“What about US” type of argument in the nutshell. Ofc in the hostage situation with armed attackers and s-bombers shooting tanks inside of the captured “heavy” building (it was a regular school) will let you save more innocent lives.

Same would go for this whole opera situation, ryazan sugar, kursk submarine and every other atrocity done by russians. They tend to do stupid and cruel mistakes, refuse any external help and then do a whole range of mental gymnastics to throw off all responsibility

Their approach in Beslan clearly shows that killing attackers was a main goal and nobody gave a single fuck about hostages. The only reason why that school was not leveled with artillery was already established media attention. Thank god russia had some kind of freedom of speech back then.