Russians lose faith that special services were unaware of 1999-2005 terror acts

Over the past year, the number of Russians convinced that special services knew about the terror acts committed in 1999-2005 in Beslan, Moscow and Volgodonsk has decreased. This was indicated by the polling conducted by the "Levada Centre".

The number of Russians convinced that the terror acts were a surprise for special services went down from 42 to 35 percent. The number of respondents, who said that special services knew about the preparation of terror acts, but could not prevent them, has went up from 24 to 33 percent. Those who believe that these services were inactive are now 5 percent more – a year ago such persons were only 6 percent.

The polling was conducted on August 21-24 among urban and rural population; 1600 people aged over 18 were the respondents.

The outcomes of the polling were published on the website of the "Levada Centre" on August 31, on the eve of the eleventh anniversary of the tragedy in Beslan. In respect of the terror act at the Beslan school, the majority of Russians stated that terrorists were to blame, but compared to last year, the number of such respondents has decreased. In particular, in 2014, there were 39 percent of them; in 2015 – 29 percent. The blame on the federal authorities is imposed by 22 percent of the respondents (against 17 percent last year); while on local authorities – by 15 percent (against 13 percent in 2014).

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.