September 1st. Beslan. End of the day. The terrorists wait in vain. Their demands to bring Dzasokhov, Ziazikov, Aslakhanov and Roshal (rather Rushailo) were not executed, supposedly “because there was a real danger they might be killed”. Ziazikov, Ingushetia’s president spent the three days of the tragedy in Moscow’s President Hotel, supposedly it was Putin who “left him out of the game”. No signals come in from Putin’s advisor on North Caucasus. Also, according to the federal law about terrorism the demands of the militants about the withdrawal of troops from Chechnya cannot be subject to negotiations as they threaten the base of the constitutional order and the wholeness of the Russsian Federation.
Instead, the operational headquarters proposed the militants to exchange the hostages for the suspects arrested in Inhusgetia for the attack on Nazran. Ikarus buses were prepared in case the militants agree. (This is the data of Torshin’s federal parliamentary commission, so we better not trust it).
September 1st. Second half of the day. A “black widow”, a female suicide bomber detonates herself. Hostages and terrorists are wounded and killed. The “widow” herself is torn into pieces. Before this the hostages saw this woman arguing with other terrorists.
September 1st. 4:30PM. The literature office. Another seven male hostages were executed by the militants.
September 1st. After 8:00PM. The plane carrying Dr. Roshal lands in Vladikavkaz. After midnight Roshal is in the anti-crisis headquarters over his cellphone. He is told from the schooclass="underline" “If you try to arrive to the school alone we will shoot you. Only with the presidents of Ingushetia and North Ossetia. /…/ We don’t need you alone! You make twenty steps toward the school and you are a corpse.” Here Roshal’s mission ends. He was clearly confounded with Roshailo.
September 2nd. 9:30AM. Beslan. Anti-crisis headquarters. I cite the book “01.09. Beslan’s File” written by Spiegel journalists based on documental testimonies, I remind. “The ratio of forces in the anti-crisis headquarters changes to the FSB favor. Its vice-chief Pronichev and general Alexander Tikhonov, commanding the anti-terrorism groups Alpha and Vimpel discuss the possibilities of a raid. North Ossetian politicians heavily protest. They beg the FSB not to undertake anything.”
September 2nd. Noon. Beslan. Anti-crisis headquarters. They are waiting for Aslakhanov. He has not arrived to Beslan from Moscow yet. 27 hours passed since the beginning of the hostage taking. It takes two hours to fly from Moscow to Vladikavkaz. Where is Aslakhanov?
Instead, Ruslan Aushev, former Ingushetia’s president, an Afghanistan’s veteran appears near the headquarters. The brothers Gutzeriev who enjoy authority in the Caucasus also appear. Mikhail is a former vice-speaker of the State Duma (now he is Rosneft's director) and his brother Khamzan, Ingushetia’s retired Minister of Interior. Aushev is among Putin’s personal enemies. Neither the Gutzerievs nor Aushev are let inside the headquarters where Putin’s appointees are. From the moment he arrived Aushev has to call and direct the events standing in the yard of the headquarters.
September 2nd, second half of the day. Beslan. Anti-crisis headquarters. Vladimir Yakovlev, Putin’s proxy in Russia’s South, arrives. Thirty hours have passed from the beginning of the crisis. He enters the headquarters. During this time Aushev continues to negotiate with the terrorists on the phone. This is how it is dryly noted in the report of Torshin’s federal commission: “On September 2nd the terrorists have named the outlaw Aslan Makhadov as a possible negotiator. Dzasokhov and Aushev tried to contact him through Zakayev but Maskhadov did not answer.” That’s it. However much more is said differently in the report of North Ossetia’s commission. “The hope for a bloodless end was linked with the possible participation of A. Maskhadov in the release of the hostages. The witness A. Zakayev was questioned by the commission and he told that he learned about the real state of things in Beslan from his first phone conversation with R. Aushev on September 2nd 29 hours after the capture of the school. R. Aushev asked Zakayev about bringing A. Maskhadov to negotiate. From the second half of September 2nd to the first half of September 3rd Zakayev tried to reach Maskhadov through third persons. Maskhadov was ready to go to Beslan but on one condition: providing an unhindered pathway to the school. Zakayev doubted the possibility to create a pathway for Maskhadov and proposed instead his candidacy to participate in the negotiations with the militants. On September 3rd at noon Zakayev contacted Dzasokhov and confirmed his and Maskhadov’s agreement to take part in the negotiations. Dzasokhov asked two hours to resolve the technical questions and organize the negotiations. The next conversation between Dzasokhov and Zakayev was supposed to take place at 2 o’clock. /…/ The commission finds strange the fact that nobody from the operational headquarters attempted to contact Maskhadov in the first day of the school’s capture.”
September 2nd. 2:45PM. Aslambek Aslakhanov spoke with the terrorists on the phone and promised to personally inform Putin about their demands. The terrorists proposed Aslakhanov to come to the school with Aushev.
September 2nd. 3:30PM. School Number One. Aushev goes to the school. He crosses the yard, comes to the big door in the gymnasium, which opens as he enters. He stops on the doorway. He asks the capturers if they recognize him. They do. Aushev is alone, there is no Aslakhanov.
All the terrorists have put on masks for the visit. They film Aushev on video. They give Aushev a list of demands addressed to Putin by “Allah’s slave” Shamil Basayev. “The Colonel”, the terrorists’ leader, tells Aushev that the government can gather all the relatives of those who captured the school and execute them – this will not modify their resolutness to insist on their demands. They allow Aushev to take some hostages with him. He leaves the school with 11 women and 16 babies. The whole world sees the photo on which Aushev stands near his car with a naked baby on the car’s rear seat.
The list of the terrorists’ demands is analyzed in the anti-crisis headquarters. Their demands are the same: the withdrawal of the Russian troops from Chechnya.
September 2nd. Second half of the day. Beslan. Hospital. The direction is preparing beds by an order from Moscow. They can free 215 beds. If they call all the doctors from the district, there will be about two hundred people.
September 2nd. Second half of the day. Vladikavkaz. From the 710 beds, 350 are kept ready in case. There are two operation rooms; 70 doctors and 200 nurses were called.
The same day, second. Second half of the day. Vladikavkaz. The republican children’s hospital. The building is half unfinished. There are 820 beds. Of them 230 are made ready for Beslan’s victims. The patients whose state allows it are sent home. The direction keeps 7 operational brigades ready.
“Only on the second day of the capture of hostages there are 1045 beds ready in four hospitals in Beslan and Vladikavkaz. The orders to the directors of the hospitals arrived directly from Moscow, from the Health ministry. The same government that still speaks about 354 hostages in official statements at the same time makes sure that over thousand beds are made ready for the hostages,” the German journalists write in the book “01.09. Beslan’s File”. It should be added here that this is the same government that lies to its people today that the federals did not start the raid, that everything was the terrorists’ fault. But the terrorists would have benefited from stretching the time as much as possible! Each hour benefited them. And each hour of keeping the hostages damaged the president’s reputation personally.