Summary of the main news related to the conflict in Chechnya. Compiled by Prague Watchdog.
Monday, October 21
The control over the "anti-terrorist operation" in Chechnya will be handed over from the Federal Security Service (FSB) to the Interior Ministry, most likely in the summer of 2003, Russian Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov told journalists in Moscow.
Tuesday, October 22
No major events.
Wednesday, October 23
A group of about fifty Chechen fighters including women took some 850 civilians hostage during the "Nord-Ost" musical in a theatre in southeast Moscow, demanding an end to the war in Chechnya and the withdrawal of Russian troops from their republic. The commando, which threatened to blow the building up if Russian forces try to storm it, released some children, Caucasians and Muslims shortly after the attack.
Russia's State Duma passed in the second reading a bill limiting media coverage of anti-terrorist operations and media access to conflict areas, including Chechnya.
Thursday, October 24
Foreign politicians and organizations as well as human rights groups condemned the seizure of a Moscow threatre by a group of Chechen fighters and called for an immediate release of the hostages. Also representatives of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria as well as Chechen refugees in Ingushetia condemned the hostage-taking, however, they supported the fighters' requirement to end the war in Chechnya.
Some Russian politicians and public figures managed to get into the building, launch talks with the Chechen commando and negotiate the release of some hostages, mostly children.
The hostage-taking in Moscow was masterminded by Shamil Basayev, said the commander of the Chechen commando Movsar Barayev in an interview for Russian television station NTV, which broadcast it only two days later due to Russian anti-terrorist laws.
Friday, October 25
The group of Chechen hostage-takers in Moscow gave the Russian side an ultimatum expiring on October 26 that required a representative of Russian President Vladimir Putin to come for talks.
Saturday, October 26
Russian special forces stormed the Moscow theatre and, having used sleeping gas, killed the Chechen fighters and freed most of the hostages. However, at least 117 hostages died in or after the operation, mostly of gas poisoning, Russian officials later admitted. Foreign anti-terrorist experts praised the operation, however.
Before the liberation of the hostages in Moscow, Chechen news agency Chechenpress published a statement by Akhmad Zakayev according to which President of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria Aslan Maskhadov said that he does not support the use of terror and called on the Chechen fighters in Moscow not to make "hasty moves". Russian authorities repeatedly claimed that Maskhadov was aware or even organized the attack in Moscow.
Russian President Vladimir Putin in a statement to the nation said that the Russian forces saved 750 hostages and apologized to the relatives of those who did not survive the operation that they did not manage to save all of the hostages.
Council of Europe Secretary General Walter Schwimmer said that the tragedy in Moscow underlines the necessity to urgently find a political solution to the conflict in Chechnya.
The views expressed on this web site are the authors' own, and don't necessarily reflect the views of Prague Watchdog, which aims to present a wide spectrum of opinion and analysis relating to events in the North Caucasus.
