MOSCOW — Dozens of masked men and women, identified as “suicide commandos” and demanding an end to Russia’s war against Islamic separatists in Chechnya, stormed a crowded Moscow theater during a popular musical Wednesday night and took as many as 1,000 people hostage.
As police and anti-terrorist troops surrounded the building, the assailants reportedly laid mines to deter an assault. Witnesses said about 15 Chechen women, described by a rebel Web site as “widows of Chechen fighters,” had strapped explosives to their bodies and vowed to blow up the theater if police attacked.
At least 150 people were allowed to leave the theater — women, children and some Muslims, the Russian news agency Interfax reported. But the assailants threatened to kill other hostages if Russia refused to pull its troops from the southern republic and end a war that has dragged into a fourth bloody year.
A Chechen representative in Russia’s parliament entered the theater to negotiate with the captors, who numbered between 40 and 50 and were armed with automatic rifles and grenades, police said. The negotiator, Aslanbek Aslakhanov, established initial contact with the gang, police said, but the communication was soon broken off for unknown reasons.
The raid, unprecedented in scope and brazenness, could deal a blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin, who rose to power largely on his vow to wipe out a Chechen separatist movement that the Kremlin deems terrorist. Even as the Kremlin claims to have Chechnya under control, rebel attacks claim the lives of scores of Russian servicemen a month, and public support for the war has slipped drastically.
Putin, who canceled a trip to Germany and went to the Kremlin for a crisis meeting, had not issued any statement by early morning Thursday in Moscow.
Inside the theater, frightened hostages were allowed to receive calls on cell phones. Her voice quavering, Tatyana Solnishkina, a musician in the orchestra, called Russia’s NTV television network and reported that the gunmen had vowed to kill 10 hostages for every member of their group who was killed.
Solnishkina issued a plea to the hundreds of Russian special forces troops and Federal Security Bureau officers surrounding the theater: “Please do not begin the siege, I beg you. We are treated well.”
But Gennady Gutkov, a member of parliament’s security committee, told NTV television that security forces would not storm the theater unless the rebels began killing hostages.
Nine hours into the siege, a hostage spoke to Russian radio by cell phone and reported that the captives were growing weary but were holding out hope that the incident would end peacefully.
Ivan Rybkin, former head of Russia’s Security Council and a participant in recent talks with representatives of Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, denounced the hostage-taking but urged the Russian government to try to end the crisis peacefully.
“Not only the president should show wisdom and patience, but the people of Moscow as well,” Rybkin said. “We must be careful that this misfortune doesn’t develop into a big tragedy.”
© 2002, Chicago Tribune. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.