- The hostage drama at the Moscow theater ended with the deaths of 170 innocent victims
- Security services attack Chechen terrorists with gas, but refuse to tell rescuers what its composition is
19 years ago, at the end of October, a tragedy took place in Moscow, which led to the deaths of more than 170 civilians – children, women and men. The hostage drama at the Dubrovka Theater has been watched on television screens all over the world, but unfortunately its outcome cannot receive an unambiguous answer.
On October 23, 2002, Chechen terrorists seized the building of the Dubrovka Theater during the Nord-Ost performance and held hostage a total of 916 people inside – actors, spectators and technical staff. In the summer of the same year, Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov holds a meeting at which a decision is made to carry out a major terrorist attack in Moscow, including taking hostages similar to the takeover of a hospital in Budyonnovsk in 1995. Movsar Baraev, a nephew of killed last year field commander Arbi Baraev. In order to distract the special services, Baraev’s group was withdrawn from active hostilities and it was rumored that its leader was wounded and being treated in Azerbaijan. It was decided to take several hundred hostages in an isolated separate building during a cultural event, as well as to detonate several car bombs in busy places in the center of the Russian capital. About 50 terrorists, half of whom were women, were to take part in the sabotage. The date for the action is November 7 – the Day of Consent and Reconciliation. 18 Kalashnikov assault rifles, 20 Makarov and Stechkin pistols, several hundred kilograms of plastic explosives and more than 200 grenades were delivered to Moscow. At the same time, recruitment is underway – most of the terrorists are between 20 and 23 years old, 21 men and 19 women. These are the “black widows” who have lost their husbands and are ready to do anything to get revenge on them. Terrorists want to control more people in one room. They chose Dubrovka.
The bombings failed
On October 18, the cars parked in front of the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall and the State Duma did not explode, only the car parked in front of the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall.a McDonald’s exploder erupted, but earlier than expected, and claimed only one victim. After the explosion, the militia and special services became more active and the terrorists moved the date for the “big event” from November 7 to October 23. Buses Ford Transit, Volkswagen Caravella and Dodge Rem pickup were purchased for the action. On the set date at 9.05 pm in front of the Theater Center of Dubrovka the three cars stopped, from which armed terrorists jumped out. They rushed into the hall, disarming the five guards, armed only with gas pistols and electric shocks. At that time, the first scene of the second act of the play “Nord-Ost” was completed. At that moment, a Chechen in camouflage clothes jumped on the stage full of artists and announced that all those present were hostages. For authority, he fired several shots into the ceiling. Some spectators were allowed to call their relatives to tell them that for every terrorist killed, the Chechens would shoot 10 hostages. In the first minutes, some actors and stage workers managed to escape. As soon as all the people in the hall had gathered, the Chechens began to mine the building. 916 people were taken hostage, including 75 foreigners from 14 countries.
By 10 pm, police units, the FSB (Federal Security Service), riot police, as well as television cameras and journalists were stationed around the theater. Lieutenant Colonel K. Vassilev, a military lawyer who was nearby, joined the terrorists to offered them hostage in exchange for the detained children. However, the Chechens shot him. By midnight, five actors locked in the dressing room and seven technicians had escaped. In the early hours of October 24, the terrorists released 15 children and several dozen people, including women, foreigners and Muslims, and demanded an end to hostilities and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya. At 5.00 am, one of the hostages, Olga Romanova, started an argument with the attackers and was shot. In the following hours, several more hostages were released and by 8.00 am, 41 people were released. At noon, the terrorists want representatives of the Red Cross and the organization “Doctors Without Borders” to come to them to continue the negotiations. Later, journalist Anna Politkovskaya and politicians Boris Nemtsov, Irina Khakamada and Grigory Yavlinsky want to take part. At 13.00 the singer and MP Joseph Kobzon, the British journalist Mark Franketti and two Swiss from the Red Cross enter the theater. After half an hour, the group went out, taking out a woman, three children and an elderly man. In the next hours, two girls managed to escape through the toilet window. At 1.30 am on October 25, medicines and bandages were brought in by Leonid Roshal, one of the most prominent emergency specialists. During the night, the Chechens released seven more. By noon, representatives of the Red Cross managed to take 8 children between the ages of 6 and 12 out of the hall. In the evening, the Chechens interrupted the talks and released four more. In the early hours of October 26, one of the hostages fell into a nervous breakdown and attacked a terrorist. The Chechens opened fire and wounded two, one of whom died later.
The assault
At 5:10 a.m., the spotlights on the theater went out. Russian security forces injected intoxicating gas through the vents, which some initially thought was smoke from a fire. At 5.30 am, Alpha and Vimpel Special Forces began to regroup around the building. They make explosions and automatic slopes. At 6.20 am shots were fired again and several explosions were heard, and two hostages managed to escape. At 6.30am, FSB spokesman Sergei Ignatchenko announced that the terrorists had been destroyed and that the theater center was under the control of the security services. No hostage-taking was reported. During this time, more special forces enter the hall, ambulances and buses arrive. At 8 a.m., the deputy interior minister announced that the assault had begun because a group of hostages had tried to escape. It also summarizes the victims: 36 terrorists killed, 67 hostages killed and more than 750 people released. At that time, medical teams removed the unconscious hostages and placed them lying directly on the stairs in front of the entrance while they were loaded onto the buses. No one reported the use of narcotics to the teams, so medics did not check the victims’ mouths to swallow their tongues or see if they had the necessary lung saturation.
Putin: Not gas, but stress killed people
According to official data, 130 people lost their lives in the tragedy, 10 of whom were children. Five hostages were shot before the assault, and 119 people died in hospital afterwards. According to the non-governmental organization Nord-Ost, set up by human rights activists and relatives of the innocent victims, the victims were 174. After the tragedy, Russian authorities refused to disclose the composition of the narcotic gas to medics so they could find the right antidote. It was not until 2012 that the British laboratory in Salisbury was able to discover that the anesthetics carfentanil and remifentanil were part of the gas, but without being able to determine the proportions and other ingredients. Subsequently, President Putin made a statement that the victims were not the result of the use of narcotics, but were the result of exacerbated chronic diseases, stress, inability to adapt to unusual circumstances. Relatives of the victims are trying to get compensation in court, but Russian courts have rejected their claim. It was not until 2011 that the European Court of Human Rights convicted Russia of inadequate planning of the rescue operation and the lack of adequate investigation by the Russian authorities into the operation, and awarded a total of 1.3 million euros to 64 injured relatives.
Drama in Budyonnovsk
During the First Chechen War after the capture of the capital Grozny by Russian troops, the Caucasian separatists were threatened with total defeat and, wanting to turn the game around, decided to carry out several terrorist acts to force the Russian authorities to withdraw from Chechnya. On June 14, 1995, more than 160 armed terrorists stormed the city of Budyonnovsk and took hostage more than 600 locals gathered on the streets of the town. They then take over the hospital and take hostage the patients and their treatment staff. Thus, more than 1,000 people fell into the hands of terrorists, who were used as human shields. The Chechens’ demands are an end to Russia’s hostilities and the start of talks with Dzhokhar Dudayev’s ruling regime in Chechnya. After negotiations, Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin signed an agreement to end the war and negotiate a solution to Chechnya’s status in exchange for the release of the hostages. Eventually, the terrorists left the city, accompanied by some of the hostages, who were later released. 129 people died in Budyonnovsk, including 18 policemen and 17 servicemen.
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