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Putin holds meeting to tighten security measures

President Vladimir Putin summoned his Cabinet and the nation's governors yesterday to discuss Russia's response to terrorism as the country reeled from a deadly school hostage crisis.

The meeting, which included top security and military officials, came as Russian authorities and lawmakers were considering how to tighten security following a series of terror attacks, including the three-day hostage-taking in a school in the North Ossetian town of Beslan, where more than 330 people were killed.

Among the measures under consideration are a color-coded alert system, tighter controls on foreigners and restoring the death penalty.

"It is not only that state authority in the country should be adapted to work in crisis situations, it is also necessary to radically reconsider the mechanisms of its work with the aim of preventing crises," Putin was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency as the meeting got under way.

"The country's unity is the main condition for countering terrorism."

In a Sept. 4 televised address to the country, Putin said measures would be taken to strengthen Russia's unity, create a more effective crisis management system, establish a new network to control the situation in the Caucasus, and overhaul law enforcement organs.

The newspaper Izvestia reported yesterday that after meeting with his Security Council on Sunday, Putin ordered the firing of North Ossetia's interior minister and the regional head of the Federal Security Service, the agency that is supposed to spearhead anti-terrorist efforts.

Three other major terrorist attacks in the days before the school hostage crisis claimed 100 lives: the bombing of two airliners and a suicide bombing outside a Moscow subway station.

Some 430 people have been killed in terror attacks over the past three weeks and Russians appear to be supportive of harsher measures to combat terrorism.
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