Alania team cameraman, survived the explosion as well as the shooting; when discovered to be still alive, he was allowed to return to the sports hall, where he lost consciousness.{{cite web|date=17 September 2004 |url=http://www.newsru.com/russia/17Sep2004/story_print.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071018161019/http://newsru.com/russia/17Sep2004/story_print.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=18 October 2007 |title=Бывший заложник Беслана рассказал NEWSru.com, что уже после штурма пропали живые дети |work=NEWSru.com |access-date=14 February 2007 |language=ru}} The militants then forced other hostages to throw the bodies out of the building and to wash the blood off the floor. One of these hostages, Aslan Kudzayev, escaped by jumping out of the window; the authorities briefly detained him as a suspected terrorist.

File:Beslan hostage crisis initial plan.svg

A security cordon was soon established around the school, consisting of the Russian police (militsiya), Internal Troops, Russian Army forces, Spetsnaz (including the elite Alpha and Vympel units of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB)), and the OMON special units of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD). A line of three apartment buildings facing the school gym was evacuated and taken over by the special forces. The perimeter that they made was within {{convert|225|m}} of the school, inside the range of the militants' grenade launchers. No firefighting equipment was in position and, despite the previous experiences of the 2002 Moscow theater hostage crisis, there were few ambulances ready. The chaos was worsened by the presence of Ossetian volunteer militiamen (opolchentsy) and armed civilians among the crowds who had gathered at the scene,[https://web.archive.org/web/20090103173528/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_20040905/ai_n12759334 The Beslan Massacre: `Accidental' bomb blast was trigger for], Independent on Sunday, 5 September 2004. altogether totaling perhaps as many as 5,000.

The attackers mined the gym and the rest of the building with improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and surrounded it with tripwires. In a further bid to deter rescue attempts, they threatened to kill 50 hostages for every one of their own members killed by the police, and to kill 20 hostages for every gunman injured. They also threatened to blow up the school if government forces attacked. To avoid being overwhelmed by a gas attack as were their comrades in the 2002 Moscow hostage crisis, insurgents quickly smashed the school's windows. The captors prevented hostages from eating and drinking (calling this a "hunger strike") until North Ossetia's president Alexander Dzasokhov would arrive to negotiate with them. However, the FSB set up its own crisis headquarters from which Dzasokhov was excluded, and threatened to arrest him if he tried to go to the school.

The Russian government announced that it would not use force to rescue the hostages, and negotiations toward a peaceful resolution took place on the first and second days, at first led by Leonid Roshal, a pediatrician whom the hostage-takers had reportedly requested by name. Roshal had helped negotiate the release of children in the 2002 Moscow siege, but had also given advice to the Russian security services as they prepared to storm the theatre, for which he received the Hero of Russia award; however, a witness statement indicated that the Russian negotiators confused Roshal with Vladimir Rushailo, a Russian security official.{{cite web|date=7 October 2005|url=http://news.rin.ru/eng/news_text/278/|title=Beslan terrorists confused Roshal with Rushailo|publisher=Russian Information Network|access-date=14 February 2007|archive-date=17 July 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717004448/http://news.rin.ru/eng/news_text/278/|url-status=live}} According to State Duma member Yuri Savelyev's report, the official ("civilian") headquarters sought a peaceful resolution while the secret ("heavy") headquarters set up by the FSB was preparing the assault. Savelyev wrote that, in many ways, the "heavies" restricted the actions of the "civilians", in particular in their attempts to negotiate with the militants.

At Russia's request, a special meeting of the United Nations Security Council was convened on the evening of 1 September 2004, at which the council members demanded "the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages of the terrorist attack."{{cite web|date=September 2002|url=https://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2004/sc8179.doc.htm|title=Security Council, in presidential statement, condemns hostage-taking|publisher=United Nations|access-date=14 February 2007|archive-date=21 November 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061121012319/http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2004/sc8179.doc.htm|url-status=live}} U.S. president George W. Bush made a statement offering "support in any form" to Russia.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3619610.stm Talks begin in school siege drama] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809125009/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3619610.stm |date=9 August 2020}}, BBC News, 2 September 2004.

On 2 September 2004, negotiations between Roshal and the militants proved unsuccessful, and they refused to allow food, water or medicine to be taken in for the hostages or for the dead bodies to be removed from the front of the school.{{cite web|date=June 2006|url=http://www.esquire.com/features/articles/2006/060610_mfe_June_06_School_4.html|title=The School|first=C.J. |last=Chivers |author-link=C. J. Chivers |work=Esquire|access-date=29 July 2006|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061111035701/http://www.esquire.com/features/articles/2006/060610_mfe_June_06_School_4.html|archive-date=11 November 2006|df=dmy-all}} At noon, FSB First Deputy Director Colonel General Vladimir Pronichev showed Dzasokhov a decree signed by prime minister Mikhail Fradkov appointing the North Ossetian FSB chief, Major General Valery Andreyev, as head of the operational headquarters.{{cite web|url=http://www.psan.org/document521.html |title=The Security Organs of the Russian Federation (Part IV) |access-date=3 March 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081016073713/http://www.psan.org/document521.html |archive-date=16 October 2008 |df=dmy}} Post-Soviet Armies Newsletter However, in April 2005 a Moscow News journalist received photocopies of the interview protocols of Dzasokhov and Andreyev by investigators, revealing that two headquarters had been formed in Beslan: a formal one, upon which was laid all responsibility, and a secret one ("heavies"), which made the real decisions, and at which Andreyev had never been in charge.[http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=3309 Report: Beslan HQ Was Run by Others] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070829210646/http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=3309 |date=29 August 2007}}, The St. Petersburg Times, 19 April 2005.

The Russian government downplayed the numbers, repeatedly stating there were only 354 hostages; this reportedly angered the hostage-takers, who further mistreated their captives.{{cite web|date=6 September 2004 |access-date= 11 April 2015|url=http://www.novayagazeta.ru/data/2004/65/00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929133729/http://www.novayagazeta.ru/data/2004/65/00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=29 September 2007|title=Lies provoked terrorists' aggression|work=Novaya Gazeta|language=ru}}{{cite web|date=18 October 2004 |access-date= 11 April 2015 |url=http://www.novayagazeta.ru/data/2004/77/14.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929111626/http://www.novayagazeta.ru/data/2004/77/14.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=29 September 2007|title=Vladimir Khodov: Where were the Arabs from? Where were the blacks from? And this number – 354 hostages...|work=Novaya Gazeta|language=ru}} Several officials also said there appeared to be only 15 to 20 militants in the school.[https://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/02/world/europe/insurgents-seize-school-in-russia-and-hold-scores.html?pagewanted=2 Insurgents seize school in Russia and hold scores] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200606201027/https://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/02/world/europe/insurgents-seize-school-in-russia-and-hold-scores.html?pagewanted=2 |date=6 June 2020}}, The New York Times, 2 September 2004. The crisis was met with a near-total silence from President of Russia Vladimir Putin and the rest of Russia's political leaders.{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60411-2004Sep3.html|title=Putin's Silence on Crisis Underscores Chilling Trend|last=E. Hoffman|first=David|date=4 September 2004|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=20 April 2018|archive-date=7 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171007093734/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A60411-2004Sep3.html|url-status=live}} Only on the second day did Putin make his first public comment on the siege during a meeting in Moscow with King Abdullah II of Jordan: "Our main task, of course, is to save the lives and health of those who became hostages. All actions by our forces involved in rescuing the hostages will be dedicated exclusively to this task." It was the only public statement by Putin about the crisis until one day after it ended. In protest, several people at the scene raised signs reading: "Putin! Release our children! Meet their demands!" and "Putin! There are at least 800 hostages!" The locals also said that they would not allow any storming or "poisoning of their children", an allusion to the Moscow hostage crisis chemical agent.

File:Beslan School Terror - terrorist 4 - Sept 1, 2004.jpg

In the afternoon, the gunmen allowed former president of Ingushetia Ruslan Aushev to enter the school building and agreed to personally release to him 11 nursing women and all 15 babies.{{cite news|date=21 January 2005 |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-video-of-beslan-school-terror/ |title=New Video Of Beslan School Terror |work=CBS News |access-date=29 July 2006 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060715060844/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/01/20/48hours/main668127.shtml |archive-date=15 July 2006}} The women's older children were left behind and one mother refused to leave, so Aushev carried out her youngest child instead. The terrorists gave Aushev a videotape made in the school and a note with demands from their purported leader, Shamil Basayev, who was not present in Beslan. The existence of the note was kept secret by Russian authorities, while the tape was declared as being empty (which was later proved incorrect). It was falsely announced that the militants had made no demands. In the note, Basayev demanded recognition of a "formal independence for Chechnya" in the framework of the Commonwealth of Independent States. He also said that although the Chechen separatists "had played no part" in the 1999 Russian apartment bombings, they would now publicly take responsibility for them if needed. Some Russian officials and state-controlled media later criticised Aushev for entering the school, accusing him of colluding with the terrorists.[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article559816.ece Beslan mothers tell Putin: stay away] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110917142628/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article559816.ece |date=17 September 2011}}, The Times, 28 August 2005.

The lack of food and water took a toll upon the young children, many of whom were forced to stand for long periods in the hot, tightly packed gym. Many children disrobed because of the sweltering heat in the gymnasium, which led to false rumors of sexual impropriety. Many children fainted, and parents feared that these children would die. Some hostages drank their own urine. Occasionally, the militants (many of whom took off their masks) took out some of the unconscious children and poured water on their heads before returning them to the sports hall. Later in the day, some adults also started to faint from fatigue and thirst. Because of the conditions in the gym, when the explosion and gun battle began on the third day, many of the surviving children were so fatigued that they were barely able to flee from the carnage.{{cite news|date=14 September 2004 |url=http://www.sptimes.ru/story/1546 |title=Boy in Hostage Videotape Recounts How He Survived the Beslan Ordeal |work=The St. Petersburg Times |access-date=29 July 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928003324/http://www.sptimes.ru/story/1546 |archive-date=28 September 2007}}

Around 15:30, two grenades were detonated by the militants against security forces outside the school approximately ten minutes apart,{{cite news|date=3 September 2004|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3621856.stm|title=Timeline: Russian school siege|work=BBC News|access-date=29 July 2006|archive-date=14 August 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080814031502/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3621856.stm|url-status=live}} setting a police car on fire and injuring one officer, but Russian forces did not return fire. As the day and night wore on, the combination of stress and sleep deprivation—and possibly drug withdrawal{{cite news|date=19 November 2004 |url=http://newsfromrussia.com/world/2004/10/19/56680.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041029080946/http://newsfromrussia.com/world/2004/10/19/56680.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=29 October 2004 |title=Drug addiction among the Beslan terrorists |publisher=Pravda Online |access-date=29 July 2006}}^{{{unreliable source?|date=December 2023}}}—made the hostage-takers increasingly hysterical and unpredictable. The crying of the children irritated them, and on several occasions crying children and their mothers were threatened that they would be shot if the crying did not cease. Russian authorities claimed that the terrorists had listened to German heavy metal group Rammstein on personal stereos during the siege to keep themselves "edgy and fired up". Rammstein had previously come under fire following the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, and again in 2007 after the Jokela High School shooting.{{cite news|date=18 October 2004 |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/beslan-hostagetakers-were-on-drugs-535298.html |title=Beslan hostage-takers 'were on drugs' |first=Andrew |last=Osborn |work=The Independent |access-date=14 February 2007 |location=London |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081216160409/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/beslan-hostagetakers-were-on-drugs-535298.html |archive-date=16 December 2008}}

Overnight, a police officer was injured by shots fired from the school. Talks were broken off, resuming the next day.[http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/09/94e355d2-b747-4ee3-ab9d-28a2cbe53429.html Russia: Recounting The Beslan Hostage Siege – A Chronology] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080706230242/http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/09/94e355d2-b747-4ee3-ab9d-28a2cbe53429.html |date=6 July 2008}}, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 9 September 2004.

Early on the third day, Ruslan Aushev, Alexander Dzasokhov, Taymuraz Mamsurov (North Ossetia's parliament chairman) and First Deputy Chairman Izrail Totoonti together made contact with the president of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Aslan Maskhadov.[https://web.archive.org/web/20090501201032/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,695816,00.html "Communication Breakdown"], Time, 12 September 2004. Totoonti said that both Maskhadov and his Western-based emissary Akhmed Zakayev declared that they were ready to fly to Beslan to negotiate with the militants, which was later confirmed by Zakayev.[http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/09/06/014.html Zakayev Was Asked to Assist in Negotiations at the School] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070327155019/http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/09/06/014.html |date=27 March 2007}}, The Moscow Times, 6 September 2004. Totoonti said that Maskhadov's sole demand was his unhindered passage to the school; however, the assault began one hour after the agreement for his arrival was made.[https://web.archive.org/web/20120910131227/http://www.jamestown.org/programs/nca/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D%3D3112%26tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D%3D188%26no_cache%3D1#91;tt_news]=3112&tx_ttnews[backPid]=188&no_cache=1 New details emerge on Maskhadov's bid to mediate in Beslan], The Jamestown Foundation, 6 January 2006. He also mentioned that, for three days, journalists from Al Jazeera television offered to participate in the negotiations and enter the school, even as hostages, but were told "their services were not needed by anyone."[http://www.kommersant.com/p638055/r_1/Who_Should_We_Kill_Now_Zarema?/ Who Should We Kill Now, Zarema?] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090103062949/http://www.kommersant.com/p638055/r_1/Who_Should_We_Kill_Now_Zarema?%2F |date=3 January 2009}}, Kommersant, 24 December 2005.

Russian presidential advisor, former police general and ethnic Chechen Aslambek Aslakhanov was also said to be close to a breakthrough in the secret negotiations. By the time that he left Moscow on the second day, Aslakhanov had accumulated the names of more than 700 well-known Russian figures who were volunteering to enter the school as hostages in exchange for the release of the children. Aslakhanov said that the hostage-takers agreed to allow him to enter the school the next day at 15:00. However, the storming had begun two hours before.

File:Beslan school rough plan.svg

File:Beslan-school-hostage-crisis.jpg during the second day of the crisis (a frame from the Aushev tape)]]

Around 13:00 on 3 September, the militants allowed four Ministry of Emergency Situations medical workers in two ambulances to remove 20 bodies from the school grounds, and to bring the corpse of the killed terrorist to the school. However, at 13:03, when the paramedics approached the school, an explosion in the gymnasium was heard. The terrorists then opened fire on the paramedics, killing two. The other two took cover behind their vehicle.

The second explosion, described as "strange-sounding", was heard 22 seconds later. At 13:05, a fire started on the roof of the gymnasium, and soon the burning rafters and parts of the roof fell onto the hostages below, many of whom were injured but still alive. Eventually, the entire roof collapsed, filling the room with fire. The flames reportedly killed some 160 people, more than half of the total hostage fatalities.

