Toby Gati, a former Clinton administration aide, was among those who met with the Russian president after the Beslan massacre. Gwen Ifill interviewed her on The NewsHour:
"GWEN IFILL: But not mistakes, to be clear, about the handling of the situation at the school in particular, and the way that Russian forces acted or didn't act?
TOBY GATI: No, he went out of his way to praise Russian forces and say they put their lives on the line to save the children. And you can see in the photographs that was actually true at times. He's very convinced that his policy on Chechnya is the right one, a Chechenization handing over security eventually that you can't negotiate with these people.
I think it's interesting, if he could listen to this broadcast he would be profoundly upset to hear people talking about rebels and hostage-takers.
GWEN IFILL: What's wrong with that?
TOBY GATI: The word they use is 'terrorist.' They don't regard these as people who have any cause other than -- it's not Chechen independence. He said, 'We tried to do that. I did everything I could.' And the years between the first and second Chechen war were chaotic. And he would not acknowledge that he should continue with negotiations with terrorists."
