President Vladimir Putin said air strikes did nothing to settle the situation around Iraq and urged any action taken against it to be sanctioned by the United Nations.

Shamil Salmanovich Basayev was a Vice-President of the internationally unrecognized separatist government of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Islamist guerrilla leader, self-admitted terrorist and a national hero for many Chechens. He led guerrilla campaigns against Russia for years as well as launching several mass-casualty attacks against Russian civilians with his goal being the withdrawal of Russian soldiers from Chechnya.

Nur-Pashi Kulayev (born 1980), a native of Engenoi, Chechnya, is thought to be the sole survivor of the 32 hostage-takers in the 2004 Beslan school hostage crisis, although Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev denied the claim, stating that one other escaped. Kulayev was a 24-year-old unemployed carpenter at the time of the attack. His brother Han-Pashi had formerly served as bodyguard for Basayev.

Aslambek Aslakhanov is the State Duma deputy from Chechnya, advisor and former aide to Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Ruslan Sultanovich Aushev (Russian: Руслан Султанович Аушев; born October 29, 1954, village Volodarskoye, Kazakhstan) was the president of Ingushetia from March 1993 through December 2001. Holder of the Gold Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union from May 07 1982. After three years at the Frunze Military Academy, Aushev returned to Afghanistan in charge of a combat regiment where he was wounded on October 16, 1986.

Alexander Dzasokhov is the former head of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania. He was born April 3, 1934 in Vladikavkaz, graduated in 1957 from the North Caucasus Mining Metallurgical Institute and holds a doctorate in politics. From 1992 - 1993, he was a people's deputy of Russian Federation and from 1993 - 1995, deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation.

Born in the Ukrainian town of Berdyansk in 1976, Vladimir Khodov is considered likely to have been one of the six leaders in the 2004 Beslan school hostage crisis.

Leonid Mikhailovich Roshal (b. April 27, 1933 in Livny) is a noted pediatrician from Moscow, Russia, expert for World Health Organization, chairman of International Task Force of Pediatric Disaster Medicine in World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine. Dr. Roshal has been leading the Emergency Surgery & Children's Trauma Department of Moscow's Pediatric Scientific Research Institute since 1981.

Magomet Yevloyev was the Ingushetia-based deputy of the Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev until Basayev’s death in July 2006. Yevloyev led a June 2004 operation in which simultaneous nationwide raids on police stations killed over 90 Ingush security personnel, including the interior minister and the chief prosecutor of the capital. He was also suspected of involvement in the September, …

Kamel Rabat Bouralha, an Algerian born British citizen has been accused by The Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) of being a key aide to Chechen rebel warlord Shamil Basayev responsible for the Beslan attack. Russian investigators report that Bouralha came from London to Chechnya in 2001. Former associates of the Scotland Yard in London confirmed that Bouralha had lived in London and had been a frequent visitor at Finsbury Park mosque in 2000.

Grigory Petrovich Grabovoy (born November 14, 1963 in Kazakhstan) is a Russian religious leader who claims the ability to abolish death, resurrect the dead, cure cancer and AIDS, teleport, and pinpoint mechanical problems on airplanes. Some sources call him a cult leader. He promised grieving mothers of the 2004 Beslan school hostage crisis, that he could resurrect their dead children-for a fee of around 1500 USD.

An ex-police officer, Ali Taziyev (d. 10 July 2006) was one of 32 hostage-takers in the 2004 Beslan school hostage crisis. He reportedly led the negotiations on behalf of the hostage-takers, and had joined the group after his wife and five children were killed by a Russian bomb. Although he was initially reported to have been among the identified dead after Beslan, …

Yacine Benalia was identified by Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) as one of Algerian-born Arab Beslan attackers killed when the siege has ended. Russian investigators said that he came from London to Chechnya in 2001. Former associates of the Scotland Yard in London claimed that another Algerian-born Arab Beslan attacker, Kamel Rabat Bouralha was a frequent visitor at Finsbury Park mosque in 2000.