There are several conflicting opinions regarding the source and nature of the explosions:

• According to the December 2005 report by Stanislav Kesayev, deputy speaker of the North Ossetian parliament, some witnesses said that a federal-forces sniper had shot a militant whose foot was on a dead man's switch detonator, triggering the first blast. The captured terrorist Nur-Pashi Kulayev has testified to this, while a local policewoman and hostage named Fatima Dudiyeva said that she was shot in the hand "from outside" just before the explosion[https://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/29/international/europe/29cnd-russia.html Russian Report Faults Rescue Efforts in Beslan] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240312122358/https://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/29/international/europe/russian-report-faults-rescue-efforts-in-beslan.html |date=12 March 2024}}, The New York Times, 29 November 2005. and that there were three blasts: two small explosions at 13:03 followed by a larger one at 13:29.[http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=16329 Kesayev Report Points a Finger in Beslan] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070817220237/http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=16329 |date=17 August 2007}}, The St. Petersburg Times, 9 December 2005.
• According to the State Duma member Yuri Savelyev, a weapons and explosives expert, the exchange of gunfire did not begin with explosions inside the school building, but with two shots fired from outside the school{{cite web | url=http://www.novayagazeta.ru/inquests/65063.html | title=Беслан: 10 лет после теракта | publisher=Novaya Gazeta | date=1 September 2014 | access-date=2 July 2015 | author=Yelena Milashina | archive-date=26 March 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170326172807/https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2014/09/01/60949-beslan-10-let-posle-terakta | url-status=live}} and most of the homemade explosive devices installed by the terrorists did not explode at all. He said that the first shot was most likely fired from an RPO-A Shmel infantry rocket on the roof of the nearby five-story building at No. 37, School Lane, and aimed at the gymnasium's attic, while the second was fired from an RPG-27 grenade launcher located at No. 41 on the same street, and destroyed part of the gym wall. Empty shells and launchers were found on the roofs of these houses, and alternative weapons mentioned in the report were RPG-26 or RPG-7 rocket-propelled grenades.{{cite web|date=1 September 2006|url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0901/p07s01-woeu.html|title=Russian forces faulted in Beslan school tragedy|work=The Christian Science Monitor|access-date=14 February 2007|archive-date=6 September 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060906221122/http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0901/p07s01-woeu.html|url-status=live}}[http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/8/B841BF15-DB81-4D65-96F5-9B10F3EC9D9A.html Russia: Independent Beslan Investigation Sparks Controversy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060829222201/http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/8/B841BF15-DB81-4D65-96F5-9B10F3EC9D9A.html |date=29 August 2006}}, The Jamestown Foundation, 29 August 2006. Savelyev, a dissenting member of the federal commission headed by Aleksandr Torshin (see below), said that these explosions killed many of the hostages and that dozens more died in the resulting fire.{{cite news|date=29 August 2006|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5294548.stm|title=Grenades 'caused Beslan tragedy'|work=BBC News|access-date=14 February 2007|archive-date=8 March 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070308220510/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5294548.stm|url-status=live}} Yuri Ivanov, another parliamentary investigator, further contended that the grenades were fired on the direct orders of President Putin.{{cite web|url=http://www.sundayherald.com/international/shinternational/display.var.1185416.0.0.php |title=Beslan school siege inquiry 'a cover-up' |work=Sunday Herald |access-date=14 February 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930033615/http://www.sundayherald.com/international/shinternational/display.var.1185416.0.0.php |archive-date=30 September 2007}} Several witnesses testified during the trial of Kulayev that the initial explosions were caused by projectiles fired from outside.
• In the final report, Aleksandr Torshin, head of the Russian parliamentary commission that concluded its work in December 2006, said that the militants had started the battle by intentionally detonating bombs among the hostages, to the surprise of Russian negotiators and commanders. This statement went beyond previous government accounts that mentioned that the bombs had exploded in an unexplained accident.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/23/world/europe/23beslan.html?ex=1324530000&en=a84fe5fbaabab7af&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss|title=Questions Linger as Kremlin Reports on '04 School Siege|work=The New York Times|access-date=14 February 2007|first=C. J.|last=Chivers|date=23 December 2006|archive-date=18 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071018200226/http://nytimes.com/2006/12/23/world/europe/23beslan.html?ex=1324530000&en=a84fe5fbaabab7af&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss|url-status=live}} Torshin's 2006 report said that the taking of hostages was planned as a suicide attack from the beginning and that no storming of the building was prepared in advance. According to testimonies by Nur-Pashi Kulayev and several former hostages and negotiators, the militants (including their leaders) blamed the government for the ensuing explosions.

{{Infobox military conflict

| conflict = Storming of Beslan school

| partof = Terrorism in Russia

| image =

| caption =

| date = 3 September 2004

| place = Beslan, North Ossetia–Alania, Russia

| result = Crisis ended

• Many hostages were killed during the fire
• 31 of the hostage-takers were killed

| combatants_header =

| combatant1 = {{flag|Russia|name=Russian Government}}

• {{flagicon image|Flag_of_the_Russian_Federation_Ground_Forces.svg}} Russian Army
• {{flagicon image|Emblem_of_the_Ministry_of_Internal_Affairs.svg}} Militsiya
• {{flagicon image|Flag_of_Internal_Troops_of_Russia.svg}} Internal Troops
• {{flagicon image|Flag_of_the_Russian_Federal_Security_Service.svg}} Federal Security Service

| combatant2 = {{flagicon image|Flag of Caucasian Emirate.svg}} Riyad-us Saliheen Brigade

| combatant3 =

| commander1 = {{flagicon|RUS}} Vladimir Putin

| commander2 = {{flagicon image|Flag of Caucasian Emirate.svg}} Vladimir Khodov{{POW}}
{{flagicon image|Flag of Caucasian Emirate.svg}} Ruslan Khuchbarov{{KIA}}

| commander3 =

| units1 =

| units2 =

| units3 =

| strength1 = {{flagicon|RUS}} Unknown number of troops

| strength2 = {{flagicon image|Flag of Caucasian Emirate.svg}} 32 militants

| strength3 =

| casualties1 =

| casualties2 =

| casualties3 = At least 334 killed (excluding 31 terrorists){{cite news|date= 8 December 2006|url= http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2006/12/08/woman_injured_in_2004_russian_siege_dies/|title= Woman injured in 2004 Russian siege dies|work=The Boston Globe|access-date= 9 January 2007|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071017001115/http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2006/12/08/woman_injured_in_2004_russian_siege_dies/|url-status=dead|archive-date=17 October 2007|quote=bringing the total death toll to 334, a Beslan activist said. ... Two other former hostages died of their wounds last year and another died last August, which had brought the overall death toll to 333 -- a figure that does not include the hostage-takers.}}
700+ wounded{{cite news | url=https://edition.cnn.com/2013/09/09/europe/beslan-school-siege-fast-facts/index.html | title=Beslan School Siege Fast Facts | work=CNN | agency=9 September 2013 | accessdate=1 April 2025}}

| notes =

| campaignbox =

}}

Part of the sports hall wall was demolished by the explosions, allowing some hostages to escape. The militants opened fire, and the military returned fire. A number of people were killed in the crossfire. Russian officials say that militants shot hostages as they ran and that the military fired back.[http://www.slate.com/id/2123116 Who's To Blame for Beslan?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110128040606/http://www.slate.com/id/2123116/ |date=28 January 2011}}, Slate, 22 July 2005. The government asserted that once the shooting started, troops had no choice but to storm the building. However, some accounts by the town's residents have contradicted this official version of events.[https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/russian-military-politicians-handled-beslan-siege-poorly-inquiry-head-1.550793 Russian military, politicians handled Beslan siege poorly: inquiry head] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201002195145/https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/russian-military-politicians-handled-beslan-siege-poorly-inquiry-head-1.550793 |date=2 October 2020}}, CBC News, 28 June 2005.

Police lieutenant colonel Elbrus Nogayev, whose wife and daughter died in the school, said, "I heard a command saying, 'Stop shooting! Stop shooting!' while other troops' radios said, 'Attack!'" As the fighting began, oil-company president and negotiator Mikhail Gutseriyev, an ethnic Ingush, phoned the hostage-takers and heard "You tricked us!" in response. Five hours later, Gutseriyev and his interlocutor reportedly had their last conversation, during which the man said, "The blame is yours and the Kremlin's."

According to Torshin, the order to start the operation was given by the head of the North Ossetian FSB, Valery Andreyev.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4117149.stm Top officials blamed for Beslan] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726213717/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4117149.stm |date=26 July 2020}}, BBC News, 22 December 2004. However, statements by both Andreyev and Dzasokhov indicated that it was FSB deputy directors Vladimir Pronichev and Vladimir Anisimov who were actually in charge of the Beslan operation.[https://web.archive.org/web/20120910131244/http://www.jamestown.org/programs/nca/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D%3D2865%26tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D%3D187%26no_cache%3D1#91;tt_news]=2865&tx_ttnews[backPid]=187&no_cache=1 Documents suggest the feds were in charge in Beslan], The Jamestown Foundation, 20 April 2005. General Andreyev also told North Ossetia's Supreme Court that the decision to use heavy weapons during the assault was made by the head of the FSB's Special Operations Center, Colonel General Aleksandr Tikhonov.[http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/12/d0b63e76-66e1-4730-93db-1df683c88e6c.html Beslan Rescue Lacked Direction, Says Ex-FSB Head] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080616005930/http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/12/d0b63e76-66e1-4730-93db-1df683c88e6c.html |date=16 June 2008}}, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 16 December 2005.

A chaotic battle broke out as the special forces fought to enter the school. The forces included the assault groups of the FSB and the associated troops of the Russian Army and the Russian Interior Ministry, supported by a number of T-72 tanks from Russia's 58th Army (commandeered by Tikhonov from the military on 2 September), BTR-80 wheeled armoured personnel carriers and armed helicopters, including at least one Mi-24 attack helicopter.[https://web.archive.org/web/20090105021010/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_20041024/ai_n12762716 Flame-throwers used at Beslan siege], The Independent, 24 October 2004. Many local civilians also joined the battle, having brought their own weapons, and at least one of the armed volunteers is known to have been killed. Alleged crime figure Aslan Gagiyev claimed to be among them. At the same time, regular conscripted soldiers reportedly fled the scene as the fighting began. Civilian witnesses claimed that the local police also panicked, sometimes firing in the wrong direction.{{cite news|date=12 September 2004|url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/11/1094789740614.html|title=Soldiers fled, special forces borrowed bullets at siege end|work=The Sydney Morning Herald|access-date=14 February 2007|archive-date=18 October 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071018041728/http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/11/1094789740614.html|url-status=live}}{{cite web|date=26 October 2004|url=http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/10/cbe42f93-6f37-4d99-8c80-7a04309431d7.html|title=Russia: Rumors, Theories Still Swirl Around Beslan Tragedy|publisher=Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty|access-date=14 February 2007|archive-date=18 February 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070218120312/http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/10/cbe42f93-6f37-4d99-8c80-7a04309431d7.html|url-status=live}}

At least three, but as many as nine, powerful Shmel rockets were fired at the school from the special forces' positions (three[https://web.archive.org/web/20210411165053/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-aug-27-fg-beslan27-story.html Aching to Know], Los Angeles Times, 27 August 2005. or nine[http://www.kommersant.com/p607710/r_1/Searching_for_Traces_of_%E2%80%9CShmel%E2%80%9D_in_Beslan_School/ Searching for Traces of "Shmel" in Beslan School] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090103062603/http://www.kommersant.com/p607710/r_1/Searching_for_Traces_of_%E2%80%9CShmel%E2%80%9D_in_Beslan_School/ |date=3 January 2009}}, Kommersant, 12 September 2005. empty disposable tubes were later found on the rooftops of nearby apartment blocks). The use of the Shmel rockets, classified in Russia as flamethrowers and in the West as thermobaric weapons, was initially denied, but later admitted by the government.[https://web.archive.org/web/20110903054655/http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/a-reversal-over-beslan-only-fuels-speculation/211124.html A Reversal Over Beslan Only Fuels Speculation], The Moscow Times, 21 July 2005. A report by an aide to the military prosecutor of the North Ossetian garrison stated that RPG-26 rocket-propelled grenades were used as well.[https://web.archive.org/web/20061208164742/http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=409&issue_id=3424&article_id=2370105 Kulaev trial: The missing Slavic snipers], The Jamestown Foundation, 3 August 2005 (mistake: "RPG-25") The terrorists also used grenade launchers, firing at the Russian positions in the apartment buildings.

According to a military prosecutor, a BTR armoured vehicle drove close to the school and opened fire from its 14.5×114mm KPV heavy machine gun at the windows on the second floor. Eyewitnesses (among them Totoonti and Kesayev) and journalists saw two T-72 tanks advance on the school that afternoon, at least one of which fired its 125 mm main gun several times. Later during the trial, tank commander Viktor Kindeyev testified he provided tank to officer of FSB and around 21:00 tank fired "one blank shot and six antipersonnel-high explosive shells" on orders from the FSB.[https://web.archive.org/web/20080223150136/http://www.jamestown.org/edm/article.php?volume_id=409&issue_id=3539&article_id=2370524 Tanks that fired in Beslan were under FSB command], The Jamestown Foundation, 23 November 2005. The use of tanks and armoured personnel carriers was eventually admitted to by Lieutenant General Viktor Sobolev, commander of the 58th Army. Another witness cited in the Kesayev report claims that he had jumped onto the turret of a tank in an attempt to prevent it from firing on the school. Scores of hostages were moved by the militants from the burning sports hall into other parts of the school, in particular the cafeteria, where they were forced to stand at windows as human shields. Many of them were shot by troops outside, according to the survivors (including Kudzeyeva,[https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5739902 'Mondrage' in Beslan: Inside the School Siege] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726204225/https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5739902 |date=26 July 2020}}, National Public Radio, 31 August 2006. Kusrayeva[https://web.archive.org/web/20120910131301/http://www.jamestown.org/programs/nca/single/?tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D%3D2929%26tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D%3D187%26no_cache%3D1#91;tt_news]=2929&tx_ttnews[backPid]=187&no_cache=1 KULAEV TRIAL PROVIDES NEW BESLAN DETAILS], The Jamestown Foundation (North Caucasus Weekly), 16 June 2005. and Naldikoyeva). Savelyev estimated that 106 to 110 hostages died after having been moved to the cafeteria.

By 15:00, two hours after the assault began, Russian troops claimed control of most of the school. However, fighting was still continuing on the grounds as evening fell, including resistance from a group of militants holding out in the school's basement.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3642232.stm What happened in Beslan?] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200909032721/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3642232.stm |date=9 September 2020}}, BBC News, 10 September 2004. During the battle, a group of some 13 militants broke through the military cordon and took refuge nearby. Several of them were believed to have entered a local two-story building, which was destroyed by tanks and flamethrowers around 21:00, according to the Ossetian committee's findings (Kesayev Report).{{cite news|url=http://pravdabeslana.ru/dokl1.htm|script-title=ru:Хронология террористического акта в СОШ № 1 г. Беслана Республики Северная Осетия-Алания|first=S.|last=Kesayev|title=I|publisher=PravdaBeslana.ru|language=ru|access-date=29 July 2006|archive-date=12 December 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061212113502/http://www.pravdabeslana.ru/dokl1.htm|url-status=live}} Another group of militants appeared to head back over the railway, chased by helicopters into the town.

Firefighters, who were called by Andreyev two hours after the fire had started,[https://www.independent.co.uk/news/europe/putins-legacy-is-a-massacre-say-the-mothers-of-beslan-787280.html Putin's legacy is a massacre, say the mothers of Beslan], The Independent, 26 February 2008. were not prepared to battle the blaze that raged in the gymnasium. One fire truck crew arrived after two hours on their own initiative, but with only {{Convert|200|L|U.S.gal}} of water, and were unable to connect to the nearby hydrants.[http://www.kommersant.com/page.asp?idr=534&id=601621 Beslan Militant Calms Down Victims] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090103072203/http://www.kommersant.com/page.asp?idr=534&id=601621 |date=3 January 2009}}, Kommersant, 17 August 2005. The first water truck came at 15:28, nearly two and a half hours after the start of the fire;{{cite web | author=Marina Litvinovich | author-link=Marina Litvinovich | url=http://www.pravdabeslana.ru/truth.htm | title=The Truth About Beslan | access-date=4 March 2008 | archive-date=14 August 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180814140724/http://pravdabeslana.ru/truth.htm | url-status=live}} the second fire engine arrived at 15:43. Few ambulances were available to transport the hundreds of injured victims, who were mostly driven to the hospital in private cars. One suspected militant was reportedly lynched on the scene by a mob of civilians.[http://english.pravda.ru/news/russia/03-09-2004/59004-0/ Beslan residents lynch disguised terrorist] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905130904/http://english.pravda.ru/news/russia/03-09-2004/59004-0/ |date=5 September 2015}}, Pravda, 10 September 2004.{{Unreliable source?|date=April 2020}} An unarmed militant was captured alive by the OMON troops while trying to hide under a truck (he was later identified as Nur-Pashi Kulayev).{{cite news|title=Surviving Beslan Hostage-taker Jailed for Life|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/surviving-beslan-hostagetaker-jailed-for-life-479869.html|access-date=14 September 2021|work=The Independent|date=23 October 2011|archive-date=14 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210914055548/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/surviving-beslan-hostagetaker-jailed-for-life-479869.html|url-status=live}} Some of the dead insurgents appeared to have been mutilated by the commandos.

Sporadic explosions and gunfire continued during the night despite reports that all resistance by militants had been suppressed,[https://www.theguardian.com/russia/article/0,,1296826,00.html Timeline: the Beslan school siege] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240312122401/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/06/schoolsworldwide.chechnya |date=12 March 2024}}, The Guardian, 6 September 2004. until some 12 hours after the first explosions.[http://www.10news.com/news/3706697/detail.html More Than 200 Bodies Recovered From Russian School] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110520024742/http://www.10news.com/news/3706697/detail.html |date=20 May 2011}}, San Diego News, 3 September 2004. Early the next day, Putin ordered the borders of North Ossetia closed while some of the terrorists were apparently still being pursued.

