Putin Says School Hostage-Taking Was Caused by Poor Arts Education Russian President Vladimir Putin linked the shooting and hostage-taking at Moscow School No. 263 to teenagers' lack of artistic taste and to children not being taught how to understand art, Interfax reported. "We need to raise a new generation of audiences with good artistic taste, people who know how to understand and appreciate theater, drama, and music. And if this were being done properly in our country, then perhaps a tragedy like the one in Moscow today would not have happened," Putin said at the opening of a presidium meeting of the Presidential Council for Culture and the Arts. http://lenta.ru/news/2014/02/03/putin1/