The tragedy at the Moscow Theater Center on Dubrovka occurred on October 23-26, 2002. A group of militants took hostage the audience of the musical Nord-Ost and theater employees. Almost three days later, the building was stormed, as a result of which the terrorists were destroyed and the surviving hostages were freed. As a result of the terrorist attack, 130 hostages were killed.

Chronology of events

21.05 Armed people in camouflage, arriving in three minibuses, burst into the building of the Theater Center on Dubrovka. At this time, there are 916 people in the cultural center - spectators, actors, theater employees, as well as school students Irish dance"Iridan." The terrorists herd all the people into the hall and begin mining.

The bombs were placed along the walls at a distance of five meters from each other, and metal cylinders were placed in the center of the hall and on the balcony. Inside each is a 152mm high-explosive fragmentation artillery shell. The internal cavity between the projectile and the wall of the cylinder was filled with damaging elements. The female terrorists positioned themselves in a checkerboard pattern along opposite walls. They closed the hall in sectors of 30 degrees. The filling of the suicide belt is two kilograms of plastic explosives and another kilogram of metal balls.

In the middle of the hall, in the stalls, they installed a car cylinder with explosives, and a suicide bomber was constantly on duty next to it. Such an improvised explosive device was also installed on the balcony. The planned explosions were supposed to meet each other halfway, destroying all living things. For this purpose, a central control panel was made.

Some hostages are allowed to call their relatives, report the capture and that for every militant killed or wounded, the terrorists will shoot 10 people.

22.00 Police, riot police, special forces and internal troops gather at the building of the cultural center on Dubrovka. It becomes known that the theater was seized by Chechen militants led by Movsar Barayev, who demand an end to the war in Chechnya. The invaders declare that they have no claims to foreign citizens(about 75 people from 14 countries), they promise to release them and begin checking their passports.

23.05 Five actors manage to escape from the building; they locked themselves in their dressing rooms during the capture; They climbed down the tied curtains from the window. Half an hour later, 7 more people from the technical group, hiding in the editing room, run.

0.00 Terrorists release 15 children.

0.15 State Duma deputy from Chechnya Aslambek Aslakhanov enters the building.

2.20–3.50 Terrorists release 19 people.

5.30 Unstopped by anyone, Olga Romanova, a 26-year-old saleswoman from a nearby perfumery store, enters the building, enters the hall and gets into an altercation with Movsar Barayev. She is taken out into the corridor and shot.

8.15 Lieutenant Colonel Konstantin Vasiliev is trying to enter the hall. Shot by terrorists in the lobby of the building.

11.30 The militants demand Boris Nemtsov, Irina Khakamada, Grigory Yavlinsky and Anna Politkovskaya for negotiations.

13.00 Joseph Kobzon, British journalist Mark Franchetti and two Red Cross doctors pass through the cultural center. They took a woman, three children and an elderly man - a British citizen - out of the building.

15.00 Kobzon returns to the cultural center with Irina Khakamada.

17.00 Leonid Roshal and Jordanian doctor Anwar El-Said enter the building, after 15 minutes they take out the body of Olga Romanova and return back.

18.30 While going to the toilet, two girls climb out of the window into the street and run. The terrorists shoot after them, easily wounding the special forces soldier who was covering the girls, Konstantin Zhuravlev.

19.00 Al-Jazeera TV channel shows an appeal from militant Movsar Barayev, recorded a few days before the capture of the Palace of Culture. He declares that his group belongs to the “sabotage and reconnaissance brigade of righteous martyrs” and demands the withdrawal Russian troops from Chechnya.

23.00 Grigory Yavlinsky enters the building and holds 50-minute negotiations with the terrorists.

1.30 Leonid Roshal enters the building again - with two boxes of medicines. A journalist and an NTV cameraman come in with him and manage to talk with the terrorists and six hostages.