File:AB Beslan Mother.jpg

After the conclusion of the crisis, many of the injured died before patients were sent to better-equipped facilities in Vladikavkaz as the only hospital in Beslan was unprepared to deal with the casualties.[http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2007/12/20/003.html Beslan's Hospital Shocked Doctors and Putin] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071223025216/http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2007/12/20/003.html |date=23 December 2007}}, The Moscow Times, 20 December 2007. There was an inadequate supply of hospital beds, medication and neurosurgery equipment.{{cite news|date=6 September 2004|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3631286.stm|title=The strain on Russia's health service|work=BBC News|access-date=29 July 2006|first=Nick|last=Triggle|archive-date=12 January 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090112054856/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3631286.stm|url-status=live}} Relatives were not allowed to visit hospitals where the wounded were treated, and doctors were not allowed to use their mobile phones.[http://www.online-translator.com/url/tran_url.asp?lang=en&direction=re&autotranslate=on&transliterate=on&cp1=koi8-r&url=http%3A%2F%2Fgazeta.ru%2F2004%2F09%2F04%2Foa_132376.shtml On medical workers having phones removed] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050405031345/http://www.gazeta.ru/2004/09/04/oa_132376.shtml |date=5 April 2005}}, Gazeta.ru, 4 September 2004. Machine-translated by http://www.online-translator.com {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100620070431/http://www.online-translator.com/ |date=20 June 2010}}

The day after the storming, bulldozers gathered the debris of the building, including the body parts of the victims, and removed it to a garbage dump. The first of the many funerals was conducted on 4 September, the day after the final assault, with more following soon after, including a mass burial of 120 people.{{cite news|date=6 September 2004|url=http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2004/09/06/russia_mourning040906.html|title=120 funerals in one day for Russian town|work=CBS News|access-date=29 July 2006 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060321023216/http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2004/09/06/russia_mourning040906.html |archive-date = 21 March 2006}} The local cemetery was too small and had to be expanded to an adjacent plot of land to accommodate the dead. Three days after the siege, 180 people were still missing.[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/06/chechnya.russia Frantic search for missing as Beslan begins to bury its dead] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726204802/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/06/chechnya.russia |date=26 July 2020}}, The Guardian, 6 September 2004. Many survivors remained severely traumatised and at least one female former hostage committed suicide after returning home, shortly after identifying the body of her child.{{cite news|date=10 September 2004 |url=http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.html?DocID=504229&IssueId=18390 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051114073549/http://www.kommersant.ru/doc.html?DocID=504229&IssueId=18390 |url-status=dead |archive-date=14 November 2005 |title=Психиатры борются за жизнь бывших заложников ("Psychiatrists struggle for a life of former hostages") |work=Kommersant |access-date=29 July 2006 |language=ru}}

In his only visit to Beslan, Putin appeared during a hurried trip to the Beslan hospital in the early hours of 4 September to see several of the wounded victims.[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article560364.ece Putin overture angers Beslan mothers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110917070753/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article560364.ece |date=17 September 2011}}, The Times, 30 August 2005. He was later criticised for not meeting the families of victims. After returning to Moscow, he ordered a two-day period of national mourning on 6 and 7 September. In his televised speech, Putin said: "We showed ourselves to be weak. And the weak get beaten." On the second day of mourning, an estimated 135,000 people joined a government-organised rally against terrorism in Red Square in Moscow.[http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/09/08/1094530692366.html Inside the horror of Russia's Beslan school] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121025001038/http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/09/08/1094530692366.html |date=25 October 2012}}, The Age, 9 September 2004. In Saint Petersburg an estimated 40,000 people gathered in Palace Square.

Increased security measures were introduced to Russian cities after the crisis. More than 10,000 people without proper documents were detained by Moscow police in a "terrorist hunt". Colonel Magomed Tolboyev, a cosmonaut and Hero of the Russian Federation, was attacked and brutally beaten by a Moscow police patrol because of his Chechen-sounding name.[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1472451/10000-rounded-up-in-Moscow-terrorist-hunt.html 10,000 rounded up in Moscow terrorist hunt] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200605095828/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1472451/10000-rounded-up-in-Moscow-terrorist-hunt.html |date=5 June 2020}}, The Daily Telegraph, 23 September 2004.{{cite web|date=10 September 2004|access-date=11 April 2015|url=http://www.newsru.com/russia/10Sep2004/kosm.html|script-title=ru:Милиционеры избили космонавта за "чеченскую" фамилию|language=ru|archive-date=11 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150411222841/http://www.newsru.com/russia/10Sep2004/kosm.html|url-status=live}} The Russian public appeared to generally support increased security measures; a 16 September 2004 Levada-Center opinion poll found 58% of Russians supporting stricter counterterrorism laws and the death penalty for terrorism, while 33% would support banning all Chechens from entering Russian cities.{{cite news|date=16 September 2004 |title=How to end terrorism in Russia? |language=ru}}[http://www.isim.nl/files/Review_15/Review_15-13.pdf The Beslan Massacre] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080814014848/http://www.isim.nl/files/Review_15/Review_15-13.pdf |date=14 August 2008}}

In the wake of Beslan, the government proceeded to toughen laws on terrorism and expand the powers of law-enforcement agencies.

In addition, Putin signed a law that replaced the direct election of the heads of the federal subjects of Russia with a system in which they are proposed by the president of Russia and approved or disapproved by the elected legislative bodies of the federal subjects.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3965845.stm Russian Duma backs Putin reforms] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726220225/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3965845.stm |date=26 July 2020}}, BBC News, 29 October 2004. The election system for the Russian parliament was also repeatedly amended, eliminating the election of State Duma members by single-mandate districts.{{cite news |url=http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/10/12/105.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20071225075931/http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/10/12/105.html |title=A Deafening Silence |newspaper=The Moscow Times |archive-date=25 December 2007 |date=12 October 2007}} The Kremlin consolidated its control over the Russian media and increasingly attacked non-governmental organisations (especially those foreign-founded).[https://www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=18679&prog=zru After Beslan, the Media in Shackles] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215173145/http://carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=18679&prog=zru |date=15 December 2018}} 4 September 2006.

The raid on Beslan had more to do with the Ingush involved than with the Chechens, but it was highly symbolic for both regions. The Ossetes and Ingush have a conflict over ownership of the Prigorodny District that was inflamed by the 1944 Stalinist purges and the 1992–1993 ethnic cleansing of Ingush by Ossetes, with assistance from the Russian military. At the time of the raid, more than 40,000 Ingush refugees lived in tent camps in Ingushetia and Chechnya.Fuller, Liz. "Are Ingushetia, North Ossetia on the Verge of New Hostilities?", Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 28 March 2006. The Beslan school itself had been used against the Ingush: in 1992, the gym was used as a pen to round up Ingush during the ethnic cleansing by the Ossetes. For the Chechens, the motive was revenge for the destruction of their homes and families; Beslan was one of the sites from which federal air raids were launched into Chechnya.Fred Weir, "Russia Struggles to Keep Its Grip on the Caucasus", The Christian Science Monitor, 13 September 2005.Alan Tskhurbayev and Valery Dzutsev, 'Fear and Tension in Siege Town', IWPR Caucasus Reporting Service, 2 September 2004.

Upon learning that many children were killed by a terrorist group that included Chechens, many Chechens felt shame. A spokesman for Chechen independence cause stated: "A bigger blow could not have been dealt on us ... People around the world will think that Chechens are beasts and monsters if they could attack children."{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/opinion/31pape.html?pagewanted=2&emc=eta1|work=The New York Times|title=What Makes Chechen Women So Dangerous?|first1=Robert A.|last1=Pape|first2=Lindsey|last2=O'Rourke|first3=Jenna|last3=McDermit|date=31 March 2010|access-date=26 April 2010|archive-date=18 May 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130518163050/http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/31/opinion/31pape.html?pagewanted=2&emc=eta1|url-status=live}}

By 7 September 2004, Russian officials stated that 334 people had died, including 156 children; at that point, 200 people remained missing or unidentified.[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A463-2004Sep6.html Under a 'Crying' Sky, Beslan's Dead Are Laid to Rest] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200904061431/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A463-2004Sep6.html |date=4 September 2020}}, The Washington Post, 7 September 2004. The Torshin Report stated that ultimately no bodies remained unidentified.Torshin report, p. 169. "Неопознанных тел не осталось." Locals stated that more than 200 of those killed were found with burns, and 100 or more of them were burned alive.[https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/26/international/europe/26beslan.html For Russians, Wounds Linger in School Siege] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150104170845/http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/26/international/europe/26beslan.html |date=4 January 2015}}, The New York Times, 26 August 2005. In 2005, two hostages died from injuries sustained in the incident, as did a hostage in August 2006. A 33-year-old librarian, Yelena Avdonina, succumbed to a hematoma on 8 December 2006. At that time The Washington Post stated that the death toll was 334, excluding terrorists. The city of Beslan states a death toll of 335 on its website."[http://www.beslan.ru/index.php/remember_cat_sltd/category/o_sobytiyah/ В память о погибших... Мы помним - О событиях] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120419051440/http://www.beslan.ru/index.php/remember_cat_sltd/category/o_sobytiyah |date=19 April 2012}}." City of Beslan. Retrieved on 30 January 2018. "Результатом этого чудовищного террористического акта стало 335 человеческих жизней". The death toll includes 186 children.

File:MoscowRegion-p1030244.jpg]]

Russia's Minister of Health and Social Reform Mikhail Zurabov said that the total number injured in the crisis exceeded 1,200. The exact number of people who received ambulatory assistance immediately after the crisis is not known, but is estimated to be around 700 (753 according to the U.N.[https://web.archive.org/web/20090404112922/http://www.unicef.org/russia/media_4875.html 31 August 2006: Beslan – Two Years On], UNICEF). Moscow-based military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer concluded on 7 September 2004 that 90% of the surviving hostages had sustained injuries. At least 437 people, including 221 children, were hospitalised; 197 children were taken to the Children's Republican Clinical Hospital in the North Ossetian capital of Vladikavkaz, and 30 were in cardiopulmonary resuscitation units in critical condition. Another 150 people were transferred to the Vladikavkaz Emergency Hospital. Sixty-two people, including 12 children, were treated in two local hospitals in Beslan, while six children with severe injuries were flown to Moscow for specialist treatment.{{cite web|date=23 September 2004|url=http://beslan.friendsforever.ru/lists/Fulllisteng23.09.doc|title=Full list of victims of Beslan in Moscow hospitals (Word doc)|access-date=29 July 2006|format=DOC|archive-date=1 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150501230324/http://beslan.friendsforever.ru/lists/Fulllisteng23.09.doc|url-status=live}} The majority of the children were treated for burns, gunshot injuries, shrapnel wounds and mutilation caused by explosions.{{cite news|date=7 October 2004|url=http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/10/prweb164987.htm|title=Latest Follow Up on Beslan Children|publisher=PR Web|access-date=29 July 2006|archive-date=29 March 2005|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050329104851/http://www.prweb.com/releases/2004/10/prweb164987.htm|url-status=dead}} Some had limbs amputated and eyes removed, and many children were permanently disabled. One month after the attack, 240 people (160 of them children) were still being treated in hospitals in Vladikavkaz and Beslan.{{cite web|date=16 November 2004|url=http://www.unicef.org/ceecis/BackgroundRussFed2004.doc|title=Children in the Russian Federation (Word Doc)|publisher=UNICEF|access-date=29 July 2006|format=DOC|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060625055226/http://www.unicef.org/ceecis/BackgroundRussFed2004.doc|archive-date=25 June 2006|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}} Surviving children and parents have received psychological treatment at Vladikavkaz Rehabilitation Centre.{{cite web|date=September 2005|url=http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/russia_28072.html|title=One year after siege, Beslan's children still need help|publisher=UNICEF|access-date=29 July 2006|archive-date=26 July 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060726112515/http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/russia_28072.html|url-status=dead}}

One of the hostages, a physical education teacher called Yanis Kanidis (a Caucasus Greek, originally from Georgia) who was killed in the siege, saved the lives of many children. One of the new schools built in Beslan was subsequently named in his honour.{{Citation needed|date=September 2022}}

The operation also became the bloodiest in the history of the Russian anti-terrorist special forces. Ten members of the special forces died (7 Vympel and 3 Alpha members).[http://news.rin.ru/eng/news///9303/2// Monument to special forces and rescuers unveiled in Beslan] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081225034157/http://news.rin.ru/eng/news/9303/2/ |date=25 December 2008}}, NEWS.rin.ru, 2 September 2006.{{Cite web|last=Perry|first=Mike|date=2012-09-09|title=Spetsnaz, Beslan and Tragedy|url=https://sofrep.com/news/spetsnaz-beslan-and-tragedy/|access-date=2021-10-04|website=SOFREP|language=en-us|archive-date=4 October 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211004222552/https://sofrep.com/news/spetsnaz-beslan-and-tragedy/|url-status=live}} A commando called Vyacheslav Bocharov was believed to have been killed, but proved to be seriously wounded in the face but alive when he regained consciousness and managed to write down his name.{{cite web|date=January 2007|url=http://www.fsb.ru/fsb/smi/overview/single.htm!id%3D10362347@fsbSmi.html|title=Exclude from the casualties list|publisher=FSB|access-date=6 December 2016|archive-date=23 March 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170323092015/http://www.fsb.ru/fsb/smi/overview/single.htm!id=10362347@fsbSmi.html|url-status=live}}

The fatalities included all three commanders of the assault groups: Colonel Oleg Ilyin and Lieutenant Colonel Dmitry Razumovsky of Vympel, and Major Alexander Perov of Alpha.{{cite news|date=18 October 2004|title=Beslan's tragic end: Spontaneous or planned?|url=http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/8415-17.cfm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041020061807/http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/8415-17.cfm|url-status=dead|archive-date=20 October 2004|access-date=16 September 2006}} At least 30 commandos suffered serious wounds.[https://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/13/international/europe/13russia.html?pagewanted=print&position= After School Siege, Russia Also Mourns Secret Heroes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150528052154/http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/13/international/europe/13russia.html?pagewanted=print&position= |date=28 May 2015}}, The New York Times, 13 September 2004.

{{clear}}

Initially, the identity and origin of the attackers was unclear. It was widely assumed from Day Two that they were separatists from nearby Chechnya, though Putin's Chechen aide Aslambek Aslakhanov denied it, saying "they were not Chechens. When I started talking with them in Chechen, they had answered: 'We do not understand; speak Russian.{{'"}}{{cite web|date=8 September 2004 |access-date=11 April 2015 |url=http://old.radiomayak.ru/schedules/6852/17139.html |publisher=Radio Mayak |script-title=ru:На этом этапе мы должны быть бдительны |language=ru |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090106005247/http://old.radiomayak.ru/schedules/6852/17139.html |archive-date=6 January 2009}} Freed hostages said that the hostage-takers spoke Russian with accents typical of Caucasians.

Though Putin had rarely hesitated to blame Chechen separatists for past acts of terrorism, he avoided linking the attack with the Second Chechen War. Instead, he blamed the crisis on the "direct intervention of international terrorism", ignoring the nationalist roots of the crisis.[http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/09/ce476827-01ec-417f-a41c-44b2019e125f.html Russia: On Beslan, Putin Looks Beyond Chechnya, Sees International Terror] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080611202928/http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/09/ce476827-01ec-417f-a41c-44b2019e125f.html |date=11 June 2008}}, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 7 September 2004. Russian government sources initially claimed that nine of the militants in Beslan were Arabs and one was a black African (called "a negro" by Andreyev),[http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,363934,00.html The Beslan Aftermath: New Papers Critical of Russian Security Forces] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111203041720/http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,363934,00.html |date=3 December 2011}}, Der Spiegel, 4 July 2005.[http://www.%3A%2F%2Fidl.stanford.edu%2F103%2Fchechnya%2FIDL103_Additional_Reading_7.pdf Chechnya: 'War on terror' legends debunked]{{Dead link|date=August 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}} though only two Arabs were later identified. Independent analysts such as Moscow political commentator Andrei Piontkovsky said that Putin tried to minimise the number and scale of Chechen terrorist attacks rather than exaggerate them as he had done in the past. Putin appeared to connect the events to the U.S.-led War on Terror,[https://web.archive.org/web/20091222155557/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901040920-695815,00.html "The Whole World Is Crying"], Time, 12 September 2004. but at the same time accused the West of indulging terrorists.{{cite web|date=17 September 2004|url=http://www.afpc.org/rrm/rrm1192.shtml|title=Putin: Western governments soft on terror|publisher=American Foreign Policy Council|access-date=29 July 2006|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20051119073547/http://www.afpc.org/rrm/rrm1192.shtml |archive-date = 19 November 2005}}

File:Shamil Basaev2.jpg

On 17 September 2004, Chechen terrorist leader Shamil Basayev, operating autonomously from the rest of the North Caucasian terrorist movement, issued a statement claiming responsibility for the Beslan school siege, boasting that the siege only cost 8,000 euros.{{cite news|date=17 September 2004|url=http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/09/17/russia.beslan/|title=Chechen 'claims Beslan attack'|publisher=CNN|access-date=29 July 2006|archive-date=12 June 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170612113719/http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/09/17/russia.beslan/|url-status=live}} The event was strikingly similar to the Chechen raid on Budyonnovsk in 1995 and the Moscow theatre hostage crisis of 2002, incidents in which hundreds of Russian civilians were held hostage by Chechen terrorists led by Basayev. Basayev said that his Riyad-us Saliheen "brigade of martyrs" had carried out the attack and also claimed responsibility for a series of terrorist bombings in Russia in the weeks before the Beslan crisis. He said that he had originally planned to seize at least one school in either Moscow or Saint Petersburg, but lack of funds forced him to pick North Ossetia, "the Russian garrison in the North Caucasus." Basayev blamed the Russian authorities for "a terrible tragedy" in Beslan.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3665136.stm Excerpts: Basayev claims Beslan] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180211074845/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3665136.stm |date=11 February 2018}}, BBC News, 17 September 2004. Basayev claimed that he had miscalculated the Kremlin's determination to end the crisis by all means possible.[https://web.archive.org/web/20120106032623/http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/chechnya-vow-cast-a-long-shadow/356028.html Chechnya Vow Cast a Long Shadow] The Moscow Times, 26 February 2008. He said he was "cruelly mistaken" and that he was "not delighted by what happened there", but also added to be "planning more Beslan-type operations in the future because we are forced to do so."[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article509888.ece We're going to do it again, says man behind Beslan bloodbath] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927020228/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article509888.ece |date=27 September 2011}} The Times, 3 February 2005. However, it was the last major act of terrorism in Russia until 2009, as Basayev was soon persuaded to give up indiscriminate attacks by new Chechen leader Abdul-Halim Sadulayev,[https://web.archive.org/web/20080918223149/http://www.jamestown.org/chechnya_weekly/article.php?articleid=2373424 No Terrorist Acts in Russia Since Beslan: Whom to Thank?], The Jamestown Foundation, 24 May 2007. who made Basayev his second-in-command but banned hostage-taking, kidnapping for ransom and operations specifically targeting civilians.[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/aug/27/chechnya.russia Beslan massacre chief promoted] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726203842/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/aug/27/chechnya.russia |date=26 July 2020}} The Independent, 27 August 2005.

Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov denied that his forces were involved in the siege, calling it "a blasphemy" for which "there is no justification". Maskhadov described the perpetrators of Beslan as "Madmen" driven out of their senses by Russian acts of brutality.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/459302.stm Obituary: Aslan Maskhadov] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200810103209/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/459302.stm |date=10 August 2020}}, BBC News, 8 March 2005. He condemned the action and all attacks against civilians via a statement issued by his envoy Akhmed Zakayev in London, blaming it on what he called a radical local group,[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2004/09/mil-040914-22f19307.htm VOA News report] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200701110622/https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2004/09/mil-040914-22f19307.htm |date=1 July 2020}}, Globalsecurity.org, 14 September 2004. and he agreed to the North Ossetian proposition to act as a negotiator. Later, he also called on western governments to initiate peace talks between Russia and Chechnya and added to "categorically refute all accusations by the Russian government that President Maskhadov had any involvement in the Beslan event."[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3655438.stm Chechen envoy warns of bloodshed] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200825165531/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/3655438.stm |date=25 August 2020}}, BBC News, 14 September 2004. Putin responded that he would not negotiate with "child-killers", comparing the calls for negotiations with the appeasement of Hitler, and put a $10 million bounty on Maskhadov (the same amount as for Basayev).[http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0929/p06s01-woeu.html Putin's Chechnya options narrow] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201004133035/https://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0929/p06s01-woeu.html |date=4 October 2020}}, The Christian Science Monitor, 29 September 2004. Maskhadov was killed by Russian commandos in Chechnya on 8 March 2005[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4330039.stm Chechen leader Maskhadov killed] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201009055955/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4330039.stm |date=9 October 2020}}, BBC News, 8 March 2005. and buried at an undisclosed location.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4473737.stm Russia buries Maskhadov in secret] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201001044423/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4473737.stm |date=1 October 2020}}, BBC News, 22 April 2005.

Shortly after the crisis, official Russian sources stated that the attackers were part of a supposed international group led by Basayev that included a number of Arabs with connections to al-Qaeda, and claimed that they had picked up phone calls in Arabic from the Beslan school to Saudi Arabia and another undisclosed Middle Eastern country.{{cite news|date=27 September 2004|url=https://www.theguardian.com/russia/article/0,2763,1313441,00.html|title=Beslan militants 'called Middle East'|work=The Guardian|access-date=29 July 2006|location=London|archive-date=12 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240312122454/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/27/russia.alqaida|url-status=live}}

Two British-Algerians, Osman Larussi and Yacine Benalia, were initially named as having actively participated in the attack. Another British-Algerian, Kamel Rabat Bouralha, arrested while trying to leave Russia immediately following the attack as he was suspected to be a key organiser. All three were linked to the Finsbury Park Mosque of North London.{{cite news|date=3 October 2004|url=https://www.theguardian.com/russia/article/0,2763,1318586,00.html|title=London mosque link to Beslan|work=The Guardian|access-date=29 July 2006|first=Jason|last=Burke|archive-date=12 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240312122407/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/oct/03/chechnya.russia|url-status=live}} Allegations of al-Qaeda involvement were not repeated by the Russian government. Larussi and Benalia are not named in the Torshin Report and were never identified by Russian authorities as suspects in the Beslan attack.See the Torshin report's list of perpetrators; their names are absent.

The following people were named by the Russian government as planners and financiers of the attack:

• Shamil Basayev – Chechen terrorist leader who took ultimate responsibility for the attack. He died in Ingushetia in July 2006 in disputed circumstances.
• Kamel Rabat Bouralha – British-Algerian suspected of organizing the attack who was reportedly detained in Chechnya in September 2004.
• Abu Omar al-Saif – Saudi national and accused financer,[https://web.archive.org/web/20070930182930/http://www.jamestown.org/print_friendly.php?volume_id=409&issue_id=3567&article_id=2370604 Abu Omar reportedly killed], Jamestown Foundation, 15 December 2005. killed in Dagestan in December 2005.
• Abu Zaid Al-Kuwaiti – Kuwaiti and accused organiser who died in Ingushetia in February 2005.

In November 2004, 28-year-old Akhmed Merzhoyev and 16-year-old Marina Korigova of Sagopshi, Ingushetia were arrested by Russian authorities in connection with the Beslan attack. Merzhoyev was charged with providing food and equipment to the terrorists, and Korigova was charged with having possession of a phone that Tsechoyev had phoned multiple times.[http://www.elitestv.com/pub/2004/Nov/EEN419d03f1b16c5.html Two Arrested in Russia for School Hostage Situation] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080906110202/http://www.elitestv.com/pub/2004/Nov/EEN419d03f1b16c5.html |date=6 September 2008}}, EliteTV.com, November 2004. Korigova was released when her defence attorney showed that she was given the phone by an acquaintance after the crisis.[http://www.watchdog.cz/?show=000000-000008-000001-000352&lang=1 Girl suspected of links with Beslan terrorists released] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726205440/http://www.watchdog.cz/?show=000000-000008-000001-000352&lang=1 |date=26 July 2020}}, Prague Watchdog, 2 December 2004.

Russian negotiators say that the Beslan militants never explicitly stated their demands, although they did have notes handwritten by one of the hostages on a school notebook, in which they spelled out demands of full Russian troop withdrawal from Chechnya and recognition of Chechen independence.

The hostage-takers were reported to have made the following demands on 1 September 11:00–11:30 in a letter sent along with a hostage ER doctor:{{cite web|date=29 November 2004|url=https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2004/11/29/20177-pokazaniya-vracha-zalozhnika-iz-shkoly-1|title=Interview with hostage ER doctor from SNO|work=Novaya Gazeta|access-date=29 July 2006|language=ru|archive-date=13 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190413052041/https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2004/11/29/20177-pokazaniya-vracha-zalozhnika-iz-shkoly-1|url-status=live}}

• Recognition of the independence of Chechnya at the U.N. and withdrawal of Russian troops.
• Presence of the following people at the school: Aleksander Dzasokhov (president of North Ossetia), Murat Zyazikov (president of Ingushetia), Ruslan Aushev (former president of Ingushetia) and Leonid Roshal (a paediatrician). Alternatively, instead of Roshal and Aushev, the hostage-takers might have named Vladimir Rushailo and Alu Alkhanov (pro-Moscow president of Chechnya).

Dzasokhov and Zyazikov did not come to Beslan; Dzasokhov later claimed that he was forcibly stopped by "a very high-ranking general from the Interior Ministry [who] said, 'I have received orders to arrest you if you try to go'." The stated reason why Zyazikov did not arrive was that he had been "sick".[https://web.archive.org/web/20081225013256/http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news2/latimes298.html Critics Detail Missteps in School Crisis], The New York Times, 17 September 2004. Aushev, Zyazikov's predecessor at the post of Ingushetia's president, who was forced to resign by Putin in 2002, entered the school and secured the release of 26 hostages.

Aslakhanov said that the hostage-takers also demanded the release of some 28 to 30 suspects detained in the crackdown following the terrorist raids in Ingushetia earlier in June.

Later, Basayev said the terrorists also demanded a letter of resignation from President Putin.

According to the official version of events, 32 militants participated directly in the seizure, one of whom was taken alive while the rest were killed on the spot. The number and identity of hostage-takers remains a controversial topic, fuelled by the often-contradictory government statements and official documents. The 3–4 September government statements said that a total of 26–27 militants were killed during the siege. At least four militants, including two women, died prior to the Russian storming of the school.

Many of the surviving hostages and eyewitnesses claim there were many more captors, some of whom may have escaped. It was also initially claimed that three terrorists were captured alive, including their leader Vladimir Khodov and a female militant.[https://web.archive.org/web/20090104113042/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20041109/ai_n12822067 Beslan hostage-takers were allowed to flee, soldier says], The Independent, 9 November 2004. Witness testimonies during the Kulayev trial reported the presence of a number of apparently Slavic-, unaccented Russian- and "perfect" Ossetian-speaking individuals among the militants who were not seen among the bodies of those killed by Russian security forces. The unknown men (and a woman, according to one testimony) included a man with a red beard who was reportedly issuing orders to the kidnappers' leaders, and whom the hostages were forbidden to look at. He was possibly the militant known only as "Fantomas", an ethnic Russian who served as a bodyguard to Shamil Basayev.[http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,1297633,00.html When hell came calling at Beslan's School No 1] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080704215625/http://observer.guardian.co.uk/focus/story/0,6903,1297633,00.html |date=4 July 2008}}, The Guardian, 5 September 2004.

• The Kesayev Report (2005) estimated that about 50 terrorist fighters took part in the siege, based on witness accounts and the number of weapons left at the scene.
• The Savelyev Report (September 2006) said that there were between 58 and 76 militants, of which many managed to escape by slipping past the cordon around the school.
• The Torshin Report (December 2006) determined that 34 militants were involved, of whom 32 entered the school and 31 died there, and said that two accomplices remain at large (one of whom is Yunus Matsiyev, a bodyguard of Basayev).

According to Basayev (who called the attack "Nord-West" in allusion to Nord-Ost), "Thirty-three mujahideen took part in Nord-West. Two of them were women. We prepared four [women] but I sent two of them to Moscow on August 24. They then boarded the two airplanes that blew up. In the group there were 12 Chechen men, two Chechen women, nine Ingush, three Russians, two Arabs, two Ossetians, one Tartar, one Kabardinian and one Guran."

Basayev further said an FSB agent (Khodov) had been sent undercover to the terrorists to persuade them to carry out an attack on a target in North Ossetia's capital, Vladikavkaz, and that the group was allowed to enter the region with ease because the FSB planned to capture them at their destination in Vladikavkaz. He also claimed that an unnamed hostage-taker had survived the siege and managed to escape.

On 6 September 2004, the names and identities of seven of the assailants became known, after forensic work over the weekend and interviews with surviving hostages and a captured assailant. The forensic tests also established that 21 of the hostage-takers took heroin,The 2002 Dubrovka and 2004 Beslan Hostage Crises: A Critique of Russian Counter-terrorism {{ISBN|978-3-838-25608-5}} p. 50 methamphetamine as well as morphine in a normally lethal amount;{{cite news|date=28 December 2005|url=http://eng.kavkaz.memo.ru/newstext/engnews/id/912681.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060513091657/http://eng.kavkaz.memo.ru/newstext/engnews/id/912681.html|archive-date=13 May 2006|title=Federal commission delivers report on Beslan|publisher=Memorial|access-date=29 July 2006}}Negotiating with Terrorists: Strategy, Tactics, and Politics {{ISBN|978-0-415-56629-2}} p. 138 the investigation cited the use of drugs as a reason for the militants' ability to continue fighting despite being badly wounded and presumably in great pain. In November 2004, Russian officials announced that 27 of the 32 hostage-takers had been identified. However, in September 2005, the lead prosecutor against Nur-Pashi Kulayev stated that only 22 of the 32 bodies of the captors had been identified,{{cite news|date=12 September 2004 |title=Russian Prosecutor Says International Terrorists Planned Beslan|publisher=Mosnews}} leading to further confusion over which identities have been confirmed.

Most of the suspects, aged 20–35, were identified as Ingush or residents of Ingushetia (some of them Chechen refugees). At least five of the suspected hostage-takers were declared dead by Russian authorities before the seizure, while eight were known to have been previously arrested and then released, in some cases shortly before the Beslan attack.

; Male

The male hostage-takers were tentatively identified by the Russian government as:

