Here is exactly what Putin's advisor said:
"They [ie the terrorists]were led on a leash. Our self-styled friends have been working for several decades, I deem, to dismember Russia. They are doing a huge, really titanic job. It's clear as daylight that those people are coming up as puppeteers and are financing terror,"
He is talking about state-sponsored terror.
Conspiracy theory (Pravda title, not mine)
09/06/2004 19:59 ( from Pravda article- yikes, not sure about proper linking yet)
"After the tragedy in Beslan, President Putin gave address to the nation on September 4.
This address is very different from the previous official statement by the Russian President, it can probably start some radical changes in the country"s domestic and foreign policy.
Formally, the President made his address to the Russian citizens, but the address content demonstrates that its primary target audience are the Western countries and the USA in particular.
The President openly stated that the country"s authorities consider Russia the geopolitical successor of the USSR, and will not tolerate any other role imposed on it. Putin sincerely regrets about the collapse of the "big great state", but says that, "despite all the difficulties, we managed to preserve the core of this giant" - the Russian Federation.
The analysis of the address statements on foreign policy should probably be started from the things which were not mentioned there. There were no assurances to the West that we are fighting the common enemy - terrorism. Previously, many assurances of this kind were made. This fact tells much: until recently, such statements were commonplace of any speeches of Russian officials on terrorism. However, a new, truly sensational idea was pronounced by the President.
President Putin said, "Our country which used to have the most powerful system of protection of its borders, became protected neither from the West nor from the East". First time for the last years, a high-ranking Russian official said about a threat from the West!
President of INDEM Foundation Georgy Satarov believes that Putin did not explain to the people what had provoked the war, and the war started now, "not in 1999", and the President did not say who is responsible for the failure to stop terrorists implementing their plans. "Psychologists discovered long time ago that a strong person looks for the causes of the problems in himself, while a weak person looks for them outside", said Mr. Satarov. For this reason, Mr. Satarov considers Putin"s hints on the West"s alleged involvement in terrorist acts as the attempt to explain what is happening, in the easiest way, using conspiracy theory.
The president"s address to the nation was not sufficiently concrete and tough, said political consultant Oleg Matveichev, "People were expecting the oath to punish the terrorists and those who had sent them. It was necessary to say something about the responsibility of the law-enforcers, provided that the law-enforcement authorities are going to be strengthened now".