Hostage-taking in Moscow's Dubrovka Theater

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During the hostage-taking in Moscow's Dubrovka Theater on October 23, 2002, 40 to 50 armed people who considered themselves part of the Chechen separatist movement brought under their control 850 people and demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya.

After the hostage-taking in Moscow had lasted two and a half days, special forces from the Russian domestic intelligence service ( FSB) pumped an unknown chemical into the theater's ventilation system and stormed the building minutes later. The stunned terrorists were killed on the spot by headshots by the special forces. 130 hostages died, 5 from the hostage-takers, 125 from inadequate medical treatment as a result of the use of gas.

hostage taking

The hostage-taking took place in the Dubrovka Theater , about four kilometers southeast of the Kremlin . During the second act of a sold-out performance of the musical Nord-Ost , 40 to 50 heavily armed and masked men and women drove to the theater at 9:05 p.m. local time, stormed the performance and shot assault rifles in the air.

The masked attackers, who identified themselves as Chechens, took actors and visitors hostage, a total of more than 850 people. Among the hostages was a general from the Russian Interior Ministry . Some actors escaped through an open window in the back of the theater and called the police. A total of around 90 people were able to escape or hide from the building. Among other things, they reported the unusual fact that many of the attackers were women.

The leader of the attackers as suicide bombers of the 29th Division designated told the hostages that they had no grudge against present foreigners, and promised each hostage who was able to show a foreign passport, the release. About 75 foreign hostages from 14 countries including Australia , Germany , the Netherlands , Ukraine , the United Kingdom and the United States were in attendance. The Russian mediators rejected this offer, however, demanding that all hostages, regardless of nationality, must be released.

requirements

The attackers were led by Mowsar Barayev , a nephew of the killed Chechen militia commander Arbi Barayev. He threatened to kill the hostages if Russian troops were not immediately and unconditionally withdrawn from Chechnya . A week's notice was given, after which the hostages would begin to be killed. At first, the Russian authorities untruthfully stated that the attackers would demand payment of "enormous amounts" of ransom.

A videotape was leaked to the media in which the terrorists declared their will to die for their cause. In their statement, they stated that Russia had taken away the Chechens' right to their own nation and that they wanted to recapture this right that Allah had given them. You would have decided to die here in Moscow.

According to Sergei Yastrschembski , an adviser to the Kremlin, in addition to the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya, the terrorists also demanded that the use of artillery and air force be stopped from the next day. At the time of the hostage-taking, the average Russian Army casualties was three soldiers a day.

Hostage crisis

Cell phone calls between the hostages in the building and their family members revealed that the hostage-takers were equipped with hand grenades , mines and improvised explosive charges , some of which were strapped directly to their bodies, while other explosive devices were scattered around the theater. The majority of the explosives turned out to be dummies, the others had no detonators or batteries. The attackers used Arabic names, and the women among them wore Arabic burqas , which are actually very unusual in the North Caucasus .

A spokesman for Aslan Maskhadov , the leader of the Chechen rebels, said he had no information on the identity of the attackers and condemned attacks on civilians. The pro-Russian Islamic leader of Chechnya also condemned the attack.

The hostages were held in the auditorium and the orchestra pit was used as a toilet. The situation for the hostages in the theater was different and quickly changed with the changing mood of the hostage-takers who followed the media coverage. The hostage takers allowed the hostages to make phone calls on their cell phones. One of the hostages asked authorities not to storm the building after the theater was soon surrounded by large numbers of police officers, soldiers and armored vehicles.

23rd October

The attackers released around 150 to 200 hostages after a few hours. These were children, pregnant women, Muslims, some of the foreigners and people who needed medical care. Two women managed to escape from the hostage takers. The attackers threatened to kill ten hostages for every hostage-taker killed by Russian security forces.

A young woman, Olga Romanowa (26), managed to break the police barriers and enter the theater. She faced the hostage takers and urged the hostages to rebel against the attackers. The hostage-takers suspected she was an agent of the Russian domestic secret service FSB, led her away and shot her. Her body was later removed by a Russian medical team; Moscow police initially mistakenly referred to her as the body of a hostage who had died trying to escape.

October 24th

The Russian government offered the hostage-takers to flee to any third country. The hostages appealed to President Putin to stop the fighting in Chechnya and not to storm the theater. Because of the crisis, Putin broke off an international trip to meet US President Bush and other world leaders.

