RA recently blogged about the comparative constitutional opportunism displayed following the Beslan crisis and today’s financial crisis.  Coincidentally, a new article by Ella Kesayeva in Novaya Gazeta digs deeper into the persisting mysteries, conspiracies and unanswered questions with regard to the investigation of the Beslan hostage atrocities.  The translation is posted at La Russophobe.

The case papers on the Beslan terrorist outrage have data sheets on each identified terrorist. The “Criminal Record” column of these sheets has the entry “No criminal record pursuant to Article 24 Para 1 Part 1 RF Criminal Code” for each and every Beslan terrorist.

This means that criminal proceedings against these people were either deliberately not raised or stopped. All for the same reason: “absence of criminal activity”. In this way, criminals who should really have been in pre-trial detention or doing time were able without let or hindrance in August 2004 to put together an armed band and carry out the attack on the Beslan school. [See note 3].