• Ruslan Tagirovich KhuchbarovAlso spelled Khochubarov (32), nicknamed "Polkovnik" (Russian for "Colonel") – An ethnic Ingush from Galashki, Ingushetia. Reputed group leader, disputed identity, possibly escaped and at large. Basayev identified him as "Col. Orstkhoyev". Reportedly referred to by the other militants also as "Ali", he led the negotiations on behalf of the hostage-takers. Initially reported to be Ali Taziyev, an Ingush policeman-turned-terrorist who was declared legally dead in 2000;[http://archives.tcm.ie/breakingnews/2006/05/18/story259311.asp Beslan judge reads witness testimony on third day of trial] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071018051233/http://archives.tcm.ie/breakingnews/2006/05/18/story259311.asp |date=18 October 2007}}, 18 May 2006.[http://www.kommersant.com/page.asp?id=505415 The Investigation is Hitting it on the Head] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090103060136/http://www.kommersant.com/page.asp?id=505415 |date=3 January 2009}}, Kommersant, 16 September 2004.[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/may/22/russia.tomparfitt Beslan militant 'lived to kill again'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726205333/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/may/22/russia.tomparfitt |date=26 July 2020}}, The Guardian, 26 May 2006. but this was later refuted by the Russian prosecutors.[https://web.archive.org/web/20070709013043/http://www.peaceinthecaucasus.org/reports/Beslan.pdf Beslan: Russia’s 9/11?], Peace in the Caucasus During the negotiations, "Ali" had claimed his family was killed by the Russians in Chechnya. Investigators thought him to be Akhmed Yevloyev ("Magas"), an Ingush terrorist leader also known as Ali Taziyev, but those reports were also declared incorrect later. "Magas" was captured by the FSB in 2010.[https://web.archive.org/web/20110622111553/http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/beslans-main-terrorist-finally-caught/408348.html Beslan’s Main Terrorist Finally Caught], The Moscow Times, 16 June 2010.
• Vladimir Anatolievich KhodovNot to be confused with the head of the Beslan administration in 2004, also named Vladimir Khodov. (28), nicknamed "Abdullah" – An ethnic Ossetian-Ukrainian from the village of Elkhotovo in Kirovsky District of North Ossetia, Khodov was a former pupil of the Beslan SNO and one of the reputed leaders of the hostage-takers. Some of the survivors described him as the most frightening and aggressive of all the militants.Dispatches, Beslan, Channel 4 documentary, 2005. Khodov converted to Islam while in prison for rape. He was officially wanted for a series of bomb attacks in Vladikavkaz, yet he lived openly in his hometown for over a month before the attack. Basayev claimed that Khodov was an FSB double agent code-named "Putnik" ("Traveller"), sent to infiltrate the terrorist movement.[https://web.archive.org/web/20081227084429/http://eng.kavkaz.memo.ru/newstext/engnews/id/851521.html Basayev makes major statement], Memorial, 30 August 2005.
• Iznaur Kodzoyev – An Ingush from Kantyshevo, Ingushetia, and father of five children.[http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/90/361/14075_terrorists.html Special services believe the terrorists had an accomplice in Beslan] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20041215075626/http://english.pravda.ru/main/18/90/361/14075_terrorists.html |date=15 December 2004}}, Pravda, 6 September 2004. His cousin claimed he saw him in their home village on the second day of the siege.[http://iwpr.net/report-news/confusion-surrounds-beslan-band Confusion Surrounds Beslan Band] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140606220907/http://iwpr.net/report-news/confusion-surrounds-beslan-band |date=6 June 2014}}, Institute for War and Peace Reporting, 23 September 2004. In August 2005 the Russian forces in Ingushetia killed a man identified as Iznaur Kodzoyev, who they said was one of hostage-takers, despite the fact that his body was identified among these killed in Beslan. Kodzoyev had been also previously announced by the Russians to be killed months before the Beslan crisis.[http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0532,mcevers,66640,2.html State of Siege: The terror of daily life in Beslan] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071018044312/http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0532%2Cmcevers%2C66640%2C2.html |date=18 October 2007}}, The Village Voice, 5 August 2005.
• Khizir-Ali Akhmedov (30) – Native of Bilto-Yurt, Chechnya.
• Rustam Atayev (25) – An ethnic Chechen native to Psedakh, Ingushetia. His 12-year-old younger brother and two other boys were murdered in 2002 in Grozny by unidentified men in camouflage.[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article561674.ece Our children suffered too, say families of the killers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110917151110/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article561674.ece |date=17 September 2011}}, by Sebastian Smith, The Times, 2 September 2005.{{Cite web|url=http://gazeta.ua/ru/articles/life-photo/171858/|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727012950/http://gazeta.ua/ru/articles/life-photo/171858/|title=Опубликованы фотографии террористов, захвативших школу в Беслане|archivedate=27 July 2011}}
• Rizvan Vakhitovich Barchashvili (26) – A native of Nesterovskaya, a Cossack village in Ingushetia. Barchashvili had changed his name to Aldzbekov. His body was identified by DNA testing.{{in lang|ru}} [http://www.council.gov.ru/print/inf_ps/chronicle/2005/11/item3913.html О работе Парламентской комиссии (материалы средств массовой информации)] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110525142829/http://www.council.gov.ru/print/inf_ps/chronicle/2005/11/item3913.html |date=25 May 2011}}, Security Council of Russia, November 2005.
• Usman Magomedovich Aushev (33) – An Ingush from Ekazhevo, Ingushetia.{{in lang|ru}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20070713173754/http://novayagazeta.ru/data/2007/51/12.html В распоряжении «Новой» — прижизненные фотографии бесланских террористов. Публикуются впервые], Novaya Gazeta, 2005.{{Cite web|url=http://www.caucasica.org/chrono/detail.php?ID=1040|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080709052157/http://www.caucasica.org/chrono/detail.php?ID=1040|title=Террористическая война против России (хронология терактов в России)|archivedate=9 July 2008}}
• Adam Magomed-Khasanovich Iliyev (20) – An Ingush from Malgobek, Ingushetia. Iliyev was arrested a year before for illegal arms possession and then released.
• Ibragim Magomedovich Dzortov (28) – An Ingush from Nazran, Ingushetia.
• Ilnur Gainullin (23) – An ethnic Tatar and medical school graduate "from a good family" in Moscow.[https://web.archive.org/web/20090103011222/http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2008/01/09/007.html Our Native Wiesenthal], The Moscow Times, 9 January 2008.
• Aslangirey Beksultanovich Gatagazhev (29) – An Ingush from Sagopshi, Ingushetia.
• Sultan Kamurzoyev (27) – A Chechen from Kazakhstan. Other sources say he was from Nazran, Ingushetia, and that he was arrested as a terrorist fighter in Chechnya in 2000.
• MagomedAlso spelled Magomet Khuchbarov (21) – An Ingush from Nazran. Native of Surkhakhi, Ingushetia, Khochubarov had a conviction for the illegal possession of weapons.[http://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/csrc/document-listings/russian-chronologies/Chronologies/arussianchronologyjulyseptember/04(30)-part1-mas.pdf Russian Domestic Policy: July–September 2004], British Defence Academy {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080408194613/http://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/csrc/document-listings/russian-chronologies/Chronologies/arussianchronologyjulyseptember/04%2830%29-part1-mas.pdf |date=8 April 2008}}
• Khan-Pashi Kulayev (31) – A Chechen from Engenoi. He had lost his hand in Russian captivity from an untreated wound. Kulayev was the older brother of Nur-Pashi and a former bodyguard of Basayev. He was released from Russian prison before the attack.{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20080220181930/http://www.russiajournal.com/printable/node/18394 School hostage-takers released from prison]}}, Russia Journal, 7 September 2004.
• Nur-Pashi Kulayev (23) – A Chechen from Engenoi recruited to help his brother Khan-Pashi despite (as he maintained) being admitted into pro-Moscow Chechen militia forces of Ramzan Kadyrov ("Kadyrovtsy"). Captured in Beslan and sentenced to life in prison.
• Adam Kushtov (17) – An ethnic Ingush who as a child had fled North Ossetia during the ethnic cleansing in 1992.[http://www.ridgway.pitt.edu/docs/working_papers/BeslanFINALreport12-3-07.pdf Terror at Beslan: A Chronicle of On-going Tragedy and a Government’s Failed Response] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080408194614/http://www.ridgway.pitt.edu/docs/working_papers/BeslanFINALreport12-3-07.pdf |date=8 April 2008}}, Ridgway.Pitt.edu, 12 March 2007
• Abdul-Azim Labazanov (31) – A Chechen born in internal exile in Kazakhstan. He has initially fought on the Russian side in the First Chechen War before defecting to the group of Dokka Umarov.
• Arsen Merzhoyev (25) – A native of Engenoi, Chechnya.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3659936.stm Beslan rogues gallery published] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726202230/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3659936.stm |date=26 July 2020}}, BBC News, 15 September 2004.
• Adam Akhmedovich Poshev (22) – An Ingush from Malgobek, Ingushetia.
• Mayrbek Said-Aliyevich ShaybekhanovAlso spelled Mairbek Shebikhanov (25) – A Chechen from Engenoi who lived in Psedakh, Ingushetia. He was arrested in Ingushetia and then released shortly before the school attack.{{cite news|url=http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/11/19/011.html |title=Girl, 16, Held in Beslan Investigation |work=The Moscow Times |access-date=29 July 2006 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051111164139/http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2004/11/19/011.html |archive-date=11 November 2005}}[http://www.commersant.com/p-1695/r_500/Basaev_Directed_the_Seizure_by_Phone/ Basaev Directed the Seizure by Phone] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928044024/http://www.commersant.com/p-1695/r_500/Basaev_Directed_the_Seizure_by_Phone/ |date=28 September 2007}}, Kommersant, 7 September 2004.
• Islam Said-Aliyevich Shaybekhanov (20) – A Chechen from Engenoi who lived in Psedakh, Ingushetia.{{Cite web|url=https://regnum.ru/news/356312|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20201003110047/https://regnum.ru/news/356312.html|title=Неопознанными остаются три жертвы теракта в Беслане (Северная Осетия)|archivedate=3 October 2020|website=Неопознанными остаются три жертвы теракта в Беслане (Северная Осетия)}}
• Buran Tetradze (31) – Allegedly an ethnic Georgian and native of Rustavi, Georgia. His identity/existence was refuted by Georgia's security minister.
• Issa TorshkhoyevAlso spelled Isa Torshkhoev (26) – An Ingush native of Malgobek, Ingushetia. He was wanted since the shootout in 2003 when his home was raided by the police. His family asserted that his interest in joining the Chechen militant movement was incited when Torshkhoyev witnessed five of his close friends being killed by Russian security forces during the same raid. His father, who was brought in to identify his body, reportedly claimed that the body was not that of his son.[https://www.theguardian.com/russia/article/0,2763,1315930,00.html Tracing a tragedy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240312122401/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/30/russia.chechnya |date=12 March 2024}}, The Guardian, 30 September 2004.
• Issa Zhumaldinovich Tarshkhoyev (23) – An Ingush from Malgobek, Ingushetia. He was arrested for armed robbery in 1999 but was later released.
• Bei-Alla BashirovichAlso spelled Bay Ala Tsechoyev (31) – An Ingush, had a prior conviction for possessing illegal firearms.
• Musa Isayevich Tsechoyev (35) – An Ingush from Sagopshi, Ingushetia who owned the truck that drove the insurgents to the school.
• Timur Magomedovich TsokiyevAlso spelled Tsokiev (31) – An Ingush from Sagopshi, Ingushetia.
• Aslan Akhmedovich Yaryzhev (22) – An Ingush from Malgobek, Ingushetia.

; Female

In April 2005, the identity of the shahidka female militants was revealed:{{cite news|author=Walsh, Nick Paton|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/apr/22/chechnya.russia|title=Russia blames Chechen sisters for suicide bombings|newspaper=The Guardian|date=2005-04-22|access-date=2018-01-20|archive-date=21 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180121071230/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/apr/22/chechnya.russia|url-status=live}}

• Roza Nagayeva (30) – A Chechen woman from the village of Kirov-Yurt in Chechnya's Vedensky District and sister of Amnat Nagayeva, who was suspected of being the suicide bomber who blew up one of the two Russian airliners brought down on 24 August 2004. Roza Nagayeva was previously named as having bombed the Rizhskaya metro station in Moscow on 31 August 2004.
• MairamAlso spelled Maryam Taburova (27) – A Chechen woman from the village of Mair-Tub in Chechnya's Shalinsky District.

The captured suspect, 24-year-old Nur-Pashi Kulayev, born in Chechnya, was identified by former hostages as one of the hostage-takers. The state-controlled Channel One showed fragments of Kulayev's interrogation in which he said his group was led by a Chechnya-born man nicknamed Polkovnik and by the North Ossetia native Vladimir Khodov. According to Kulayev, Polkovnik shot another militant and detonated two female suicide bombers because they objected to capturing children.[https://web.archive.org/web/20080223150208/http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=401&issue_id=3063&article_id=2368474 Ingush ex-cop reportedly among hostage-takers], The Jamestown Foundation, 8 September 2004.

In May 2005, Kulayev was a defendant in a court in the Republic of North Ossetia. He was charged with murder, terrorism, kidnapping, and other crimes and pleaded guilty on seven of the counts;{{cite news|date=18 May 2006|url=http://english.pravda.ru/accidents/21/96/382/15488_beslan.html|title=Victims of Beslan hostage crisis demand death penalty to the only arrested terrorist|publisher=pravda.ru|access-date=29 July 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060618065657/http://english.pravda.ru/accidents/21/96/382/15488_beslan.html|archive-date=18 June 2006|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}} many former hostages denounced the trial as a "smoke screen" and "farce". Some of the relatives of the victims, who used the trial in their attempts to accuse the authorities, even called for a pardon for Kulayev so he could speak freely about what happened. The director of the FSB, Nikolai Patrushev, was summoned to give evidence, but he did not attend the trial. Ten days later, on 26 May 2006, Nur-Pashi Kulayev was sentenced to life imprisonment.{{cite news|date=26 May 2006|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5018928.stm|title=Beslan attacker jailed for life|work=BBC News|access-date=29 July 2006|archive-date=17 November 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061117085530/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5018928.stm|url-status=live}} Kulayev later disappeared in the Russian prison system.[https://web.archive.org/web/20081226215433/http://eng.kavkaz.memo.ru/newstext/engnews/id/1168540.html Head of Beslan commission to check information on Kulaev's death], Memorial, 5 January 2007. Following questions about whether Kulayev had been killed or died in prison, Russian government officials said in 2007 that he was alive and awaiting the start of his sentence.[https://web.archive.org/web/20081227081850/http://eng.kavkaz.memo.ru/newstext/engnews/id/1169480.html FPES refutes information on Kulaev's death], Memorial, 6 January 2007.{{clarify|date=May 2017|reason=How could he be "awaiting the start of his sentence" in 2007 if he was sentenced in 2006?}}

Family members of the victims of the attacks have accused the security forces of incompetence, and have demanded that authorities be held accountable. Putin personally promised to the Mothers of Beslan group to hold an "objective investigation". On 26 December 2005, Russian prosecutors investigating the siege on the school declared that authorities had made no mistakes whatsoever.{{cite news|date=26 December 2005|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4561052.stm|title='No mistakes', Beslan report says|work=BBC News|access-date=29 July 2006|archive-date=13 March 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060313221719/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4561052.stm|url-status=live}}

At a press conference with foreign journalists on 6 September 2004, Vladimir Putin rejected the prospect of an open public inquiry, but cautiously agreed with an idea of a parliamentary investigation led by the State Duma, dominated by the pro-Kremlin parties.{{cite web |date=8 September 2004 |url=http://www.kremlin.ru/text/publications/2004/09/76490.shtml |title=Putin does not see a link between Chechnya and Beslan |publisher=Nezavisimaya Gazeta, cited by kremlin.ru |access-date=20 February 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071018054028/http://kremlin.ru/text/publications/2004/09/76490.shtml |archive-date = 18 October 2007}}[https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/07/russia.chechnya Angry Putin rejects public Beslan inquiry] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726213536/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/07/russia.chechnya |date=26 July 2020}}, The Guardian, 7 September 2004.

In November 2004, the Interfax news agency reported Aleksandr Torshin, head of the parliamentary commission, as saying that there was evidence of involvement by "a foreign intelligence agency" (he declined to say which).{{cite web |date=27 November 2004 |url=http://www.newsru.com/russia/27nov2004/torshin.html |title=Foreign intelligence involved in Beslan school capture |publisher=Interfax, cited by NEWSru |access-date=20 February 2007 |archive-date=18 October 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071018161158/http://newsru.com/russia/27nov2004/torshin.html |url-status=live}} On 22 December 2006, the Russian parliamentary commission ended their investigation into the incident. Their report concluded that the number of gunmen who stormed the school was 32 and laid much of the blame on the North Ossetian police, stating that there was a severe shortcoming in security measures, but also criticizing authorities for under-reporting the number of hostages involved.[https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/beefed-up-security-could-have-prevented-beslan-siege-probe-head-says-1.530234 Beefed-up security could have prevented Beslan siege, probe head says] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201002183522/https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/beefed-up-security-could-have-prevented-beslan-siege-probe-head-says-1.530234 |date=2 October 2020}}, CBC News, 28 December 2005. In addition, the commission said the attack on the school was premeditated by Chechen terrorist leadership, including the moderate leader Aslan Maskhadov. In another controversial move, the commission claimed that the shoot-out that ended the siege was instigated by the hostage-takers, not security forces.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6202735.stm Terrorists blamed for Beslan deaths] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809081801/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6202735.stm |date=9 August 2020}}, BBC News, 22 December 2006. About the "grounded" decision to use flamethrowers, Torshin said that "international law does not prohibit using them against terrorists."[https://archive.today/20070518140813/http://www.borrull.org/e/noticia.php?id=55413&id2=4966 FSB flamethrowers caused no fire at Beslan school], RIA Novosti, 28 December 2005. Ella Kesayeva, an activist who leads a Beslan support group, suggested that the report was meant as a signal that Putin and his circle were no longer interested in having a discussion about the crisis.

On 28 August 2006, Duma member Yuri Savelyev, a member of the federal parliamentary inquiry panel, publicised his own report which he said proves that Russian forces deliberately stormed the school using maximum force. According to Savelyev, a weapons and explosives expert, special forces fired rocket-propelled grenades without warning as a prelude to an armed assault, ignoring apparently ongoing negotiations. In February 2007, two members of the commission (Savelyev and Yuri Ivanov) denounced the investigation as a cover-up, and the Kremlin's official version of events as fabricated. They refused to approve the Torshin's report.

Three local policemen of the Pravoberezhny District ROVD (district militsiya unit) were the only officials put on trial over the massacre. They were charged with negligence in failing to stop gunmen seizing the school.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3678066.stm Hundreds still missing in Beslan] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726205252/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3678066.stm |date=26 July 2020}}, BBC News, 21 September 2004. On 30 May 2007, the Pravoberezhny Court's judge granted an amnesty to them. In response, a group of dozens of local women rioted and ransacked the courtroom by smashing windows, overturning furniture, and tearing down a Russian flag. Victims' groups said the trial had been a whitewash designed to protect their superiors from blame.[https://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL2973589920070529 Amnesty granted to Beslan siege police] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081224014332/http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSL2973589920070529 |date=24 December 2008}}, Reuters, 29 May 2007. The victims of the siege said they would appeal against the court judgement.[https://web.archive.org/web/20081227082316/http://eng.kavkaz.memo.ru/newstext/engnews/id/1188208.html Amnesty act applied to Beslan militiamen will be appealed against], Memorial, 30 May 2007.

In June 2007, a court in Kabardino-Balkaria charged two Malgobeksky District ROVD police officials, Mukhazhir Yevloyev and Akhmed Kotiyev, with negligence, accusing them of failing to prevent the attackers from setting up their training and staging camp in Ingushetia. The two pleaded innocent,[http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/06/29/013.html Beslan Mothers Sue in Strasbourg] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070911154843/http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/06/29/013.html |date=11 September 2007}}, The Moscow Times, 29 June 2007. and were acquitted in October 2007. The verdict was upheld by the Supreme Court of Ingushetia in March 2008. The victims said they would appeal the decision to the European Court for Human Rights.[http://northcaucdistr.eng.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/7187/ Supreme Court upholds acquittal of Ingush militiamen on Beslan events] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110823095209/http://northcaucdistr.eng.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/7187/ |date=23 August 2011}}, Caucasian Knot, 6 March 2008.