5.30 Terrorists release 7 hostages, who were promised to be released if the militants liked the interview filmed by NTV.

12.35 Representatives of the Red Cross take 8 children out of the recreation center.

14.50 Leonid Roshal and Anna Politkovskaya enter the building with three bags of water and personal hygiene items.

17.00–21.00 Journalist Sergei Govorukhin (son of the director), State Duma deputy Aslanbek Aslakhanov, head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Evgeny Primakov, ex-president of Ingushetia Ruslan Aushev, singer Alla Pugacheva enter the building one by one. They, like previous negotiators, are trying to bargain with the terrorists - to no avail.

21.50 Terrorists release three women and a man and demand representatives of the president for negotiations.

23.22 Crane operator Gennady Vlah breaks through the cordon into the building, mistakenly believing that his son is in the hall. When the terrorists realize that his son is not in the hall, Vlah is shot.

1.00 One of the hostages in the hall throws a tantrum and throws himself at the suicide bomber with a bottle. The militants open fire on him with machine guns and wound two other hostages - a man in the head and a woman in the stomach. The wounded are picked up by an ambulance within half an hour. The man subsequently died.

5.00 On the square near the cultural center, the spotlights that illuminated the entrance to the building go out. They began pumping sleeping gas into the hall through the ventilation.

5.30 Two hostages called the Ekho Moskvy radio and reported that gas had been released into the hall - they saw, heard and felt it. The conversation on air is interrupted by machine gun fire. On the square, the military begins to regroup forces around the Theater Center.

German doctors treating two of their compatriots who were held hostage at the Theater Center in Moscow believe they have identified the mysterious gas used by Russian security forces during the assault, the Times Online website reports.

After examining an 18-year-old student and a 43-year-old businessman who were victims of the gas, experts from a Munich clinic came to the conclusion that the cause of death of the terrorists and hostages was the narcotic substance fentanyl.

This substance, which is a strong painkiller, is used as one of the components of anesthesia and as an analgesic in intensive care.

Fentanyl is similar in properties to morphine, but pure form has a much stronger effect. Its overdose can be fatal.

Experts from the Pentagon are also inclined to believe that the basis of the gas was a certain potent drug from the opiate group.

At the same time, toxicology experts rule out the possibility of using nerve gas, since in this case characteristic marks would remain on the skin of the victims.

Russian intelligence services still prefer to remain silent about the nature and composition of the gas used.

5.40 The movement of special forces towards the building of the cultural center began to be broadcast in live NTV. A few minutes later, at the request of the operational headquarters, the show was interrupted.

6.30 Hostages begin to be taken out of the building. Ambulances and buses arrive.

7.25 Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation Sergei Yastrzhembsky officially declares that the operation to free the hostages has been completed, most of the explosive devices in the building have been neutralized, and the special services are looking for some of the terrorists who managed to escape.

8.00 Deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and chief of the operational headquarters Vladimir Vasilyev reports the first results of the operation: 36 terrorists were killed, including female suicide bombers, more than 750 hostages were freed, 67 people were killed. Over the next few days, several dozen more former hostages died in Moscow hospitals. The number of victims of the terrorist attack reached 130 people (10 children).

Among the dead were two artists from the theater’s children’s troupe, eight orchestra musicians, and in total more than twenty people who worked at Nord-Ost.

During the operation to free the hostages, 40 terrorists were killed.

Explosive experts from the Dubrovka Theater Center seized a total of 30 explosive devices, 16 F-1 grenades and 89 homemade hand grenades. The total TNT equivalent of the explosive was about 110-120 kilograms.

As a result of the terrorist attack on Dubrovka, not only the hostages were injured. The story of Chechen Zaurbek Talkhigov, who spent 8.5 years in a colony for aiding terrorists, looks strange. According to Russian human rights activists, in October 2002. he came to the Theater Center on Dubrovka following a televised call from State Duma deputy Aslambek Aslakhanov, who asked all Chechens in Moscow to surround the building with a human ring and force the terrorists to surrender. The plan failed - there were few who responded to the call. Then the deputy asked Z. Talkhigov to contact the invaders and gave him the phone number of their leader M. Baraev. Z. Talkhigov called the leader of the militants and held negotiations with them, trying to gain their trust and achieve concessions for the hostages. For this young man I had to tell the terrorists all the information about myself and the location of my family. All negotiations of Z. Talkhigov took place in the presence of intelligence officers and did not encounter any objections from them. However, on the same day, an hour and a half after the last conversation with the militants, Z. Talkhigov was detained by FSB representatives. He was charged with aiding terrorists.