Well-known public and political figures such as Aslambek Aslachanow , Irina Chakamada , Ruslan Chasbulatow , Iossif Kobson , Boris Nemtsov and Grigori Jawlinski were involved in the negotiations with the hostage takers. Former President of the Soviet Union , Gorbachev , also announced his willingness to act as a mediator. At the same time, the hostage-takers demanded that representatives of the International Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders come to the theater to negotiate.

Konstantin Wassiljew, a colonel of the FSB, tried to get into the theater via a terrace, but was discovered and shot by the hostage takers.

According to the FSB, 39 hostages were released by the rebels that day, the threat that hostages would be shot if Russia did not take their demands seriously was repeated. Negotiations for the release of non-Russian hostages were conducted by various embassies; the Chechen hostage-takers promised to release all foreigners. They also said they were ready to release 50 Russian hostages if Akhmad Kadyrov , head of the Russian administrative authority in Chechnya, came to the theater. But Kadyrov was not ready for it.

During the night a hot water pipe broke and flooded the first floor of the theater. The hostage-takers called this a provocation; an agreement on the repair of the pipe could not be reached. It was later found that the sewer system had been used by Russian special forces to place listening devices close enough to the theater.

October 25

Over the next day, journalists Anna Politkovskaya , Sergei Goworuchin and Mark Franchetti as well as politicians Yevgeny Primakov , Ruslan Auschew and Aslambek Aslakhanov took part in negotiations with the hostage takers. The Chechen rebels demanded to negotiate with official representatives of President Putin.

Relatives of the hostages led several anti-war demonstrations outside the theater and in central Moscow at the same time.

The hostage-takers agreed to release 75 foreign citizens in the presence of diplomatic representatives from their countries. However, the Russian authorities insisted that the rebels should not divide the hostages into foreign and Russian citizens. Instead, the rebels released seven other Russian citizens in the morning and eight other children between the ages of 7 and 13 at noon without any conditions. After a meeting with Putin, the head of the FSB Nikolai Patrushev offered the hostage-takers to spare their lives if they released the other hostages unharmed.

A group of Russian doctors, led by Leonid Roshal , entered the theater to deliver medicines. They then stated that the hostages would not be beaten or threatened. Most of the hostages are calm, only two or three are hysterical. Food, warm clothing and medicine were delivered by the Red Cross.

Journalists from the Russian TV channel NTW interviewed Mowsar Barajew , leader of the hostage-takers, in which he sent a message to the Russian government: “We have nothing to lose. We have already covered 2,000 kilometers by coming. There's no going back ... we came here to die. Our motto is "Freedom and Paradise". We already have freedom after coming here to Moscow. Now we want to be in paradise. ”He also explained that the group had not come to Moscow to kill hostages or fight with Russian special forces, as they had fought enough in Chechnya over the years:“ We are here with one concrete goal - to put an end to the war, and that's it. "

At 9:55 p.m., four more hostages were released from Azerbaijan . According to an agreement, citizens of the United States and Kazakhstan were to be released the next morning . Barayev also said he could release the remaining children in the morning.

After dusk, a man named Gennadi Wlach ran through the police barriers to the theater and explained that his son was among the hostages. But this did not seem to be the case, the man was taken away by the hostage takers and shot. The FSB did not acknowledge having lost an agent. Ten minutes later, another man stormed in the same direction, but returned unharmed.

There was a brief shooting in the theater around midnight. A hostage ran across several theater chairs to a rebel who was sitting next to a larger explosive device. A hostage-taker opened fire on the hostage and missed, but hit two other hostages, one seriously injured and the other fatally wounded. The two were taken out of the building soon after.

October 26th

During the night Akhmed Sakayev , who was appointed Chechen foreign minister by separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov , asked the “extremists” to refrain from “hasty” steps. The hostage-takers told the BBC that a representative from President Putin would come to the theater for talks the next day. The Kremlin announced that it would send General Viktor Kazantsev , the former commander of the Russian troops in Chechnya, even though Kazantsev was neither in Moscow, nor did he intend to take part in negotiations.

Two members of the Russian ALFA special unit were seriously injured while moving between Chechen rebels and Russian forces and were hit by a grenade fired from the building. Moscow police chief Vladimir Pronin blamed the media for exposing the troop movements. However, according to an officer of the Russian special forces, the leak was checked by the Russian government: “We leaked the information that an assault would occur at three in the morning. The [Chechen] fighters were prepared. They started firing, but there was no assault. Then came a natural reaction - relaxation. And at five in the morning we stormed the theater. "

Assault

In the early morning of October 26, 2002, armed and masked troops from various Russian special forces (anti-terrorist units of the FSB , ALFA and Wympel ) surrounded and stormed the theater.

