In an attempt to assure relatives of those killed the Beslan school massacre last year that an investigation into the siege would not gloss over official incompetence, Russian President Vladimir Putin met today with mothers of children killed in the siege.
The delicate three-hour meeting between Putin and members of the outspoken Beslan Mothers' Committee took place a year and a day after the onset of the three-day crisis when armed pro-Chechen rebels stormed into the school in southern Russia.
A total of 331 people - half of them children - were killed, most of them on the final day when the school's sports hall where the hostages were held collapsed in an explosion, fire and shooting.
Putin , looking sombre at the Kremlin meeting, said terrorist acts throughout the world showed that no state could offer complete protection to its citizens against such attacks.
"But I want to particularly underline this, I agree with those who believe that this cannot justify anyone failing to carry out their official duties as they are expected to," he said in televised remarks.
"That is the truth. And all the circumstances of this affair should be thoroughly investigated," he added.
The head of the mothers' group, who promised earlier on Friday to ask Putin why no official had been punished for bungling that made the bloodshed worse, was quoted by Russian news agencies as expressing cautious optimism after the meeting.
"I think we said all we wanted to say," Susanna Dudiyeva said in televised comments. "We hope that results from this meeting will follow."
Asked by the interviewer whether she felt that Putin had heard her arguments, she replied: "Yes, we think he heard us."
It was not immediately clear how bluntly Dudiyeva had delivered her message. Earlier in the week, Dudiyeva, whose 12-year-old son died in the siege, said she would tell the Kremlin leader he was to blame for the tragedy.