Moscow, Oct 30: An overwhelming majority of Russians support president Vladimir Putin's handling of the dramatic hostage-taking in Moscow, a new poll showed today.
Some 85 per cent of those polled by the all-Russian public opinion center in the immediate aftermath of the standoff last week said they thought Putin handled the situation very or rather positively, while only 10 per cent said they thought he handled it negatively. Five per cent were undecided. Yet many of those polled said they would have chosen a different course of action in an attempt to save more than 800 hostages from a theatre wired with bombs and mines by 50 rebels demanding an end to the war in Chechnya.

Fifty-nine per cent said they would have chosen to first enter into negotiations before resorting to force, while 25 per cent said they would have "carried out a forcible operation right away."

Putin refused to negotiate with the rebels or cede to their demands of withdrawing federal troops from the southern breakaway republic of Chechnya.

A majority supported a renewed Russian offensive in the breakaway republic, the poll found.


Bureau Report