Government officials initially alleged that the assault was triggered by shooting hostage-takers. A government spokesman later claimed hostages attempted to escape from the theater and set off booby traps, leading to exchanges of fire between Russian special forces and the rebels. Deputy Interior Minister Vladimir Vasilyev claimed that the assault was started because of hostage panic that broke out after the execution of two female hostages.

Other sources say that the assault had been planned since October 23, and that the gunfights cited as the reason took place around three hours before the actual storm.

In the absence of an official investigation into what happened, the exact chain of events is unclear; there were conflicting reports and testimonies.

Gas attack

Around 5 a.m., the searchlights that were set up illuminating the main entrance of the theater went out.

An unknown gas was introduced into the theater. Many hostages initially thought the gas was smoke from a fire. Shortly afterwards, both hostages and hostage-takers realized that gas had been pumped into the building.

Various reports say that it was either introduced directly through the theater's ventilation system or through a hole in the wall made especially for the attack, or that it came out from under the stage.

It is believed that an anesthetic aerosol consisting of strong opioids combined with halothane was used. A laboratory in Porton Down , Great Britain, was able to detect traces of carfentanyl and remifentanil on the clothing of those affected, as well as the metabolite nor-carfentanil in their urine samples. This mixture has a dampening effect on the breathing reflex, which can lead to standstill.

Panic broke out among the hostages. A journalist who was among the hostages called the Echo Moskvy radio station and reported in a live interview that the liberation operation had started with a gas attack. She said that the hostage-takers did not want the hostages dead, but the government decided not to let anyone live in the theater.

Storming

President Putin visits injured hostages in hospital, October 26, 2002

The hostage-takers, some of whom were equipped with gas masks, neither used their explosives nor opened fire on the hostages when the assault began. Instead, the hostage-takers blindly fired at the Russian positions outside the theater. The direct assault began after 30 minutes. The Russian special forces entered the building through several entrances, including the basement, the roof and finally the main entrance.

When the gunfight began, the rebels ordered the hostages to lean forward in their theater seats and protect their heads with the seats. Hostages reported that some of the hostage-takers put on gas masks and many others passed out. Several female hostage-takers ran to the balcony but passed out on the way there. Several members of the special forces were also passed out from the gas, including two members of the ALFA. The Deputy Mayor of Moscow, who visited the crime scene, had to be treated for symptoms of poisoning.

After an hour and a half of sporadic exchanges of fire, the Russian special forces blew up the doors to the hall and stormed the auditorium. After brief fighting, all the conscious rebels were shot. Then the hostage-takers who had become unconscious from the gas were also killed with headshots.

According to the Russian government, fighting in other parts of the theater continued for over half an hour. Original reports indicated that three hostage-takers were captured (the BBC also reported that a "handful of surviving fighters were handcuffed") and two rebels escaped. Russian authorities later reported that all of the hostage-takers were killed in the assault.

aftermath

On December 20, 2011, the European Court of Human Rights upheld the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed by 64 former hostages against the Russian state and obliged Russia to pay damages between 9,000 and 64,000 euros per plaintiff. The reasoning for the verdict said, among other things, that the liberation operation was improper, which caused the high number of victims.

At the beginning of November 2012, the Moscow District Court ruled that Russia must open an investigation into officials responsible for the controversial rescue operation. The previous refusal of the investigation commission to investigate the actions of those responsible is illegal according to the district court.

