Press Release, 3.09.2025

Photo: Yabloko Deputy Chairman Vladimir Dorokhov and Deputy Chairman of Moscow Yabloko Kirill Goncharov at the Beslan victims’ memorial in Moscow / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

On 1 September 2004, terrorists took more than 1,100 hostages at School No. 1 in the city of Beslan, North Ossetia. For more than two days, the gunmen held children, their parents and school staff in a mined building under torturous conditions—without water or fresh air. On the third day, the school was stormed and most hostages were freed. As a result of the terrorist attack, 314 hostages died, 186 of them children. In total, according to some data 333 people, including rescuers, died and at least 783 were wounded. Today Yabloko honoured the memory of the victims of the terrorist attack at the monument on Solyanka in Moscow.

Yabloko Deputy Chairman Vladimir Dorokhov:

“Today, on the Day of Remembrance for the victims of the Beslan terrorist attack, we remember those killed and wounded in one of the most monstrous tragedies in Russia’s recent history. Twenty-one years have already passed since those September days of 2004, when the celebration of children’s first day at school turned into unbearable pain, fear and the death of hundreds of innocent people, most of whom were children. This wound on our country’s heart will never heal.

The anniversary of the Beslan tragedy is not simply a date on the calendar. It is a harsh reminder that the evil of terrorism has neither boundaries nor human face. It is directed against the most important thing—life.

Our thoughts are with the residents of Beslan, who have carried the unfading pain of loss through all these years. We share their grief and pay tribute to the eternal memory of those who died.”

Photo: Yabloko delegation, Svetlana Vasilkova and Nikolai Rybakov in the city of Pustoshka, Pskov Region / Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

Yabloko Chairman Nikolai Rybakov (who is on a working trip in Pskov) and leader of Pskov Yabloko Artur Gaiduk, together with fellow party members, laid flowers at the monument to Children of War in the city of Pustoshka. The memorial events were attended by current Yabloko deputies of Pustoshka district Svetlana Vasilkova and Svetlana Lapova, Yabloko deputy of Sebezh district Assembly Sergei Melnikov, as well as Yabloko candidates to deputies —Svetlana Filippova, Alexander Tsykunov, Viktor Maslov, and Vladimir Kholin.

The case regarding the terrorist attack, opened by the Public Prosecutor General’s Office, has still not been closed. According to independent experts and journalists, this is the way to keep the investigation materials deliberately hidden from the victims’ families.