Despite the fact that during the trial, witnesses one after another confirmed the defendant’s innocence, on June 20, 2003. Moscow City Court judge M. Komarova found 25-year-old Z. Talkhigov guilty of “aiding terrorism and hostage-taking” (Articles 30, 205 and 206 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and sentenced him to 8.5 years in prison in a maximum security colony. On September 9, 2003, the cassation court, represented by the judicial panel for criminal cases of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, upheld the verdict, the text of which clearly stated that when Z. Talkhigov came to the Theater Center, “he had no intention of aiding terrorists.” .
On October 23, 2003, a memorial “In memory of the victims of terrorism” was opened in front of the Theater Center on Dubrovka.

Tragedy in the Moscow Theater Center on Dubrovka. A group of militants took hostage the audience of the musical "Nord-Ost" and theater employees. Almost three days later, the building was stormed, as a result of which the terrorists were destroyed and the surviving hostages were freed. As a result of the terrorist attack, 130 hostages were killed.

The building of the Theater Center on Dubrovka was built in Moscow on Melnikov Street in 1974 and was first called the Palace of Culture of the State Bearing Plant (DC GPZ).
DC GPZ was normal concert hall, pop concerts were held here, theatrical performances etc.
In 2001, for the needs of the creators of the musical “Nord-Ost” based on the novel “Two Captains” by Veniamin Kaverin, the building was refurbished and renamed.

October 23, 2002 at 21:15 Armed people in camouflage burst into the building of the Theater Center on Dubrovka. At this time, the musical "Nord-Ost" was playing in the shopping center. The terrorists declared all people - spectators and theater workers - hostages and began to mine the building.
As investigative authorities later found out, 916 people were captured. Of these, about 100 children school age.
The invaders gave the people present in the hall the opportunity to call mobile phones to their loved ones, after which contact with all callers was interrupted.
IN 22 hours It became known that the theater building was captured by a detachment of Chechen militants led by Movsar Barayev. Among the terrorists were women, all of them were hung with explosives.

Reinforced police squads, riot police and SOBR officers, as well as management began to gather at the building of the Theater Center on Dubrovka capital city police department.
Two armored personnel carriers at the Dubrovka Theater Center.
At night, a young woman entered the building of the Theater Center unhindered (later it turned out that it was Olga Romanova). The militants decided that she was an FSB agent and shot her.
Late at night, the terrorists released about 15 children; several actors from the musical “Nord-Ost” managed to escape. One of the released hostages reported that the federal troops were conducting a counter-terrorist operation in Chechnya.

October 24 the first attempt was made to establish contact with terrorists: at 00.42 State Duma deputy from Chechnya Aslambek Aslakhanov entered the building of the center. He said that he had discussed the possibility of negotiations and offered himself as a negotiator with representatives of a number of security forces. Around the same time, several hostages managed to get in touch with television channels and asked not to storm the building, because the terrorists were hung with explosives and were ready to blow up everything around at any moment, in addition, they threatened to kill 10 hostages for each killed militant.
According to law enforcement agencies, by the morning of October 24, terrorists.
IN 08.20 it became known that Aslakhanov carried out telephone conversation with the head of the terrorists, Movsar Barayev, but this conversation did not lead to any results.