Processing in drama and film

  • The actor and playwright Torsten Buchsteiner describes the events of the hostage-taking in the play Nordost .
  • The documentary - TV Series Critical situation ( "critical situation") of the US television channel National Geographic in 2007 dedicated her eighth episode Moscow siege , this event. The German-language first broadcast followed in 2009 by the National Geographic Channel under the title The Hostage Drama of Moscow .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Russia must investigate use in hostage drama . In: Österreichischer Rundfunk . dated November 2, 2012, loaded on July 4, 2017.
  2. ^ Susan B. Glasser, Peter Baker: 115 Hostages in Moscow Killed by Gas . In: The Washington Post . October 27, 2002, accessed October 29, 2016. (English)
  3. ↑ Moscow hostage death toll soars , BBC News , October 26, 2002
  4. ↑ Chechen gunmen seize Moscow theater . In: CNN , October 24, 2002.
  5. ↑ a b Nick Paton Walsh, Jonathan Steele: Chechen gunmen storm Moscow theater . In: The Guardian . October 24, 2002.
  6. ↑ a b c Russian forces enter siege theater . In: BBC News , October 26, 2002. (English)
  7. ↑ A Foreigner's Nightmare in Dubrovka ( Memento of October 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive ), The Moscow Times , October 22, 2007.
  8. ↑ Gunmen release chilling video , CNN , October 25, 2002
  9. ↑ Hostage crisis refuels Chechnya debate , The Christian Science Monitor , October 25, 2002
  10. ↑ The October 2002 Moscow Hostage-Taking Incident (Part 1) by John B. Dunlop, Radio Free Europe Reports, December 18, 2003.
  11. ^ Slaughter in Beslan ( September 27, 2011 memento in the Internet Archive ), Hudson Institute, November 23, 2004.
  12. ↑ Норд-Ост: 5 лет , Echo Moskwy , October 21, 2007.
  13. ↑ a b c Rebels seize Moscow theater , BBC News , October 23, 2002. (English)
  14. ^ A b c Non-stop nightmare for Moscow hostages , BBC News , October 25, 2002
  15. ↑ Michael Wines: Chechens Seize Moscow Theater, Taking as Many as 600 Hostages . In: The New York Times , October 24, 2002.
  16. ↑ a b c Seven hostages freed in Moscow siege , BBC News , October 25, 2002
  17. ↑ Two hostages flee Moscow theater , BBC News , 24 October 2002
  18. ↑ Yavlinsky Describes His Role In Crisis ( Memento of 29 September 2008 at the Internet Archive ), The Moscow Times , November 4, 2002
  19. ↑ Chechens release more hostages , BBC News , October 24, 2002
  20. ↑ a b c d e f g h How special forces ended siege , BBC News , October 29, 2002
  21. ^ Anna Politkovskaya: I tried and failed . In: The Guardian , October 30, 2002.
  22. ^ Children freed from Moscow siege , BBC News , October 25, 2002
  23. ↑ Hostage-takers 'ready to die' , BBC News , October 25, 2002
  24. ↑ Pictures of the Week ( Memento from September 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), TIME , October 31, 2002
  25. ↑ a b c Ian Traynor: Troops bring freedom and death to the theater of blood . In: The Guardian . October 27, 2002. (English)
  26. ↑ BESLAN AND DUBROVKA VICTIMS 'RELATIVES JOIN FORCES ( September 29, 2008 memento in the Internet Archive ), The Jamestown Foundation , November 3, 2005
  27. ↑ Moscow hostage relative await news , BBC News , October 27, 2002
  28. ↑ HOSTAGE DRAMA IN MOSCOW: THE AFTERMATH; Hostage Toll in Russia Over 100; Nearly All Deaths Linked to Gas , The New York Times , October 28, 2002
  29. ↑ a b HOSTAGE DRAMA IN MOSCOW: THE SCENE; The Survivors Dribble Out, All With a Story to Tell , The New York Times , October 28, 2002
  30. ↑ What was the gas? , BBC News , Oct. 28, 2002
  31. ↑ Thomas Geschwinde: Drugs: Market forms and modes of action. 5th edition, Springer, 2007, ISBN 978-3-540-43542-6 , p. 612
  32. ↑ Boris Reitschuster : Moscow: Putin's Vendetta . In: Focus . November 4, 2002.
  33. ↑ James R. Riches, Robert W. Read, Robin M. Black, Nicholas J. Cooper, Christopher M. Timperley: Analysis of clothing and urine from Moscow theater siege casualties reveals carfentanil and remifentanil use . In: Journal of Analytical Toxicology . tape 36 , no. 9 , November 2012, ISSN  1945-2403 , p. 647-656 , doi : 10.1093 / jat / bks078 , PMID 23002178 .
  34. ↑ Hostages speak of storming terror , BBC News , October 26, 2002.
  35. ↑ Putin vows to crush rebels , BBC News , October 28, 2002
  36. ↑ Complete text of the judgment
  37. ↑ Russia must investigate use in hostage drama . In: Österreichischer Rundfunk . November 2, 2012. Retrieved October 29, 2016.
  38. ↑ situation Critical S01E08: The hostage crisis in Moscow (Moscow wins) In: Fernsehserien.de . Retrieved October 23, 2018.

Coordinates: 55 ° 43 ′ 32.7 "  N , 37 ° 40 ′ 24"  E