Tyler Grove

Modern Russian History

December 5, 2005

The Moscow Theatre Siege

Terrorism is alive around the world and one area where it is especially volatile is

in Russia with the ongoing crisis in Chechnya. One event that was not the first and not

the most recent that was a catalyst was the takeover of a Moscow theatre in October of

2002.

During the fall of the Soviet Empire in 1991, the Chechnya declared

independence as the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Some of the main reasons for Russian

influence in the area are the several oil and gas lines in the territory. Boris Yeltsin acting

on the advice of his advisors, who said that a war with Chechnya would be fast and

popular, attacked Chechnya. The Russians were not prepared for the massive casualties,

and the war was a humiliating loss for Yelsten. The first Chechen war ended with accords

signed in 1996, which declared that the national status would be decided by the end of

2001.

In September 1999, a series of apartment bombings in Moscow sparked the

Russian army to return to Chechnya, the second Chechen War began. Chechnya terrorists

were immediately blamed for the attacks, but the Russian government failed to provide

evidence linking them to the Chechnya terrorists. There are some alleged theories that it

was actually the Russian Government that bombed the apartments. Russia claimed
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victory of the second war, yet many outsiders view that the second war has not yet

reached a conclusion.

Moscow considers the area vital to maintaining influence in the Caucasus region.

Because of lack of information about Chechnya that is not provided by the Russian

government, many statistics are debatable. But one thing that is true is that the majority

of Chechens are Sunni Muslim. Before September 11th there was worldwide outcry for

the treatment of Chechnya by Russia, but after September 11th this public outcry has been

muted. After the “war on terror”, which solidified Putin as one of Bush’s allies. Putin has

described the Chechens as having ties to international terrorism. The Taliban did

recognize the separatist government of Chechnya and even opened an embassy in Kabul,

but it would only last one year with the downfall of the Taliban.

One of the most deadly terrorist attacks occurred October 23, 2002. Chechen

rebels stormed a theater during act II of a sold out performance at the theatre Nord-Ost.

The siege began at approximately 9 pm when a blast was heard near the building and

witnesses reported gunfire. A few performers who were not on the stage at the time were

able to escape through a back window and called the police. One of the early news

reports told that as many as half of the terrorists were woman of “non-Slavic” descent

(this was considered highly unusual), some of whom had explosives strapped to their

bodies. 1

According to Police, the gunmen identified themselves as members of the 29th

Division of the Chechen Army.2 A videotape was acquired by the media, and its message

was that the terrorists demanded the immediate withdrawal of Russian forces; they were

1
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/10/23/russia.siege/
2
http://www.mosnews.com/mn-files/dubrovka.shtml
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willing to die for their cause. They were led by Movsar Barayev who was the nephew of

a slain Chechen military leader.

In the first days of the event the terrorists released the Muslim members of

the audience, some of the children in the audience, and a man with a heart condition, but

to make sure that the world was watching, and would continue to watch, refused to

release anyone of non-Russian descent. They would release approximately 200 hostages

before the siege was over. It was known that some of the hostages were from the United

Kingdom, United States, and the European Union, this in turn garnered attention from

their respective embassies in Moscow.

Early in the siege, two leading members of the Chechen community entered the

theatre in the hope of negotiating with the hostage takers, but this ended quickly with no

resolutions. It was reported that the terrorists described themselves as “smertniki” – those

condemned to death, or kamikaze. 3 The captors declared that if their demands were not

met they would begin executing the hostages. They had placed explosives all over the

theatre, though none exploded.

The captors set a deadline of 6 am Moscow time on the 26th. On this morning at 5

am, gunfire was heard, the authorities started to believe that the terrorists had started

killing the hostages. The Russian solders that were in charge of the operation were

Spetsnaz commando unit of the Federal Security Service (FSB). The operation involved

pumping an aerosol anesthetic into a hole in the wall, then waiting a half an hour for it to

give off it effects, and then storming the building from all entrances. This tactic was used

because the authorities thought that the rebels would start killing hostages as soon as they

realized they were under attack.

3
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,383909,00.html?cnn=yes
 4

Reports indicate that during the raid many of the Chechens were shot point-blank

in the head, even after losing consciousness from the gas. The theatre director told

Reuters that when the shooting began “The rebels told us to lean forward in the theatre

seats and cover our heads behind the seats. But then everyone fell asleep.4

The official line that was released to the media said that many Chechens were still

conscious when they stormed the building, but this was questioned by eyewitnesses who

said that most were shot in the temple while unconscious.

By 7:20 the Russians declared the building secure. All the gas victims were taken

by bus to local hospitals, there was some fear that possibly terrorists would disguise

themselves as hostages. The efforts were hampered to treat the victims because the

Russian government refused to tell the doctors which gas it had used. Foreign embassies

in Moscow issued public requests for more information but they were publicly ignored.

On October 28, the Russian government released some information regarding the effects

of the gas to the US government, which gave the world an idea that it was definitely a

morphine derivative, but would not go any farther in discussing it. After international

outcry was seen, on October 30 the Health minister identified it as an aerosol of Fentanyl

derivative, a powerful opioid.

Many questions are still unanswered; the BBC reported a man inside the theater

lobby bloody and bruised claiming that he had broken through police lines in a desperate

search for his son. The rebels suspected him to be a FSB agent and reports said he was

dragged away and killed. But the FSB did not confirm losing an agent, although some

sources have hinted that the agency did suffer losses.

4
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2363601.stm#graphic
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A BBC TV Show on the events of the theater siege answered many questions

about the gas used and its background. The gas used was Fentanyl which is an analgesic

that provides intense pain relief with a degree of sedation and cardiac stability. It was

considered a predictable drug that could easily be reversible with an antidote. Fentanyl

causes pain relief by depressing certain parts of the brain. That includes the part of the

brain that causes the body to breathe, its potentially fatal side effect. The people that were

closer to the point of entry of the gas would have received an overdose.

Ironically, the play that the theatre goers were watching was ‘Checklist for an

Armed Robber’ by Vanessa Bates which was inspired by an armed holdup in Australia

that had many similarities to this event.

The theatre siege would be eclipsed in September 2004 with the Beslan hostage

Crisis which would kill 300, with at least half of the deaths being children. As of 2005,

the independence of Chechnya is not recognized by any major state. This event and the

continual inability of the Russian government to either quell the violence in Chechnya or

give it its own state shows the Russian government still has many issues that it must work

on in the future in terms of domestic issues.