After attempts by the security services to establish contact with the militants, State Duma deputy Joseph Kobzon, British journalist Mark Franchetti and two Red Cross doctors entered the center. Soon they took a woman and three children out of the building. IN 19 hours The Qatari TV channel Al-Jazeera showed an appeal from the head of the militants, Movsar Barayev, recorded a few days before the seizure of the shopping center: the terrorists declared themselves suicide bombers and demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya. From 19:00 until midnight, unsuccessful attempts continued to persuade the militants to accept food and water for the hostages.
October 25 at one o'clock in the morning terrorists allowed Leonid Roshal, head of the emergency surgery and trauma department of the Disaster Medicine Center, into the building. He brought medicines to the hostages and provided them with first aid.

In the morning, a spontaneous rally arose near the cordon near the shopping center. Relatives and friends of the hostages demanded that all the terrorists' demands be fulfilled.

IN 15 hours In the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with the heads of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB. Following the meeting, FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev said that the authorities were ready to save the lives of the terrorists if they freed all the hostages. WITH 20 o'clock to 21 o'clock An attempt to establish contact with the militants was made by the head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation Evgeny Primakov, ex-president of Ingushetia Ruslan Aushev, State Duma deputy Aslambek Aslakhanov and singer Alla Pugacheva.
During the day, the terrorists freed several people, including eight children.

October 26 at 5:30 am Three explosions and several bursts of machine gun fire were heard near the shopping center building. At about 6 o'clock, special forces began an assault, during which nerve gas was used. IN 6.30 In the morning, an official representative of the FSB reported that the Theater Center was under the control of the special services, Movsar Barayev and most of the terrorists had been destroyed. At the same time, dozens of emergency vehicles and ambulances, as well as buses, arrived at the shopping center building. Rescuers and doctors took the hostages out of the building and took them to hospitals. IN 7 hours 25 minutes Russian Presidential Aide Sergei Yastrzhembsky officially announced that the operation to free the hostages was completed.

Near 8 o'clock in the morning Deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Vladimir Vasiliev reported the first results of the operation: 36 terrorists were killed, including female suicide bombers, more than 750 hostages were freed, 67 people were killed.
On the same day, the Russian FSB reported that the number of neutralized terrorists in the building of the Theater Center on Dubrovka alone amounted to 50 people - 18 women and 32 men. Three terrorists were detained.
Subsequently, Moscow prosecutor Mikhail Avdyukov stated that a total of 40 terrorists were killed.

October 28, 2002 was declared a day of mourning in Russian Federation for victims of terrorist attacks.

October 31, 2002 Deputy Head of the Institute of Forensics of the FSB of Russia, Colonel Vladimir Eremin, reported that from the Theater Center on Dubrovka there were 30 explosive devices, 16 F-1 grenades and 89 homemade hand grenades. The total TNT equivalent of the explosive was about 110-120 kilograms.

November 7, 2002 The Moscow prosecutor's office published a list of citizens who died both during their release from the Theater Center and subsequently in hospitals. This one: 120 Russians and 8 citizens from near and far abroad countries. Five hostages were shot dead by terrorists.
Later, the number of dead hostages increased to 130 people.
Among the dead were two artists from the theater's children's troupe, eight orchestra musicians, and in total more than twenty people who worked at Nord-Ost.

December 30, 2002 Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree awarding the Order of Courage to Joseph Kobzon and Leonid Roshal for the courage and dedication shown in saving people in conditions involving risk to life.

October 23, 2003 in front of the Theater Center on Dubrovka "In memory of the victims of terrorism."

IN April 2011 was in memory of the victims of the terrorist attack in the theater center on Dubrovka on Melnikov Street in Moscow. White stone temple complex 32 meters high will include a tented church building for 570 people, crowned with nine golden domes, and a clergy house to house a Sunday school and other needs. Construction of the temple should be completed in 2012.

In connection with the hostage taking October 23, 2002 a criminal case was initiated under Part 3 of Article 30 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, Part 3 of Article 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and Part 3 of Article 206 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (attempted terrorism and hostage-taking). As part of the investigation, charges of organizing a terrorist attack in absentia were brought against, in particular, Shamil Basayev, Zelimkhan Yandarbiev and Akhmed Zakaev. IN June 2003 The Moscow prosecutor's office discontinued, in accordance with the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, cases against the invaders in connection with their death.

