What to do?

Alexey Podberezkin , General Secretary of the Socialist United Party of Russia ("Spiritual Heritage")

No one should relax now. On the contrary, a state of full combat readiness must be maintained for as long as possible. Now the task of mobilizing society has arisen as urgently as it was in the fall of 1999. The main thing is not to leave the bandits alone, no matter what threatens us. Naturally, this may require citizens to take a number of actions, which hotheads are already ready to interpret as restrictions on various constitutional freedoms. However, this kind of “restrictions” has been common and natural all over the world for quite a long time. In New York or Paris, people understand and perceive constant document checks and the resulting inconvenience as necessary actions by law enforcement agencies. For some reason this scares many of us. I recently read that police checkpoints have been installed in the markets of Stavropol. The question arises: what was there before? Why is a natural act of defense perceived by us as normal only in a force majeure situation? Alas, I have serious reasons to worry that the current effect of mobilization will last a week, a month at most.

Valery Tishkov , director of the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences

The main goals of the terrorist attack, unfortunately, were achieved - the goal of intimidation worked. Therefore, I see one of the primary tasks as organizing therapeutic and psychological assistance to people and not only hostages and their relatives. Global tasks voiced by many media (such as “what to do with Chechnya?”) should fade into the background. There has been a colossal impact on the people’s psyche, so now both professional psychologists and responsible journalists must show their best. People need to be made to understand that a separate isolated action took place, and not a series of terrorist attacks or a new war began. It is necessary to stop the growth of xenophobia towards people from Chechnya and the Caucasus in general and to avoid by all means the search for a “big enemy”. There is an enemy, but it is small. All this should directly affect the people responsible for our security not only in Moscow, but throughout Russia. The person sitting at the control panel needs to be strictly disciplined and weaned from “sipping tea.” At the same time, it is necessary to minimize the damage that Russia receives from the information policy of the West through the channels of CNN, BBC and others like them. Individual and, as a rule, unauthorized experts should not be allowed to be considered the “voice of Russia.”

Finally, there must be a mobilization of the local Chechen community. These are very powerful allies. We cannot allow the “mouthpiece of Chechnya” to be inadequate female individuals living in refugee tent camps in Ingushetia.

William Smirnov , head of the department of political science research at the Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Several important steps need to be taken at once. Firstly, it is necessary to accurately assess the state of security of all law enforcement agencies and parallel structures, to conduct a kind of “Putin inventory” in this regard in order to identify the corresponding “diseases”. Secondly, the president, the government and all government bodies need to finally define what “terrorism” is: a planetary danger or the consequences of our own contradictions. Thirdly, it is necessary to find out and rigorously test how effective the policy of the federal authorities in Chechnya is. It is also necessary to understand how the environment influences Russia and how Russia influences the environment, to find out the attitude of the people towards state power . In addition, it is necessary to reconsider the priority of so-called “democratic values” over all others. The most important priority should be the physical safety of citizens.

Sergei Zagilullin , State Duma deputy, commander of the Grom special forces detachment

It is clear that the terrorist attack exposed many gaps that exist in the law enforcement system. Therefore, a logical question cannot help but arise: how could this happen? I think operational investigative work should be carried out on individual people in the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB. I also consider it useful to send representatives of veteran movements related to special forces to carry out educational and preventive work in schools and universities. This action can have national significance and can not only increase the level of prevention of terrorist threats, but also significantly reduce the professional outflow from the ranks of law enforcement agencies to the criminal world.

The relevant legal and regulatory framework also needs to be reviewed. The current anti-terrorism law is already outdated. The budget must clearly include a line that provides the necessary funds to combat terrorism. We do not have any accuracy in this matter; it is not clear for what purposes the 7 billion has been allocated. In accordance with this, it seems to me an effective measure to redistribute specific criteria of responsibility for ensuring security in the country, which falls on the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB. In the USA, for example, all the roles of the FBI and special forces during special actions are clearly defined. Then a closed meeting of Congress takes place on the results of the operation. After this, the media can discuss the immediate results of the operation, while operating with dosed information. In our country, unfortunately, exactly the opposite is happening.

Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to implement a number of measures to ensure information security while ensuring measures aimed at combating terrorism. Our tactics and methods of action of special forces are discussed today on all TV channels in the most serious manner. It is unacceptable. In the United States, after September 11, technical surveillance measures were sharply tightened and no one has serious objections to this. We also need to take such measures into account if we no longer want to play at some kind of democracy.