Rusland eist uitleg over opmerkingen Bot inzake gijzelingsdrama in Beslan (en)

Moscow has angrily demanded the Dutch EU presidency explain comments it made in the wake of the school siege in the Russian town of Beslan.

The demand follows comments from Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot in which Mr Bot apparently asked the Russian authorities to account for the bloody end to the siege.

"We would like to know from the Russian authorities how this tragedy could have happened", said Mr Bot in a statement on behalf of the EU.

The Russian authorities reacted furiously.

"In a situation when the whole world knew that the main priority was saving children, and that there would be no storming, to hear such words from a minister seems to us to be blasphemy", Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, said according to the Guardian.

Mr Bot, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, promised to calm the incident by talking to Russian foreign minister to assure him that he was not looking for a justification from Moscow and it was a misunderstanding.

According to the Financial Times, by late Sunday (5 September) Mr Bot had failed to contact his Russian counterpart.