IN April 2004 The Moscow City Court sentenced brothers Alikhan and Akhyad Mezhiev, as well as Aslan Murdalov and Khanpasha Sobraliev to 15 to 22 years in prison. They were found guilty of blowing up a car at a McDonald's in the southwest of Moscow, as well as aiding terrorism and taking hostages in Nord-Ost. Aslanbek Khaskhanov was also found guilty of complicity in hostage-taking. In July 2006, the Moscow City Court sentenced him to 22 years in prison.

IN June 2007 the investigation into the criminal case initiated on October 23, 2002 by the Moscow prosecutor's office into the hostage-taking in the theater center on Dubrovka, which was repeatedly extended, was suspended due to the failure to establish the whereabouts of Zakayev and other persons subject to criminal liability, the search for whom was entrusted to the criminal department wanted by the Moscow City Internal Affairs Directorate.

IN February 2011 lawyer Igor Trunov, who represents the interests of a number of victims in the case of the terrorist attack at the Dubrovka Theater Center, said that the prosecutor's office of the criminal prosecution has given instructions to resume the investigation.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

Terrorist attack on Dubrovka (October 23-26, 2002)

October 23, 2016 marked 14 years since the capture of the Dubrovka Theater Center. The terrorist attack, also referred to simply as "Nord-Ost", occurred on October 23-26, 2002 in Moscow. A group of armed militants led by Movsar Barayev took 916 people hostage. In exchange for their lives, the “Barayevites” demanded an immediate cessation of hostilities in Chechnya and the withdrawal of federal troops from the territory of the republic. The militants' demands were not satisfied. Almost three days later, security forces carried out a release operation, during which, according to official data, 130 hostages were killed and more than 700 were injured. During the operation, 40 militants were killed.

Despite the resumption of the criminal case in 2014, relatives and friends of the victims do not believe in either a further objective investigation of the case or in receiving answers to much more important issues- what gas was used during the assault and on whose orders, why proper evacuation and medical care were not organized for the victims.

The direct organizer of the action was Ruslan Elmurzaev, nicknamed "Abubakar", who headed the economic security service and was actually the owner of Prima Bank, his assistant was Aslanbek Khaskhanov, and the commander of the sabotage-terrorist group was the nephew of Arbi Barayev, who was killed in 2001, one of leaders of the Islamic Special Purpose Regiment Movsar Baraev.

The delivery of weapons to Moscow began almost immediately after the decision to carry out the terrorist attack was made. The bulk of the weapons were transported on a KamAZ truck under a load of apples. The cargo of weapons included 18 Kalashnikov assault rifles; 20 Makarov and Stechkin pistols; several hundred kilograms of plastic; more than 100 grenades. The weapons and explosives were delivered to the village of Chernoye, Balashikha District, near Moscow, where Khampash Sobraliev had lived since April 2002. Taking part in the production of explosive devices was Arman Menkeev, who settled in the house as a guest, a GRU major who retired in December 1999 and a specialist in the production of explosive devices.

23:05 - Five actors who were locked in the dressing room manage to escape from the captured building.

23:30 - Pulls up to the building military equipment, at this time seven members of the musical’s technical team manage to escape from it, having managed to lock themselves in the editing room.

October 24

00:00 - The building of the Theater Center on Melnikov Street is completely blocked, operatives are trying to get in touch with the terrorists who seized the building. The terrorists release 15 children and several dozen more people, including women, foreigners and Muslims.

00:30 - During the negotiations, terrorists put forward a demand for a cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of troops from Chechnya.

02:00 - Deputy State Duma from Chechnya, Aslambek Aslakhanov conducts negotiations with the leader of the terrorists, no agreements were reached.

03:50 - Terrorists free two school-age children.

05:30 - 26-year-old Olga Nikolaevna Romanova walks into the building of the Theater Center, enters the hall and gets into an altercation with Movsar Barayev. She is quickly interrogated, taken into the corridor and killed with three shots from a machine gun.

