Stung by last week's bloody school siege, Russian President Vladimir Putin has sacked two top officials of the southern republic of North Ossetia. Putin on Saturday fired Interior Minister Kazbek Dzantiev and the director of the regional branch of the FSB Valery Andreyev — a week after the siege in Beslan in North Ossetia ended with the death of 339 hostages and 39 hostage-takers. North Ossetian President Alexander Dzasokhov, who has been severely criticized for his handling of the three-day long drama, sacked his entire government on Thursday but has refused so far to step down himself. Local residents have been particularly angered at how the heavily armed hostage-takers were able to get into North Ossetia from the separatist republic of Chechnya, and from there into the school without being stopped by authorities.
| It remains to be seen whether they're going to keep it up. The Russian attention span isn't any longer than the American... |
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