The handling of the siege by Vladimir Putin's administration was criticised by a number of observers and grassroots organisations, amongst them Mothers of Beslan and Voice of Beslan.[https://web.archive.org/web/20110827035818/http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/beslan-mothers-stay-in-court-all-night/197300.html Beslan Mothers Stay In Court All Night], The Moscow Times, 4 May 2007. Soon after the crisis, the independent MP Vladimir Ryzhkov blamed "the top leadership" of Russia. Initially, the European Union also criticised the response.{{cite news|date=5 September 2004|url=https://www.theguardian.com/russia/article/0,,1297703,00.html|title=EU doubts shatter unity|work=The Guardian|access-date=31 July 2006|location=London|first=David|last=Smith|archive-date=12 March 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240312122459/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/05/eu.chechnya|url-status=live}}

Critics, including Beslan residents who survived the attack and relatives of the victims, focused on allegations that the storming of the school was ruthless. They cite the use of heavy weapons, such as tanks and Shmel rocket flamethrowers.[http://rus.tmtbb.ru/news/article/beslan-residents-say-forces-used-grenades/224058.html Beslan Residents Say Forces Used Grenades] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110826113643/http://rus.tmtbb.ru/news/article/beslan-residents-say-forces-used-grenades/224058.html |date=26 August 2011}}, The Moscow Times, 6 April 2005.[http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-beslan_nu_rodriguezjan18,1,1649328,full.story Beslan moms blame Putin, face charges]{{Dead link|date=April 2016}}, Chicago Tribune, 18 January 2008. Their usage was officially confirmed.[http://www.pravdabeslana.ru/pass.htm The sensational statement of the representative of public prosecutor: "Tanks and flame throwers were used during the storm"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161023114139/http://www.pravdabeslana.ru/pass.htm |date=23 October 2016}}, Novaya Gazeta 7 April 2005 (Pravda Beslana translation/mirror) The Shmel is a type of thermobaric weapon, described by a source associated with the US military as "just about the most vicious weapon you can imagine – igniting the air, sucking the oxygen out of an enclosed area and creating a massive pressure wave crushing anything unfortunate enough to have lived through the conflagration." Pavel Felgenhauer has gone further and accused the government of also firing rockets from an Mi-24 attack helicopter,[http://www.kolumbus.fi/suomi-tshetshenia-seura/howthe.htm How The School Was Stormed] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303211849/http://www.kolumbus.fi/suomi-tshetshenia-seura/howthe.htm |date=3 March 2016}}, Novaya Gazeta, 7 October 2004. a claim that the authorities deny. Some human rights activists claim that at least 80% of the hostages were killed by indiscriminate Russian fire. According to Felgenhauer, "It was not a hostage rescue operation ... but an army operation aimed at wiping out the terrorists." David Satter of the Hudson Institute said the incident "presents a chilling portrait of the Russian leadership and its total disregard for human life".

The provincial government and police were criticised by the locals for having allowed the attack to take place, especially since police roadblocks on the way to Beslan were removed shortly before the attack.[http://kalmykia.eng.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/4211/ Beslan victims talk to Kulayev] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110819062526/http://kalmykia.eng.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/4211/ |date=19 August 2011}}, Memorial, 7 July 2005. Many blamed rampant corruption that allowed the attackers to bribe their way through the checkpoints; in fact, this was even what they had openly boasted to their hostages.[http://iwpr.net/?p=crs&s=f&o=243899&apc_state=henicrs2005 North Ossetia: Quit While You're Behind] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729085118/https://iwpr.net/?p=crs&s=f&o=243899&apc_state=henicrs2005 |date=29 July 2020}}, Institute for War and Peace Reporting, 9 June 2005. Others say the militants took the back roads used by smugglers in collusion with the police.[http://www.slate.com/id/2133395/entry/2133396/ So Much for Glasnost] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081123053722/http://www.slate.com/id/2133395/entry/2133396/ |date=23 November 2008}}, Slate, 28 December 2005. Yulia Latynina alleged that Major Gurazhev was captured after he approached the militants' truck to demand a bribe for what he thought was an oil-smuggling operation.[http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=19941 Too Many Exceptions to Be a Rule] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081227154113/http://www.sptimes.ru/index.php?action_id=2&story_id=19941 |date=27 December 2008}}, The St. Petersburg Times, 29 December 2006. It was also alleged the federal police knew of the time and place of the planned attack; according to internal police documents obtained by Novaya Gazeta, the Moscow MVD knew about the hostage taking four hours in advance, having learned this from a militant captured in Chechnya.[https://web.archive.org/web/20110831120149/http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/police-under-fire-for-beslan/196228.html Police Under Fire for Beslan], The Moscow Times, 20 June 2007. According to Basayev, the road to Beslan was cleared of roadblocks because the FSB planned to ambush the group later, believing the terrorists' aim was to seize the parliament of North Ossetia in Vladikavkaz.

Critics also charged that the authorities did not organise the siege properly, including failing to keep the scene secure from entry by civilians,[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3634114.stm Civilians 'began siege shooting'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726215205/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3634114.stm |date=26 July 2020}}, BBC News, 7 September 2004. while the emergency services were not prepared during the 52 hours of the crisis. The Russian government has been also heavily criticised by many of the local people who, days and even months after the siege, did not know whether their children were alive or dead, as the hospitals were isolated from the outside world.{{clarify|date=April 2012}} Two months after the crisis, a local driver named Muran Katsanov found human remains and identity documents in the garbage landfill at the outskirts of Beslan; the discovery prompted further outrage.[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article415412.ece Victims of Beslan siege found in a rubbish dump] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110912112512/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article415412.ece |date=12 September 2011}}, The Times, 26 February 2005.[https://web.archive.org/web/20080223150119/http://www.jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2369369 New remains discovered in Beslan: Incompetence or crime?], The Jamestown Foundation, 4 March 2005.

In addition, there were serious accusations that federal officials had not earnestly tried to negotiate with the hostage-takers (including the alleged threat from Moscow to arrest President Dzasokhov if he came to negotiate) and deliberately provided incorrect and inconsistent reports of the situation to the media.

The report by Yuri Savelyev, a dissenting parliamentary investigator and one of Russia's leading rocket scientists, placed the responsibility for the final massacre on actions of the Russian forces and the highest-placed officials in the federal government.[https://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/10/world/russian-s-links-to-iran-offer-a-case-study-in-arms-leaks.html?pagewanted=all Russian's Links to Iran Offer a Case Study in Arms Leak] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200911044124/https://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/10/world/russian-s-links-to-iran-offer-a-case-study-in-arms-leaks.html?pagewanted=all |date=11 September 2020}}, The New York Times, 10 May 2000. Savelyev's 2006 report, devoting 280 pages to determining responsibility for the initial blast, concludes that the authorities decided to storm the school building, but wanted to create the impression they were acting in response to actions taken by the terrorists.These allegations are discussed in more detail elsewhere in this article. Savelyev, the only expert on the physics of combustion on the commission, accused Torshin of "deliberate falsification".[http://www.hudson.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=publication_details&id=4306&pubType=HI_Articles The Aftermath of Beslan] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081026084542/http://www.hudson.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=publication_details&id=4306&pubType=HI_Articles |date=26 October 2008}}, Hudson Institute, 15 November 2006.

A separate public inquiry by the North Ossetian parliament (headed by Kesayev) concluded on 29 November 2005 that both local and federal law enforcement mishandled the situation.

On 26 June 2007, 89 relatives of victims lodged a joint complaint against Russia with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The applicants say their rights were violated both during the hostage-taking and the trials that followed.[http://rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/06/9866BF41-7C46-4754-8E30-09D9514C79F0.html Relatives Of Beslan Victims Apply To European Court] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080613142614/http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/06/9866bf41-7c46-4754-8e30-09d9514c79f0.html |date=13 June 2008}}, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 26 June 2007. The case was brought by over 400 Russians.

In an April 2017 judgement that supported the prosecutors, the court deemed that Russia's failure to act on "sufficient" evidence about a likely attack on a North Ossetia school had violated the "Right to Life" guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights. The court stated the error was made worse by the Russian use of "indiscriminate force".{{Cite news|url=https://www.ft.com/content/a241456c-2034-11e7-a454-ab04428977f9|title=Russia failed to prevent terror attack, Strasbourg rules|newspaper=Financial Times|date=13 April 2017|last1=Robinson|first1=Duncan|last2=McClean|first2=Paul|access-date=15 April 2017|archive-date=26 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726201559/https://www.ft.com/content/a241456c-2034-11e7-a454-ab04428977f9|url-status=live}} Result were published in April 2017, and found that Russian actions in using tank cannons, flame-throwers and grenade launchers "contributed to the casualties among the hostages", and had "not been compatible with the requirement under Article 2 that lethal force be used "no more than [is] absolutely necessary". The report also said that "The authorities had been in possession of sufficiently specific information of a planned terrorist attack in the area, linked to an educational institution", "nevertheless, not enough had been done to disrupt the terrorists meeting and preparing", or to warn schools or the public.{{cite web |url=http://news.sky.com/story/russias-response-to-beslan-school-attack-had-serious-failings-10835210 |title=Russia's Beslan school siege 'failings' breached human rights |publisher=Sky News |date=13 April 2017 |access-date=13 April 2017 |archive-date=13 April 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170413234845/http://news.sky.com/story/russias-response-to-beslan-school-attack-had-serious-failings-10835210 |url-status=live}}{{cite web |url=http://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/european-court-of-human-rights-finds-serious-failings-by-russia-in-beslan-school-siege |title=European Court of Human Rights finds 'serious failings' by Russia in Beslan school siege |work=The Straits Times |date=13 April 2017 |access-date=13 April 2017 |archive-date=29 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729055401/https://www.straitstimes.com/world/europe/european-court-of-human-rights-finds-serious-failings-by-russia-in-beslan-school-siege |url-status=live}}{{cite web|date=2017-04-13|title=Serious failings in the response of the Russian authorities to the Beslan attack|url=https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/app/conversion/pdf/?library=ECHR&id=003-5684105-7210070|publisher=Registrar of The European Court of Human Rights|access-date=26 December 2017|archive-date=26 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171226131343/https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/app/conversion/pdf/?library=ECHR&id=003-5684105-7210070|url-status=live}}

The ECHR court in Strasbourg ordered Russia to pay €2.9 million in damages and €88,000 in legal costs. The Court's findings were rejected by the Russian Government.{{cite news |url=http://www.scmp.com/news/world/russia-central-asia/article/2087450/russia-furious-european-courts-ruling-how-it-handled |title=Russia furious at European court's ruling of how it handled Beslan school siege that left 330 dead |newspaper=South China Morning Post |date=13 April 2017 |access-date=13 April 2017 |archive-date=7 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200907032335/https://www.scmp.com/news/world/russia-central-asia/article/2087450/russia-furious-european-courts-ruling-how-it-handled |url-status=live}} Although obligated to accept the ruling because it is a signatory of the European Convention on Human Rights, the Kremlin called the ruling "absolutely unacceptable". The Russian government challenged it in a higher chamber: it argued that several of the court's conclusions were "not backed up", but ultimately agreed to the ruling after the complaints were rejected by the Strasbourg-based court.{{cite web |title=Russia agrees to accept court ruling on Beslan compensation |url=https://www.yahoo.com/news/russia-agrees-accept-court-ruling-beslan-compensation-142552498.html |access-date=3 September 2020 |archive-date=20 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170920180036/https://www.yahoo.com/news/russia-agrees-accept-court-ruling-beslan-compensation-142552498.html |url-status=dead}}

{{See also|Russian government censorship of Chechnya coverage#Beslan hostage crisis}}

In resistance to the coverage on foreign television news channels (such as CNN and the BBC), the crisis was not broadcast live by the three major state-owned Russian television networks. The two main state-owned broadcasters, Channel One and Rossiya, did not interrupt their regular programming following the school seizure.[https://web.archive.org/web/20051104055524/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fopinion%2F2004%2F09%2F07%2Fdl0702.xml&sSheet=%2Fportal%2F2004%2F09%2F07%2Fixportal.html Putin's media censorship], The Telegraph, 7 September 2004. After explosions and gunfire started on the third day, NTV Russia shifted away from the scenes of mayhem to broadcast a World War II soap opera. According to the Ekho Moskvy ("Echo of Moscow") radio station, 92% of the people polled said that Russian TV channels concealed parts of information.

Russian state-controlled television only reported official information about the number of hostages during the course of the crisis. The figure of 354 people was persistently given, initially reported by Lev Dzugayev (the press secretary of Dzasokhov)After the crisis, Dzugayev was promoted and a made minister for culture and mass communications of the republic.[https://web.archive.org/web/20090104222229/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20050131/ai_n9693451 Backslash in Beslan], The Independent, 31 January 2005. and Valery Andreyev (the chief of the republican FSB). It was later claimed that Dzugayev only disseminated information given to him by "Russian presidential staff who were located in Beslan from 1 September". Torshin laid the blame squarely at Andreyev, for whom he reserved special scorn.[https://web.archive.org/web/20090103212330/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20051229/ai_n15983980 Beslan siege investigation chief points finger], The Independent, 29 December 2005.

The deliberately false figure had grave consequences for the treatment of the hostages by their angered captors (the hostage-takers were reported saying, "Maybe we should kill enough of you to get down to that number") and contributed to the declaration of a "hunger strike". One inquiry has suggested that it may have prompted the militants to kill the group of male hostages shot on the first day. The government disinformation also sparked incidents of violence by the local residents, aware of the real numbers, against the members of Russian and foreign media.{{cite web |first=Miklós |last=Haraszti |title=Report on Russian media coverage of the Beslan tragedy: Access to information and journalists' working conditions |work= Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe |date=16 September 2004 |url=https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/b/d/37295.pdf |access-date=7 April 2025 }}

On 8 September 2004, several leading Russian and international human-rights organisations – including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Memorial, and Moscow Helsinki Group – issued a joint statement in which they pointed out the responsibility that Russian authorities bore in disseminating false information:

We are also seriously concerned with the fact that authorities concealed the true scale of the crisis by, inter alia, misinforming Russian society about the number of hostages. We call on Russian authorities to conduct a comprehensive investigation into the circumstances of the Beslan events which should include an examination of how authorities informed the whole society and the families of the hostages. We call on making the results of such an investigation public."

The Moscow daily tabloid Moskovskij Komsomolets ran a rubric headlined "Chronicle of Lies", detailing various initial reports put out by government officials about the hostage taking, which later turned out to be false.

The late Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who had negotiated during the 2002 Moscow siege, was twice prevented by the authorities from boarding a flight. When she eventually succeeded, she fell into a coma after being poisoned aboard an aeroplane bound for Rostov-on-Don.[http://www.kolumbus.fi/suomi-tshetshenia-seura/what.htm On Anna Politkovskaya falling into a coma] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303170640/http://www.kolumbus.fi/suomi-tshetshenia-seura/what.htm |date=3 March 2016}}, Novaya Gazeta, 4 September 2004.

According to the report by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), several correspondents were detained or otherwise harassed after arriving in Beslan (including Russians Anna Gorbatova and Oksana Semyonova from Novye Izvestia, Madina Shavlokhova from Moskovskij Komsomolets, Elena Milashina from Novaya Gazeta, and Simon Ostrovskiy from The Moscow Times). Several foreign journalists were also briefly detained, including a group of journalists from the Polish Gazeta Wyborcza, French Libération, and British The Guardian. Many foreign journalists were exposed to pressure from the security forces and materials were confiscated from TV crews ZDF and ARD (Germany), AP Television News (US), and Rustavi 2 (Georgia). The crew of Rustavi 2 was arrested; the Georgian Minister of Health said that the correspondent Nana Lezhava, who had been kept for five days in the Russian pre-trial detention centers, had been poisoned with dangerous psychotropic drugs (like Politkovskaya, Lezhava had passed out after being given a cup of tea). The crew from another Georgian TV channel, Mze, was expelled from Beslan.

