Category Nation/CIS
Source RIA Novosti

MOSCOW — Not a single state in the world can guarantee security for its citizens today, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday.

Speaking to residents of the North Ossetian town of Beslan, where 331 people, including 186 children, lost their lives in a school hostage crisis last September, the president said the state could not ensure the necessary level of security for its citizens.

"Unfortunately, this is not confined to our state alone," Putin said. "You know about the terrible tragedy that happened in the USA in 2001."

"Law enforcement agencies and security services, failed to prevent, missed this terrible terrorist attack in which thousands of people were killed," he said. "You know about the terrorist attacks in Spain and London."

"Developed, powerful states with functioning economies and with established security services cannot prevent terrorist attacks today," the president said, comparing them with Russia, which sustained enormous material and social losses after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

"In the first half of the 1990s, our Armed Forces and security services had been knocked out and were half-paralyzed due to the difficult events in Chechnya," Putin said.

"Unfortunately, there are no other ways to fight this plague," he said.