Member of Beslan commission: Putin personally gave order to storm the school

Yuri Ivanov, deputy of the State Duma from the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF), has accused president of Russia Vladimir Putin of giving a personal order to start bombardment of the building of Beslan school with grenade launchers, the Associated Press has reported. According to deputy Ivanov who participated in the parliamentary investigation of the act of terror in Beslan, this bombardment had provoked chaos, as a result of which the three-day drama with capture of hostages ended with death of 334 persons, more than half of whom were children.

"The school explosion was provoked by special units, they were shooting from grenade launchers. The order could be given by one person only - president Vladimir Putin," Mr. Ivanov told journalists on Monday, as quoted by The International Herald Tribune.

According to Ivanov's statement, the authorities wanted not to admit the leader of Chechen separatists Aslan Maskhadov enter negotiations with the militants, being afraid that he could persuade them to surrender - in this case Putin would have damaged his image. Then, president of Russia had refused to negotiate with the militants and declared that the leadership of the country would not hold negotiations with terrorists.