Raf Shakirov, chief editor of the Russia's leading newspaper, Izvestia, was forced to resign after criticism by the major shareholders of both style and content of the issue of 4 September 2004.{{cite news |date=8 September 2004|url=http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2004/200409/20040908.html|title=The Current for Show September 8, 2004|publisher=CBC Radio One|access-date=14 February 2007 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070505064942/http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/2004/200409/20040908.html |archive-date = 5 May 2007}} In contrast to the less emotional coverage by other Russian newspapers, Izvestia had featured large pictures of dead or injured hostages. It also expressed doubts about the government's version of events.Izvestia, 4 September 2004;{{cite web|url=http://www.izvestia.ru/data/pdf/04-09-2004/01-izv.pdf |title=p. 1 |access-date=1 November 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090318200840/http://www.izvestia.ru/data/pdf/04-09-2004/01-izv.pdf |archive-date=18 March 2009 |df=dmy}}, {{cite web|url=http://www.izvestia.ru/data/pdf/04-09-2004/02-izv.pdf |title=p. 2 |access-date=1 November 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090318201030/http://www.izvestia.ru/data/pdf/04-09-2004/02-izv.pdf |archive-date=18 March 2009 |df=dmy}}, {{cite web|url=http://www.izvestia.ru/data/pdf/04-09-2004/03-izv.pdf |title=p. 3 |access-date=1 November 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090318201120/http://www.izvestia.ru/data/pdf/04-09-2004/03-izv.pdf |archive-date=18 March 2009 |df=dmy}}, {{cite web|url=http://www.izvestia.ru/data/pdf/04-09-2004/04-izv.pdf |title=p. 4 |access-date=1 November 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090318201205/http://www.izvestia.ru/data/pdf/04-09-2004/04-izv.pdf |archive-date=18 March 2009 |df=dmy}}, {{cite web|url=http://www.izvestia.ru/data/pdf/04-09-2004/05-izv.pdf |title=p. 5 |access-date=1 November 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090318200925/http://www.izvestia.ru/data/pdf/04-09-2004/05-izv.pdf |archive-date=18 March 2009 |df=dmy}}, {{cite web|url=http://www.izvestia.ru/data/pdf/04-09-2004/06-izv.pdf |title=p. 6 |access-date=1 November 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090318201054/http://www.izvestia.ru/data/pdf/04-09-2004/06-izv.pdf |archive-date=18 March 2009 |df=dmy}}, {{cite web|url=http://www.izvestia.ru/data/pdf/04-09-2004/07-izv.pdf |title=p. 7 |access-date=1 November 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090318201142/http://www.izvestia.ru/data/pdf/04-09-2004/07-izv.pdf |archive-date=18 March 2009 |df=dmy}}, {{cite web|url=http://www.izvestia.ru/data/pdf/04-09-2004/08-izv.pdf |title=p. 8 |access-date=1 November 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090318200903/http://www.izvestia.ru/data/pdf/04-09-2004/08-izv.pdf |archive-date=18 March 2009 |df=dmy}}, {{cite web|url=http://www.izvestia.ru/data/pdf/04-09-2004/09-izv.pdf |title=p. 9 |access-date=1 November 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090318201008/http://www.izvestia.ru/data/pdf/04-09-2004/09-izv.pdf |archive-date=18 March 2009 |df=dmy}}, {{cite web|url=http://www.izvestia.ru/data/pdf/04-09-2004/10-izv.pdf |title=p. 10 |access-date=1 November 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090318201301/http://www.izvestia.ru/data/pdf/04-09-2004/10-izv.pdf |archive-date=18 March 2009 |df=dmy}}, {{cite web|url=http://www.izvestia.ru/data/pdf/04-09-2004/11-izv.pdf |title=p. 11 |access-date=1 November 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090318201326/http://www.izvestia.ru/data/pdf/04-09-2004/11-izv.pdf |archive-date=18 March 2009 |df=dmy}}, {{cite web|url=http://www.izvestia.ru/data/pdf/04-09-2004/12-izv.pdf |title=p. 12 |access-date=1 November 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090318200947/http://www.izvestia.ru/data/pdf/04-09-2004/12-izv.pdf |archive-date=18 March 2009 |df=dmy}}

The video tape made by the hostage-takers and given to Ruslan Aushev on the second day was declared by the officials as being "blank".[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,131060,00.html Report: 16 Killed in Russian School Standoff] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106155731/https://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,131060,00.html |date=6 November 2018}} Fox News, 2 September 2004. Aushev himself did not watch the tape before he handed it to government agents. A fragment of tape shot by the hostage-takers was shown on Russian NTV television several days after the crisis.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3636196.stm Russian TV shows school siege terror] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110128151233/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3636196.stm |date=28 January 2011}}, BBC News, 8 September 2004. Another fragment of a tape shot by the hostage-takers was acquired by media and publicised in January 2005.[https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-video-of-beslan-school-terror/ New Video Of Beslan School Terror] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240811012648/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-video-of-beslan-school-terror/ |date=11 August 2024 }} , CBS, 21 January 2005.[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1481831/Terrorist-leader-laughs-in-chilling-Beslan-video.html Terrorist leader laughs in chilling Beslan video] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200607035159/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/1481831/Terrorist-leader-laughs-in-chilling-Beslan-video.html |date=7 June 2020}}, The Telegraph, 23 January 2005.

In July 2007, the Mothers of Beslan asked the FSB to declassify video and audio archives on Beslan, saying there should be no secrets in the investigation.[http://www.eng.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/6089/ "Beslan Mothers" ask FSB to declassify video and audio archives on Beslan] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728104028/http://www.eng.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/6089/ |date=28 July 2011}}, Memorial, 27 July 2007. They did not receive any official answer to this request.[http://adygea.eng.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/6313/ No answer from FSB to request of "Beslan Mothers" to declassify the video archive of the tragedy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811044853/http://adygea.eng.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/6313/ |date=11 August 2011}}, Caucasian Knot, 14 August 2007. However, the Mothers received an anonymous video, which they disclosed saying it might prove that the Russian security forces started the massacre by firing rocket-propelled grenades on the besieged building.[http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/7/283ef224-6750-4631-8ae9-e9ae3b053ba6.html Beslan Mothers Say New Video Refutes Official Version] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080406100158/http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/7/283ef224-6750-4631-8ae9-e9ae3b053ba6.html |date=6 April 2008}}, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 30 July 2007. The film had been kept secret by the authorities for nearly three years before being officially released by the Mothers on 4 September 2007.[https://web.archive.org/web/20071223023110/http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0%2C%2C-6818114%2C00.html Video Reopens Debate Over Beslan Attack], The Guardian, 31 July 2007.[Beslan Mothers Release a Film Beslan Mothers Release a Film], The Moscow Times, 4 September 2007. The graphic film apparently shows the prosecutors and military experts surveying the unexploded shrapnel-based bombs of the militants and structural damage in the school in Beslan shortly after the massacre. Footage shows a large hole in the wall of the sports hall, with a man saying, "The hole in the wall is not from this [kind of] explosion. Apparently someone fired [there]", adding that many victims bear no sign of shrapnel wounds. In another scene filmed next morning, a uniformed investigator points out that most of the IEDs in the school actually did not go off, and then points out a hole in the floor which he calls a "puncture of an explosive character".[http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/29/1991030.htm Beslan mothers claim truth of siege covered up] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110623212803/http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/07/29/1991030.htm |date=23 June 2011}}, ABC, 29 July 2007.

In general, the criticism was rejected by the Russian government. President Vladimir Putin specifically dismissed the foreign criticism as Cold War mentality and said that the West wants to "pull the strings so that Russia won't raise its head."

The Russian government defended the use of tanks and other heavy weaponry, arguing that it was used only after surviving hostages escaped from the school. However, this contradicts the eyewitness accounts, including by the reporters and former hostages.[https://www.usatoday.com/news/topstories/2007-07-31-2989316660_x.htm Video reopens debate over Beslan attack] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110623060904/http://www.usatoday.com/news/topstories/2007-07-31-2989316660_x.htm |date=23 June 2011}}, Associated Press, 31 July 2007. According to the survivors and other witnesses, many hostages were seriously wounded and could not possibly escape by themselves, while others were kept by the terrorists as human shields and moved through the building.[http://www.markmackinnon.ca/dispatches_beslan.html MARK MacKINNON uncovers the true story of the gruesome hostage-taking at Beslan.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222144301/http://www.markmackinnon.ca/dispatches_beslan.html |date=22 February 2017}}, The Globe and Mail, 11 September 2004.

Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia Nikolai Shepel, acting as deputy prosecutor at the trial of the sole surviving attacker, found no fault with the security forces in handling the siege, "According to the conclusions of the investigation, the expert commission did not find any violations that could be responsible for the harmful consequences."[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20051228/ai_n15958745 Probe clears handling of Beslan siege] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160108185646/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4188/is_20051228/ai_n15958745 |date=8 January 2016}}, The Independent, 28 December 2005. Shepel acknowledged that commandos fired flamethrowers, but said this could not have sparked the fire that caused most of the deaths; he also said that the troops did not use napalm during the attack.

To address doubts, in 2005, Putin launched a Duma parliamentary investigation led by Aleksandr Torshin,{{cite news|date=10 September 2004|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/putin-agrees-to-public-inquiry-into-beslan-siege-1.514907|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071018045941/http://cbc.ca/story/world/national/2004/09/10/putin_beslan040910.html|archive-date=18 October 2007|title=Putin agrees to public inquiry into Beslan siege |publisher=CBC News|url-status=live|access-date=31 July 2006}} resulting in the report which criticised the federal government only indirectly[http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/12/28/news/beslan.php Beslan siege: The blame] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060102125552/http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/12/28/news/beslan.php |date=2 January 2006}}, International Herald Tribune, 29 December 2005. and instead put blame for "a whole number of blunders and shortcomings" on local authorities.{{cite news|date=29 December 2005|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/28/AR2005122800194.html|title=New Report Puts Blame on Local Officials In Beslan Siege|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=31 July 2006|first=Peter|last=Finn|archive-date=24 July 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724013123/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/28/AR2005122800194.html|url-status=live}} The findings of the federal and the North Ossetian commissions differed widely in many main aspects.[http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/01/7E7550CC-9EA5-43C4-973F-F2CDE65514B9.html Russia: Beslan Reports Compared] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080709064942/http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/01/7e7550cc-9ea5-43c4-973f-f2cde65514b9.html |date=9 July 2008}}, The Jamestown Foundation, 3 January 2007.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4360106.stm Russian army cleared over Beslan] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726201603/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4360106.stm |date=26 July 2020}}, BBC News, 20 October 2005.

In 2005, previously unreleased documents by the national commission in Moscow were made available to Der Spiegel. According to the paper, "instead of calling for self-criticism in the wake of the disaster, the commission recommended the Russian government to crack down harder."

Three local top officials resigned in the aftermath of the tragedy:President Zyazikov of Ingushetia was forced to resign in 2008 but for unrelated reasons: the death of oppositionist journalist Magomed Yevloyev, who was shot in police detention.{{cite news|date=4 September 2004|url=http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/09/04/russia.putin/index.html|title=Putin: 'An attack on our country'|publisher=CNN|access-date=31 July 2006|archive-date=8 March 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060308005100/http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/09/04/russia.putin/index.html|url-status=live}}

• North Ossetian Interior Minister Kazbek Dzantiyev resigned shortly after the crisis, saying that after what happened in Beslan, he "[didn't] have the right to occupy this post as an officer and a man."[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3628432.stm Hostage town buries its children] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200926130430/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3628432.stm |date=26 September 2020}} BBC News, 5 September 2004.
• Valery Andreyev, the chief of the Ossetia's FSB, also submitted his resignation soon after. However, he was later elevated to the prestigious position of Deputy Rector of FSB Academy.{{cite news|date=13 September 2004|url=http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=401&issue_id=3067&article_id=2368493|title=Ex-North Ossetian law-enforcer describes endemic corruption|publisher=The Jamestown Foundation|access-date=29 July 2006|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060718042120/http://www.jamestown.org/publications_details.php?volume_id=401&issue_id=3067&article_id=2368493 |archive-date = 18 July 2006}}
• Alexander Dzasokhov, the president of North Ossetia, resigned his post on 31 May 2005, after a series of demonstrations against him in Beslan and public pressure from Mothers of Beslan on Putin to have him dismissed.[http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/09/3744ef0e-ae76-4fb7-bf3d-610d751b76fd.html Russia: Putin Rejects Open Inquiry Into Beslan Tragedy As Critical Voices Mount] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080907045006/http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/09/3744ef0e-ae76-4fb7-bf3d-610d751b76fd.html |date=7 September 2008}}, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 7 September 2004.[https://web.archive.org/web/20070930190421/http://www.jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2369314 Beslan mothers trust Putin, demand Dzasakhov's head], The Jamestown Foundation, 24 February 2005.

Five Ossetian and Ingush police officers were tried in the local courts; all of them were subsequently amnestied or acquitted in 2007. As of December 2009, none of the Russian federal officials suffered consequences in connection with the Beslan events.

Nur-Pashi Kulayev, the sole survivor of the 32 attackers, claimed that attacking a school and targeting mothers and young children was not merely coincidental, but was deliberately designed for maximum outrage with the purpose of igniting a wider war in the Caucasus. According to Kulayev, the attackers hoped that the mostly Orthodox Ossetians would attack their mostly Muslim Ingush and Chechen neighbours to seek revenge, encouraging ethnic and religious hatred and strife throughout the North Caucasus.{{cite news|first=Sanobar |last=Shermatova |title=Basayev knew there to hit |url=http://www.mn.ru/issue.php?2004-39-11 |work=Moskovskiye Novosti N39 |date=15 October 2004 |access-date=11 September 2007 |language=ru |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071018074441/http://mn.ru/issue.php?2004-39-11 |archive-date=18 October 2007}} North Ossetia and Ingushetia had previously been involved in a brief but bloody conflict in 1992 over disputed land in the North Ossetian Prigorodny District, leaving up to 1,000 dead and some 40,000 to 60,000 displaced persons, mostly Ingush. Indeed, shortly after the Beslan massacre, 3,000 people demonstrated in Vladikavkaz calling for revenge against the ethnic Ingush.

The expected backlash against neighbouring nations failed to materialise on a massive scale. In one noted incident, a group of ethnic Ossetian soldiers led by a Russian officer detained two Chechen Spetsnaz soldiers and executed one of them.[http://www.memo.ru/eng/memhrc/texts/05bul01.shtml Armed Clashes Between Federal Military Servicemen and Personnel of Republican Security Agencies] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080311053502/http://www.memo.ru/eng/memhrc/texts/05bul01.shtml |date=11 March 2008}}, Memorial, January 2005. In July 2007, the office of the presidential envoy for the Southern Federal District Dmitry Kozak announced that a North Ossetian armed group engaged in abductions as retaliation for the Beslan school hostage-taking.[https://web.archive.org/web/20080206214443/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,692846-1,00.html Defenseless Targets], Time, 5 September 2004.[https://web.archive.org/web/20070930055946/http://www.rferl.org/newsline/2007/07/1-RUS/rus-170707.asp Federal Official suggests Ingush abductions are revenge for Beslan], Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 17 July 2007. FSB Lieutenant Colonel Alikhan Kalimatov, sent from Moscow to investigate these cases, was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in September 2007.[http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11879203&PageNum=0 High-ranking security officer killed in Ingushetia] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080127201500/http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11879203&PageNum=0 |date=27 January 2008}}, ITAR-TASS, 18 September 2007.

In September 2005, the self-proclaimed faith healer and miracle-maker Grigory Grabovoy claimed he could resurrect the murdered children. Grabovoy was arrested and indicted of fraud in April 2006, amidst the accusations that he was being used by the government as a tool to discredit the Mothers of Beslan group.{{cite web |url=http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/09/28/007.html |title=Cult Leader Takes Heat Off Kremlin |work=The Moscow Times |date=28 September 2005 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060101111302/http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/09/28/007.html |archive-date=1 January 2006}}

In January 2008, the Voice of Beslan group, which in the previous year had been court-ordered to disband, was charged by Russian prosecutors with "extremism" for their appeals in 2005 to the European Parliament to help establish an international investigation.[http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L10622667.htm Beslan siege group says faces trial over campaign] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090126181222/http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L10622667.htm |date=26 January 2009}}, Reuters, 10 January 2008.[http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2008/s2188117.htm Beslan siege support group charged with extremism] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200914212627/http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2008/s2188117.htm |date=14 September 2020}}, ABC, 13 March 2008. This was soon followed with other charges, some of them relating to the 2007 court incident. As of February 2008, the group was charged in total of four different criminal cases.[http://northosetia.eng.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/7131/ Another case initiated against "Voice of Beslan"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110823100254/http://northosetia.eng.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/7131/ |date=23 August 2011}}, Caucasian Knot, 25 February 2008.

Russian Patriarch Alexius II's plans to build an Orthodox church as part of the Beslan monument caused a serious conflict between the Orthodox Church and the leadership of the Russian Muslims in 2007.[https://web.archive.org/web/20080223150126/http://www.jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2372095 Beslan memorial sparks religious tension in North Ossetia], The Jamestown Foundation, 12 April 2007. Beslan victims organisations also spoke against the project, and many in Beslan want the ruins of the school to be preserved, opposing the government plan to demolish them.[http://volgograd.eng.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/5830/ Beslan residents are against erection of a temple in the place of the tragedy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110901184203/http://volgograd.eng.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/5830/ |date=1 September 2011}}, Memorial, 17 May 2007.

{{Main|International response to the Beslan school siege}}

The attack at Beslan was met with international abhorrence and universal condemnation. Countries and charities around the world donated to funds set up to assist the families and children that were involved in the Beslan crisis.

