On 17 September 2004 , radical Chechen guerilla commander Shamil Basayev , at this time operating autonomously from the rest of the North Caucasian rebel movement , issued a statement claiming responsibility for the Beslan school siege , which was strikingly similar to the Chechen raid on Budyonnovsk in 1995 and the Moscow theatre crisis in 2002 , incidents in which hundreds of Russian civilians were held hostage by the Chechen rebels led by Basayev . Basayev said his Riyad-us Saliheen " brigade of martyrs " had carried out the attack and also claimed responsibility for a series of terrorist bombings in Russia in the weeks before Beslan crisis . He said that he originally planned to seize at least one school in either Moscow or Saint Petersburg , but lack of funds forced him to pick North Ossetia , " the Russian garrison in the North Caucasus " . Basayev blamed the Russian authorities for " a terrible tragedy " in Beslan . Basayev claimed that he had miscalculated the Kremlin 's determination to end the crisis by all means possible . He said he was " cruelly mistaken " and that he was " not delighted by what happened there " , but also added to be " planning more Beslan-type operations in the future because we are forced to do so . " However , it was the last major act of terrorism in Russia until 2009 , as Basayev was soon persuaded to give up indiscriminate attacks by the new rebel leader Abdul-Halim Sadulayev , who made Basayev his second-in-command but banned hostage taking , kidnapping for ransom , and operations specifically targeting civilians
Chechen raid on Budyonnovsk
Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis
Beslan school siege