Top Russian Officials Defend Massive Assault On Village

Russia’s security chief and interior minister on Saturday defended the massive assault on a village where Chechen gunmen held 120 hostages.

The village was destroyed, the leader of the hostage-takers escaped and more than 30 hostages are still unaccounted for, but Interior Minister Anatoly Kulikov and Mikhail Barsukov, head of the Federal Security Service, told a news conference the operation was a success.

Their assessment echoed that of President Boris Yeltsin a day earlier.

Yeltsin defended the decision to storm Pervomayskaya, saying it was the best response to terrorism. “Mad dogs must be shot,” he said.

A skeptical Russian press pounded Yeltsin on Saturday.

“He makes announcements about careful preparations for an army operation that turns out to be like they all are here: slipshod, absurd, even stupid,” said Moskovsky Komsomolets, Moscow’s largest circulation daily.

Reporters were kept out of Pervomayskaya, and it has been impossible to confirm how many people were killed.

On Saturday, television crews were allowed into the town to record a scene of utter devastation. Not a single building was intact.

The liberal daily Izvestia said Yeltsin’s tough stance is part of a general hard-line shift intended to improve the president’s reelection chances.

“As Much Deceit as Bloodshed,” was Izvestia’s banner headline.

Kulikov and Barsukov claimed Russian troops used Grad missiles only as a “psychological” weapon and were careful not to hit anyone.

The comment provoked catcalls, as did Barsukov’s assertion that “a Chechen can only kill. If he does not kill, he robs. If he cannot rob, he steals.”