ANALYSIS: PUTIN UNYIELDING

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 537.

TEXT B

Text.

I. Answer the following questions to check how carefully you have read the

COMPREHENSION CHECK

ACTIVE VOCABULARY

1. a bloody climax of the siege
2. Prosecutor's-General accounts of the event
3. to contradict previous accounts
4. to shoot dead one rebellious hostage-taker
5. to use a remote-control device to detonate the explosives
6. to eliminate in a gunfight with the security forces
7. to quote security officials
8. to give no details about the identities of the hostage-takers
9. ringleaders. /key organizers
10. to bribe the way through police checkpoints
11. to call for the withdrawal of troops from Chechnya
12. to step up guerilla attacks
13. to lend grim credibility to Chechen warnings
14. a confusion surrounding the Beslan outrage
15. to sideline the titular chief of the rebels by radicals
16. to orchestrate the seizure of hostages

1. What remains unclear in the situation with hostage-takers?
2. Were any details given about the identities of the hostage-takers?
3. What is the official version of Russian authorities on the bloody climax of the siege at a school in North Ossetia?
4. What did Mr. Ustinov say about the explosives in the school?
5. What was the main aim of the leading militants according to the statement of Ustinov?
6. What people were identified as the key organizers of the siege?
7. What is the heart of confusion which reigns over the identity of the group who seized the school in North Ossetia?
8. What versions are considered to be the key motives of the attack?
9. What actions indicate that Russia's enemies in the North Caucasus are becoming increasingly radical?

II. Now decide whether the statement is true or false; correct those that are wrong:

1. At this point, the official account says, the group's leader - known as the Colonel - shot dead one rebellious hostage who objected to Spetsnaz commando being targeted.
2. It is clear that none of the hostage-takers succeeding in fleeing, along with their victims, as reported at the time.
3. The leading militants kept threatening to kill everyone, saying their only aim was to carry out this act of terrorism.
4. Associated Press news agency quoted security officials on Thursday who said that, of 10 who have been identified, six were Chechens and four were Russian.
5. The Russian version says the hostage-takers were a multi-national group linked to the radical Chechen rebel commanders Shamil Basayev and Doku Umarov, funded by HAMAS.
6. The Chechen version, as put forward by the Chechen rebel envoy in Europe, Ahmed Zakayev, is that the attackers may have been Ossetians, Russians or Ingush - but not Chechens.
7. There were the attacks in Ingushetia in June - carried out by Chechens and Ingush. In the last two weeks, there has been a wave of deadly attacks in Moscow. This time the target was Chechnya, one of the most loyal of Russia's North Caucasian republics.

By Paul Reynolds