At the end of 2004, the International Foundation For Terror Act Victims had raised over $1.2 million with a goal of $10 million.{{cite web |url=http://www.moscowhelp.org/en/faq.html |title=Frequently Asked Questions |publisher=International Foundation for Terror Act Victims |access-date=23 May 2015 |archive-date=4 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304060959/http://www.moscowhelp.org/en/faq.html |url-status=live}} The Israeli government offered help in rehabilitating freed hostages, and during Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov's visit to China in November 2005, the Chinese Health Ministry announced that they were sending doctors to Beslan, and offered free medical care to any of the victims who still needed treatment.{{cite news|date=4 November 2005|url=http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/11/2C4B7E91-6C34-40A6-BB11-573714431AD3.html|title=China To Offer Treatment To Beslan Survivors|publisher=Radio Free Europe|access-date=29 July 2006|archive-date=28 June 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060628025614/http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/11/2C4B7E91-6C34-40A6-BB11-573714431AD3.html|url-status=live}} The then mayor of Croatia's capital Zagreb, Vlasta Pavić, offered free vacations to the Adriatic Sea to the Beslan children.{{Cite web |url=http://beta.24sata.hr/index.php?cmd=show_clanak&tekst_id=22880 |title=Bandić zabranio V. Pavić da primi rusko odličje |access-date=6 July 2015 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120707050822/http://beta.24sata.hr/index.php?cmd=show_clanak&tekst_id=22880 |archive-date=7 July 2012 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all}}

On 1 September 2005, UNICEF marked the first anniversary of the Beslan school tragedy by calling on all adults to shield children from war and conflict.[http://www.unicef.org/ceecis/media_2753.html Beslan one year on: UNICEF Calls On Adults to Shield Children from Conflict] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303194335/http://www.unicef.org/ceecis/media_2753.html |date=3 March 2016}}, UNICEF, 1 September 2005.

Maria Sharapova and many other female Russian tennis players wore black ribbons during the 2004 US Open in memory of the tragedy.

In August 2005, two new schools were built in Beslan, paid for by the Moscow government.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4161316.stm Memories haunt new Beslan schools] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240312123443/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4161316.stm |date=12 March 2024}}, BBC News, 18 August 2005.

• Children of Beslan (2005), a HBO Documentary Films and BBC co-production, produced and directed by Ewa Ewart and Leslie Woodhead, nominated in three different categories under the 2006 Emmy Award festival, and awarded the Royal Television Society prize in the category Best Single Documentary. It also won a Peabody Award in 2005.[http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/children-of-beslan 65th Annual Peabody Awards] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726204519/http://www.peabodyawards.com/award-profile/children-of-beslan |date=26 July 2020}}, May 2006.
• The Beslan Siege (2005), a television documentary by October Films, directed by Richard Alwyn and produced by Liana Pomeranzev, won the Prix Italia Documentary Award for 2006{{Cite web|url = https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0487077/|title = The Beslan Siege (TV Movie 2005)|website = IMDb|access-date = 29 June 2018|archive-date = 17 April 2017|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170417161740/http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0487077/|url-status = live}}
• Return to Beslan (Terug naar Beslan) (2005) A Dutch documentary produced by Netherlands Public Broadcasting, won an Emmy Award in 2005 for "Best Continuing News Coverage"{{cite web |url=http://www.nposales.com/%3Bjsessionid%3D6F9587F1E645E5A07D19F250EBC47ACB?article=3130&template=program |title=NPO Sales / Documentary / Current affairs / Return to Beslan |website=www.nposales.com |access-date=11 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071222204146/http://www.nposales.com/%3Bjsessionid%3D6F9587F1E645E5A07D19F250EBC47ACB?article=3130&template=program |archive-date=22 December 2007 |url-status=dead}}
• Three Days in September (2006), directed by Joe Halderman and narrated by Julia Roberts{{Cite web|url=http://www.sho.com/site/threedaysinseptember/home.do|archive-url=https://archive.today/20121217183940/http://www.sho.com/site/threedaysinseptember/home.do|url-status=dead|archive-date=2012-12-17|title = Showtime: Movies: Home}}
• Beslan (in development but later shelved), a proposed feature film that was set to be produced by Brian Grazer of Imagine Entertainment.[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4992852.stm Hollywood to film Beslan tragedy] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20150101181750/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4992852.stm |date=1 January 2015}}, BBC News, 18 May 2006.
• Beslan. Remember (2019), a YouTube documentary by Russian journalist Yury Dud commemorating the 15th anniversary of the massacre. It featured interviews with witnesses, hostages, journalists, and bureaucrats including Ruslan Aushev, and received over 14 million views in 2 weeks.{{Cite web |title=Провластные журналисты неделю объясняют Юрию Дудю, почему он снял очень плохой фильм про "Беслан". Кратчайший пересказ |url=https://meduza.io/feature/2019/09/13/provlastnye-zhurnalisty-nedelyu-ob-yasnyayut-yuriyu-dudyu-pochemu-on-snyal-ochen-plohoy-film-pro-beslan-kratchayshiy-pereskaz |access-date=2023-08-02 |website=Meduza |language=ru |archive-date=2 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230802002424/https://meduza.io/feature/2019/09/13/provlastnye-zhurnalisty-nedelyu-ob-yasnyayut-yuriyu-dudyu-pochemu-on-snyal-ochen-plohoy-film-pro-beslan-kratchayshiy-pereskaz |url-status=live}} The film was criticised by state media, with Vladimir Solovyov being one of the most vocal. The film received praise from independent publication Novaya Gazeta.{{Cite web |date=2019-09-03 |title=Как вырастить фиалки в аду. Юрий Дудь и Ксения Собчак выпустили документальные фильмы о трагедии Беслана |url=https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2019/09/03/81820-kak-vyrastit-fialki-v-adu |access-date=2023-08-02 |archive-date=3 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190903214848/https://www.novayagazeta.ru/articles/2019/09/03/81820-kak-vyrastit-fialki-v-adu |url-status=bot: unknown}}
• Unclenching the Fists (2021), a film that while not covering the siege, depicts a teenaged girl suffering from physical trauma from the attack. She has scars on her lower abdomen and worse, has urinary incontinence. Her strict father distrusts any institutions, thus will not let her receive surgery and therefore she has to wear to wear adult diapers daily.{{cite web |url=https://reverseshot.org/series/entry/2852/unclenching |title=Unclenching the Fists |last=Bittenourt |first=Ela |date=May 26, 2023 |website=reverseshot.org |publisher=Reverse Shot |access-date=April 14, 2025 |quote=}}{{cite news |last=Hoad |first=Phil |date=22 May 2023 |title=Unclenching the Fists review – claustrophobic drama full of trauma and tenderness |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/may/22/unclenching-the-fists-review-claustrophobic-drama-full-of-trauma-and-tenderness |work=The Guardian |location= |access-date=14 April 2025}}

• "Black Widow's Eyes" by the Who{{cite web|url=http://www.thewholive.net/songs/info.php?id=513|title=The Who-Black Widow's Eyes liner notes|access-date=7 November 2014|archive-date=8 November 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141108000530/http://www.thewholive.net/songs/info.php?id=513|url-status=live}}
• "Living Shields" by After Forever{{Cite web |url=http://www.metalmessage.de/Interviews/after-forever-engl.htm |title=After Forever{{!}}Interview @ Metalmessage Online Magazine |access-date=24 August 2010 |archive-date=12 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160312225823/http://metalmessage.de/interviews/after-forever-engl.htm |url-status=live}}
• “Savages “ by Paul Weller

• Beslan: The Tragedy of School No. 1 by Timothy Phillips{{Cite book|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=czHuAAAAIAAJ|title = Beslan: The Tragedy of School No. 1|isbn = 9781862079274|last1 = Phillips|first1 = Timothy|year = 2007|publisher = Granta|access-date = 25 November 2015|archive-date = 12 March 2024|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20240312123342/https://books.google.com/books?id=czHuAAAAIAAJ|url-status = live}}
• Innocent Targets: When Terrorism Comes to School is a school terrorism textbook that features a chapter dedicated to the incident as well as several other chapters devoted to commentary on the topic in general.{{Cite book|isbn = 097412401X|title = Innocent Targets: When Terrorism Comes to School|last1 = Dorn|first1 = Michael Stephen|last2 = Dorn|first2 = Michael Christopher|year = 2005| publisher=Safe Havens International, Incorporated}}
• Mother Tongue, by Julie Mayhew, is a fictionalised account following a young woman who lost her sister in the tragedy.{{Cite book|url = http://www.juliemayhew.co.uk/projects/mother-tongue/|title = Mother Tongue|isbn = 9781471405945|last1 = Mayhew|first1 = Julie|year = 2016|publisher = Hot Key Books|access-date = 8 October 2020|archive-date = 29 March 2020|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20200329010355/http://www.juliemayhew.co.uk/projects/mother-tongue/|url-status = live}}

{{Portal|Russia}}

• List of hostage crises
• List of massacres in Russia

• Ma'alot massacre (1974)
• EgyptAir Flight 648 hijacking hostage raid (1985)
• Kizlyar-Pervomayskoye hostage crisis (1996)
• Chencholai bombing (2006)
• 2010 Manila bus hostage crisis
• 2014 Peshawar school massacre
• 2024 Crocus City Hall attack

{{reflist|group=note}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://books.google.com/books?id=UyZuAAAACAAJ Beslan: Shattered Innocence] by Lynn Milburn Lansford ({{ISBN|1419639951}})
• Beslan: The Tragedy of School Number 1 by Timothy Phillips ({{ISBN|1862079277}}) - [https://books.google.com/books?id=a4v0AAAACAAJ Read online]
• John B. Dunlop. The 2002 Dubrovka and 2004 Beslan Hostage Crises: A Critique of Russian Counter-Terrorism / Donald N. Jensen. — Columbia University Press, 2006. — 166 p. — {{ISBN|9783838256085}}. — {{ISBN|3838256085}}.
• [https://books.google.com/books?id=8lW2JQ8x2gQC The Beslan School Siege and Separatist Terrorism] by Michael V. Uschan (preview available)
• Terror at Beslan: A Russian Tragedy with Lessons for America's Schools by John Giduck ({{ISBN|978-0976775300}})
• The Beslan Massacre: Myths & Facts by Alexander Burakov ({{ISBN|978-1500400965}})
• Adam Dolnik. The siege of Beslan's School No. 1 // Countering Terrorism and Insurgency in the 21st Century: International Perspectives / James J. F. Forest; Praeger Security International. — Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007. — Т. 3. — 646 p. — {{ISBN|9780275990374}}. — {{ISBN|0275990370}}. — {{ISBN|0275990346}}. — {{ISBN|9780275990343}}.

{{Commons category|Beslan school hostage crisis}}

{{Wikiquote}}

• [https://archive.today/20130807092451/http://www.lesarchivesdebeslan.com/ Les archives de Beslan] : Database of French and foreign archives devoted to the hostage-taking of School No. 1 in Beslan.
• "[https://web.archive.org/web/20120404114331/http://www.mchs.gov.ru/eng/news/detail.php?ID=24398 Tragedy in Beslan. Five years later. We remember...]" EMERCOM.
• "[https://www.theguardian.com/world/beslan Beslan school tragedy]." Directory of related articles from The Guardian.
• "[http://www.beslan.ru/index.php/remember/ В память о погибших...]" City of Beslan. {{in lang|ru}}
• [http://www.esquire.com/features/articles/2006/060610_mfe_June_06_School_1.html The School.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516125352/http://www.esquire.com/features/articles/2006/060610_mfe_June_06_School_1.html |date=16 May 2008 }} Feature by C.J. Chivers. Esquire, June 2006, Volume 145, Issue 6. Last Retrieved 16 November 2009.
• [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2357109.stm Chechen terrorists' hostage history], BBC News, 1 September 2004
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20210411165053/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-aug-27-fg-beslan27-story.html Aching to Know], by Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times, 27 August 2005.
• [https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5740009 Beslan Timeline: How the School Siege Unfolded], by Kelly McEvers, NPR, 31 August 2006
• [http://www.pravdabeslana.ru/ Pravda Beslana, public investigation of Beslan events] (Beslan's Truth, {{langx|ru|link=no|Правда Беслана}}).
• [http://golosbeslana.ru/ Voice of Beslan] [https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ru&u=http://www.pravdabeslana.ru/vzryvy.htm&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dhttp://www.pravdabeslana.ru/vzryvy.htm%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG English translation]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20071012223035/http://www.beslanhope.org/ Hope for Beslan]. Last accessed 4 October 2007
• [http://www.pravdabeslana.ru/ Day-by-day transcriptions from criminal trial {{in lang{{!}}ru}}], . [https://web.archive.org/web/20060619112002/http://www.pravdabeslana.ru/ machine translation]. Last Retrieved 17 July 2006.
• [http://www.waynakh.com/eng/2009/10/remembering-beslan-a-crime-against-humanity/ Remembering Beslan: A Crime Against Humanity]
• {{in lang|fr}} [http://www.enfantsdebeslan.fr/ French humanitarian association "Solidarité Enfants de Beslan" ]

• "[https://web.archive.org/web/20110525144153/http://www.council.gov.ru/files/download/doklad7dec.pdf ДОКЛАД Парламентской комиссии по расследованию причин и обстоятель ствсовершения террористического акта в городе Беслане Республики Северная Осетия–Алания 1 – 3 сентября 2004 года]." (REPORT OF THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMISSION FOR THE INVESTIGATION OF THE CAUSES AND CONDITIONS OF THE TERRORISM ACT IN BESLAN, Republic of North Ossetia-Alania, 1–3 September 2004) - Text of the Torshin report {{in lang|ru}}
• "[http://api.duma.gov.ru/api/transcriptFull/2006-12-22 Заседание № 202 22.12.2006 ХРОНИКА заседания Государственной Думы 22 декабря 2006 года]." Russian Duma. {{in lang|ru}} - Transcript of a Duma meeting
• McDaniel, Michael C. (Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, Lansing, Michigan) and Cali Mortenson Ellis (RAND Graduate School). "[http://www.caliellis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/McDaniel-2008The-Beslan-hostage-crisis-AJournal-of-Applied-Security-Research.pdf The Beslan Hostage Crisis: A Case Study for Emergency Responders] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171225050005/http://www.caliellis.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/McDaniel-2008The-Beslan-hostage-crisis-AJournal-of-Applied-Security-Research.pdf |date=25 December 2017 }}." Journal of Applied Security Research, 4:21- 35, 2009.
• "[http://www.osce.org/files/documents/b/d/37295.pdf Report on Russian media coverage of the Beslan tragedy] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171223223036/http://www.osce.org/files/documents/b/d/37295.pdf |date=23 December 2017 }}." Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
• European Court of Human Rights (ECHR)
• "[https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/app/conversion/pdf?library=ECHR&id=001-111101&filename=TAGAYEVA%20AND%20OTHERS%20v.%20RUSSIA.pdf Application no. 26562/07 Emma Lazarovna TAGAYEVA and Others against Russia and 6 other applications (see list appended)]."
• "[https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/app/conversion/pdf/?library=ECHR&id=003-4900868-5993597&filename=003-4900868-5993597.pdf Chamber hearing concerning Russian authorities' response to the 2004 terrorist attack on school in Beslan]." ECHR 296 (2014) 14.10.2014.
• Giel, Dustin James. "[https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/33671/Beslan%20Thesis%20DJG.pdf?sequence=1 The tragedy of Beslan 2004: Was this event a turning point in Russia's approach to counter-terrorism? ]" (master's degree thesis). University of Leiden. 2015.

• {{YouTube|csr9TPGPoxs|BBC Footage of the Beslan School Massacre}}
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TSD1cX2htQ SCHOOL NO. 1. Documentary film by Novaya Gazeta (2019, in Russian)].
• [https://www.theguardian.com/gall/0,,1296787,00.html In pictures. The Beslan School Siege], The Guardian, September 2004.
• [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3636196.stm Russian TV broadcasts siege video], BBC News, 7 September 2004
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060715060844/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/01/20/48hours/main668127.shtml New Video Of Beslan School Terror], CBS, 21 January 2005
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20070929003812/http://www.christian-kautz.com/index.php?folder=Russia%2FBeslan%2F Photo report by the German journalist Christian Kautz, visiting Beslan school at 2005]
• [http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/avdb/news_web/video/9012da6800246e0/nb/09012da6800248fc_16x9_nb.asx Beslan. To remember school siege victims], BBC News
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20041026172459/http://newizv.ru/fotoreport/?f_id=11 "Missing hostages' photos"], Novye Izvestia. Machine-translated by www.online-translator.com.
• [http://www.golosbeslana.ru/pamyat.htm Pictures of children, teachers and parents who were killed during the event] at the Voice of Beslan website.
• [http://www.MoscowHelp.org/en/ Fund for victims of Beslan attack]. Last accessed 1 August 2006.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20130119021815/http://russianredcross.narod.ru/indexeng.html Russian Red Cross Beslan page]. Last accessed 1 August 2006.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080219193554/http://www.sga.org/beslan/ Slavic Gospel Association (SGA) Beslan page]. Last accessed 4 February 2008.

{{Beslan school siege}}

{{Chechen wars}}

{{Islamic terrorism in Europe}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beslan school siege}}

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