North Caucasus violence hits Putin's Russian legacy

By James Kilner

BESLAN, Russia (Reuters) - A grieving man lies across a grave on the outskirts of this southern Russian town in a cemetery which acts as a silent memorial to one of Vladimir Putin's defining moments as Russian president.

Putin on Wednesday hands over power to his protege Dmitry Medvedev after an eight-year rule that has in part been shaped by his campaign against Islamist insurgents who have fought Moscow along this wild, mountainous border region.

That conflict reached a watershed in September 2004, when heavily-armed Chechen separatist sympathizers seized a school in Beslan. When the siege ended three days later, 334 people -- half of them children -- were dead.

"Beslan was Putin's 9/11," said Oksana Antonenko, at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. "It was a benchmark for Putin's vision of domestic government and a test of him as a leader."

Four years on, Putin -- who will stay on as prime minister -- can claim some real successes in the North Caucasus, a region where Moscow has struggled for centuries to control a volatile mix of Islam, nationalism and clan allegiances.

MIXED RECORD

In Chechnya, centre of insurgency in the 1990s, separatist rebellion has largely been pacified. Moscow has handed responsibility for security to a loyal local warlord.

Since Beslan, the insurgents have carried out no major attacks on civilian targets. In most of the region, people are feeling the benefit of greater stability, and a nationwide economic boom.