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Beslan School Siege

Podcast | The Beslan siege: 20 years on

The siege of Beslan has left a scar on both North Ossetia and Russia. Twenty years on, many in North Ossetia still await the results of an investigation into the Russian authorities’ handling of the crisis, which they believe might have contributed to the deaths of over 300 people — among them 186 children.

This week, we spoke with Zalina Bogazova, a survivor of Beslan, about how those events have continued to shape the lives of her and hundreds of others, and with Ossetian political journalist Rooslán Totrov about Russia’s handling of the attack and how Russia’s war against Ukraine has changed how Beslan is remembered.

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Twenty years after the Beslan School Siege, many of its victims continue to seek accountability from Russia’s leaders, who appear determined to ignore their calls.  Until 2004, few outside of North Ossetia knew of the existence of Beslan, a town of just 35,000 people a stone’s throw from the regional capital, Vladikavkaz. That changed on 1 September 2004, when more than 30 armed men stormed a local school during a ceremony to mark the beginning of the school year. During a three-day siege, t

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Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday visited Kabarda–Balkaria, North Ossetia, and Chechnya, reportedly for the first time in over a decade.  Putin visited Beslan in the run-up to the 20th anniversary of the Beslan School Siege on 1 September, and the Russian University of Special Forces in Grozny.  The Russian president had last visited North Ossetia in 2008, four years after the siege of the No. 1 School in Beslan by a group of armed North Caucasian militants led by Chechen guerrilla

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The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Russia should pay €2,955,000 ($3,100,000) in compensation to the victims of the 2004 Beslan school siege and their families. The full text of the court’s verdict was published on its website on 13 April. Russia is must now pay €10,000 to the relatives of those killed and €3,000–€7,000 to those injured during the siege as well as €88,000 in court costs. ‘In the case of Tagayeva and Others v. Russia, the Court found several violations of

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