"The women of Beslan who lost their children have become a real force that the authorities must reckon with," an independent journalist based in the volatile Caucasus region wrote in the opposition daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

"The meeting with the president has set a precedent for all of Russia," the column said.

That meeting, an encounter the mothers of the Beslan massacre victims have been demanding for the past year, is scheduled to take place on Friday at the Kremlin. The Kremlin press service has asked journalists for accreditation, but has yet to confirm formally the date and time.

In an article published on its website, the respected centrist daily Izvestia said that "the mothers of Beslan have become a unique social-political phenomenon" in Russia because "they cannot be bought and they cannot be made to keep quiet."

The mothers, united and organized in the group "Beslan Mother's Committee," have asserted that there are significant discrepancies between official accounts made public so far of how the Beslan tragedy occurred and what they say are the real facts about the disaster.

Most importantly, the mothers insist that both local and federal public officials -- including Nikolai Patrushev, head of the FSB security service, and Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev -- bear some responsibility for the Beslan massacre and should be held accountable.

"The mothers of Beslan have asked for little: They just want to lay out their complaints over the official investigation into the terrorist attack for Vladimir Putin," Izvestia said.

After turning a deaf ear to the mothers for the past year, Putin said on Monday that he was prepared to meet with representatives of the Beslan Mother's Committee and listen to their complaints.

Putin may have had no choice: As Russia on Thursday marks the first anniversary of the start of the three-day Beslan tragedy, public attention to, and sympathy for, the mothers of the slain children has been sharply on the rise in recent weeks.

Commentators noted however that Putin's assent to the delicate meeting was a notable departure from deeply-engrained political traditions in Russia which shield Kremlin leaders not just from public accountability for security disasters but from facing angry accusors victimized by them.

"Nothing can happen to us more horrible than what has already happened," Izvestia quoted the leader of the Beslan Mother's Committee, Susanna Dudiyeva, as saying.

"We no longer fear anyone or anything. And the authorities know this."