Ahmad Nasser Eid Abdullah Al-Fajri Al-Azimi, also Abu Zaid Al-Kuwaiti, Abu Omar Al-Kuwaiti and Abu Dzeit (February 16, 2005) was a Kuwaiti Salafist Jihad fighter and suspected al-Qaeda agent operating first in Afghanistan and later in Chechnya and the wider Caucasus area. Abu Zaid worked as a Kuwaiti actor in children TV programs, …

Osman Larussi was a British man who was possibly one of the hostagetakers in the 2004 Beslan school crisis. Born in Algeria, Larussi was in his mid-30s and lived in London where he is thought to have attended the Finsbury Park Mosque until 2001, when he left for Chechnya with Yacine Benalia and Kamel Rabat Bouralha. He was reported killed on March 8 2004, but when Bouralha was captured and interrogated, …

Karen Mdinaradze is a survivor of the Beslan school hostage crisis on September 1, 2004. Mdinaradze, a video cameraman for a local soccer team, was hired to record the school festival. He survived an explosion caused when one of the female bombers at Beslan apparently accidentally detonated her explosive belt. Karen lost an eye in the explosion. Later, he survived a mass shooting of several men and was spared upon discovered uharmed.

Timothy Phillips is the author of "Beslan: The Tragedy of School No. 1", which was published in May 2007 by Granta Publications.

Abu Omar al-Saif was an informal name or nom de guerre of a Saudi militant operating first in Afghanistan (1986-1988) and later in the North Caucasus (1996-2005) as the mufti of Arab fighters in Chechnya, allegedly with close ties to Osama bin Laden. His full name was Muhammad bin Abdullah bin Saif al-Tamimi (محمد بن عبد الله بن سيف التميمي). He sometimes also used the name, or was addressed as, al-Jaber.

Yanis Kanidis (also Ivan Constantinovich Kanidis,) (January 1, 1930 - September 3, 2004) was a Greek-Russian physical education teacher. When armed Chechen extremists took more than 1200 school children and adults hostage on September 1 2004 in the Russian town of Beslan in North Ossetia, in what has become known as the Beslan school hostage crisis, 74-year-old Kanidis insisted on staying with his students, helped them survive and ultimately died to save their lives.

Magomed Omarov (died February 2, 2005) was the deputy Interior Minister for the Russian republic of Dagestan. He was assassinated by armed gunmen a month after the government announced they prevented a terrorist attack reportedly similar to the Beslan school hostage crisis. Omarov had coordinated all major anti-insurgent operations in the republic and had narrowly escaped another assassination attempt in 2003.

Angelica Agurbash (or Anzhelika Agurbash, Russian: Анжелика Агурбаш, Belarusian: Анжаліка Агурбаш), born May 17 1970, is a Belarusian pop-singer, who competed for Belarus at the Eurovision Song Contest 2005. Angelica Agurbash (born Yalinskaya) was born in Minsk, Belarus. In 1988, she won the first Miss Belarus title when she was a student of the Belarusian Academy of Arts.

Oleg Kashin (b. June 171980, in Kaliningrad, Soviet Union) is a former seaman and Russian journalist, considered as one of the most loyal to Kremlin Russian columnists. In 2001 he graduated from Baltic State Fishing Fleet Academy with a degree in sea navigation. During years of his study he was writing for "Komsomolskaya Pravda" in Kaliningrad where he expressed rather sharp views. He continued working in that newspaper prior to 2003, …

Matthew Chance is a senior international correspondent for CNN based in Moscow. Chance grew up in Stourbridge, England, and previously worked for CNN at their London bureau. Some of the notable stories he has covered include the 2001 war in Afghanistan, the 2005 London bombings, the ongoing Middle East crisis, the Beslan school hostage crisis, Russia under President Vladimir Putin's leadership, the devastating 2005 Pakistan Earthquake, and the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.