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Boris Yeltsin / Photo by Kirill Kalinnikov from MN archive

Boris Yeltsin: “We Will Not Give Up On the Spirit of the Constitution”

Created: 16.09.2004 21:56 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 11:46 MSK

Boris Yeltsin

Moscow News weekly

For me, as for all Russians, these were the toughest days. There are no words to describe my compassion for the people who’ve lost their children in the Beslan tragedy. I believe every adult in Russia feels partially responsible for what’s happened. We have failed at protecting our children, at guarding them� This is our common fault and our common grief.

I have already said this, and I have said this to Moscow News, that, having left public politics, I do not intend to give political comments and discuss the actions of those who have come after me: the country’s president, party leaders, parliamentarians, politicians. I have the opportunity to pass on my considerations, the thoughts that worry me, directly to Vladimir Putin. I believe that this is the correct and civilized relationship for two presidents, a country’s former president and its current president.

But, taking advantage of our encounter, I would like to say the following. The Beslan tragedy has become a watershed. We are all different now. The country is different after this tragedy. We cannot afford the apathy, the irresponsibility, and the carelessness that have led us to these horrible events. The authorities must act harshly and quickly, in accordance with the bloody challenge from our new enemy, named Terrorism.

Still, I firmly believe that the measures that the country’s leadership will undertake after Beslan will remain within the framework of democratic freedoms that have become Russia’s most valuable achievement over the past decade. We will not give up on the letter of the law, and most importantly, the spirit of the Constitution our country voted for at the public referendum in 1993. If only because the stifling of freedom and the curtailing of democratic rights is a victory for the terrorists. Only a democratic country can successfully resist terrorism and count on standing shoulder to shoulder with all of the world’s civilized countries.

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