|  The
theater was formerly the "palace of culture" for a ball-bearing
plant.
Contrary to what some see as a friendlier phase in President
Vladimir Putin's relationship with the About 30 to 50 armed Chechens
seized a Moscow theater Wednesday night and took an audience of
some 700 people hostage, FSB officials and witnesses said.
The Chechens demanded that federal troops pull out of Chechnya
immediately, witnesses said.
Special forces and Interior Ministry
troops taking up positions around the theater, which was seized
Wednesday by a group of armed men during a performance of "Nord-Ost."
Interfax and Russian television, citing rebel web site Kavkaz.org,
reported the attackers belong to a group headed by Movsar Barayev,
a nephew of slain Chechen field commander Arbi Barayev. The web
site could no longer be accessed in Moscow late Wednesday night.
Movsar Barayev has been reported killed several times during
the ongoing Chechnya military campaign, most recently 10 days
ago during Russian bombing raids.
Barayev was quoted by kavkaz.org as saying that the gunmen arrived
in Moscow "to die, not survive" and that 40 Chechen
widows are participating in the attack, Interfax reported.
A hostage released at 1 a.m. said there were a number of women
among the attackers.
Aslanbek Aslakhanov, the State Duma deputy from Chechnya, entered
the theater late Wednesday night to negotiate with the attackers.
"I am ready to give my life so that not one Muscovite is
hurt," Aslakhanov was quoted by Interfax as saying. "I
would like to tell the hostage-takers that this brings peace no
closer to Chechen soil, it only worsens the situation in the republic.
And I am afraid that this event may lead to an explosion of anti-Chechen
and anti-Caucasian sentiment in Moscow."
The theater, a former house of culture owned by State Ball-Bearing
Plant No. 1 near Proletarskaya metro station, was staging a performance
of the popular musical "Nord-Ost."
The gunmen were laying mines in the theater, according to relatives
of those trapped inside. Spectators were allowed to use their
cellphones to call their families for a few hours after the gunmen
seized the theater at 9 p.m.
An Interfax reporter attending the musical said the men claimed
to have wired the building with explosives and were calling themselves
"the suicide troops from the 29th Division."
Scores of police and elite Alpha troops sealed off the building
and nearby streets by 10:30 p.m. as they put operation "Thunderstorm"
into action. Parked around the theater were at least two armored
personnel carriers, 20 police cars, five fire trucks and a handful
of ambulances. A cold drizzle was falling, and power was cut to
lights around the theater, leaving the area dark.
By 1 a.m., about 150 spectators had been released or escaped
from the building, TVS television reported, citing Moscow police.
The channel said two Germans, a father and daughter, remained
inside.
A Moscow Times reporter saw a dozen troops in riot gear and carrying
rifles run up to the theater at about midnight. Ekho Moskvy radio
reported that the troops penetrated the building but then retreated.
Armed officers standing on guard at
the theater near Proletarskaya metro station.
TVS said the hostage-takers had threatened to kill 10 spectators
for every Members of the Chechen diaspora said they were ready
to offer themselves as hostages, according to Russian television.
There were no reports of casualties at 1 a.m.
Radio Mayak quoted a source with the Moscow rescue services as
saying that the gunmen had shot and thrown a grenade at a special
forces group. The special forces had managed to build a ladder
outside the building to help rescue actors from dressing rooms.
The gunmen seized the theater just as the second act began, shooting
automatic weapons into the air, said a "Nord-Ost" costume
designer who managed to escape with a group of her colleagues
through a third-floor window.
The woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said costume
designers were in a wing off the main stage and heard a loud noise
as if a stage light had exploded.
She looked into the main hall and saw men in masks firing guns
into the air.
She and her associates ran up to the third floor and climbed
out of a window.
Maria Shyorstova, who plays Katya, the hero's girlfriend in "Nord-Ost,"
said by telephone that she and other actors on stage and in the
wings were able to lock themselves in the dressing rooms. By 11
p.m., they had crawled out of the windows to safety.
"We're OK," she said of the actors and crew who had
escaped. "Those who were sitting in the audience are still
there."
Local media said children, Muslims and foreigners who could show
their passports were allowed to leave the building. The reports
could not be confirmed.
President Vladimir Putin called an urgent meeting with Prime
Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and other top officials in the Kremlin.
Alexei Volin, the deputy head of Kasyanov's administration, told
Ekho Moskvy that it was important to negotiate with the gunmen
but not to give them any concessions. He said the FSB had made
contact with the gunmen.
Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov and General Prosecutor Vladimir Ustinov
were among top politicians who rushed to the theater. The Kremlin's
spokesman on Chechnya, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, was also at the scene.
"This is a serious terrorist attack," State Duma Deputy
Yury Shchekochikhin said in an interview outside the theater,
adding that he believed the gunmen were acting on their own.
Shchekochikhin met earlier this year with Akhmed Zakayev, an
envoy to Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov, in Liechtenstein
to try to find a way to get out of the stalemate over Chechnya.
Worried relatives and onlookers milled around the 500-meter perimeter
around the theater.
Gleb Bauer, an 11-year-old actor in "Nord-Ost," said
he and his mother were walking past the theater at about 9 p.m.
when they heard a loud explosion. His family lives nearby, and
Wednesday was his night off.
"I should have been on stage just about that time, but for
some reason I wasn't," he said, glancing around from side
to side with evident distress.
The performance in the 1,163-seat hall started at 7 p.m. and
was to have finished at 10:30 p.m. "Nord-Ost," which
is based on the novel "Two Captains" by Veniamin Kaverin,
debuted in Moscow last fall.
See also:
Act
of Terror in Moscow
the original at www.themoscowtimes.com
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