10:20-12:50 - The terrorists demand the arrival of representatives of the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders to conduct negotiations on the condition that there are no Russians among the representatives of these organizations. A little later, additional demands were made for the mandatory participation of journalist Anna Politkovskaya, politicians Irina Khakamada and Grigory Yavlinsky in the negotiations.

15:35 - Joseph Kobzon and State Duma Vice Speaker Irina Khakamada enter the building of the House of Culture. During negotiations with them, the terrorists declare their readiness to release 50 hostages if the head of the Chechen administration, Akhmat Kadyrov, arrives to them. Half an hour later, the negotiators leave the Palace of Culture building.

17:00 - The head of the emergency surgery and trauma department enters the building of the House of Culture childhood Research Institute of Pediatrics Science Center health of children of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences Leonid Roshal and Jordanian doctor, associate professor of the Department of Surgery at the Sechenov Academy Anwar El-Said. After 15 minutes they pull out the body of the murdered Olga Romanova. Having handed over the body to the ambulance staff, they return to the Theater Center building.

18:31 - While going to the toilet, two girls - Elena Zinovieva and Svetlana Kononova - get out through the window into the street and run. The terrorists unsuccessfully fire after them from machine guns and twice from an under-barrel grenade launcher, easily wounding the Alpha group fighter, Major Konstantin Zhuravlev, who was covering the girls.

19:00 - The Qatari TV channel Al-Jazeera is showing an appeal from militant Movsar Barayev, recorded a few days before the capture of the Palace of Culture. In the video shown, Movsar Barayev states that his group belongs to the “sabotage and reconnaissance brigade of righteous martyrs” and demands the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya.

21:30 - According to updated data, since the hostage-taking by terrorists, 39 people have been released.

23:05 - State Duma deputy Grigory Yavlinsky enters the building of the Theater Center and holds 50-minute negotiations with terrorists.

October 25

01:30 - Leonid Roshal enters the building. Together with him, NTV correspondent Sergei Dedukh and cameraman Anton Peredelsky enter the building. They are in the building for about 40 minutes, during which they manage to talk with the terrorists and six hostages.

12:34 - Representatives of the Red Cross take eight children aged from six to 12 years out of a building seized by terrorists.

14:50 - Leonid Roshal and Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya enter the building of the seized House of Culture; they carry three large bags of water and personal hygiene items to the hostages.

15:30 - In the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin holds a meeting with the heads of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB, as well as with the leaders of Duma associations. FSB Director Nikolai Patrushev states that the authorities are ready to spare the lives of terrorists if they release all the hostages.

17:00-20:20 - Through Sergei Govorukhin, the terrorists convey that they refuse to conduct further negotiations.

October 26

00:30-02:00 - One of the hostages becomes hysterical and throws himself with a bottle at the terrorist who is next to the explosive device. The militants open fire on him with machine guns, but miss and hit two other hostages ( Tamara Starkova and Pavel Zakharov). The terrorists allow the wounded hostages to be carried to the first floor and call ambulance officers into the building.

Storm

04:48 - The command is transmitted to the special forces soldiers by radio: “Attention, attention everyone! Thunder is speaking, all groups assault, assault, assault!” .

05:00 - The besiegers began pumping sleeping gas into the building through the ventilation. People inside the building - militants and hostages - initially mistook the gas for smoke from a fire, but soon realized that this was not the case. It was probably a fentanyl-based chemical warfare agent. The exact composition of the gas remained unknown to the doctors who saved the hostages.

05:30 - Three explosions and several bursts of machine gun fire are heard near the Palace of Culture building. After this, the shooting stops. Special units "Alpha" and "Vympel" of the FSB TsSN are beginning to regroup forces around the Theater Center. Information is received about the start of an operation to storm the building.

06:30 - FSB official representative Sergei Ignatchenko reports that the Theater Center is under the control of the special services, Movsar Barayev and most of the terrorists have been destroyed.

06:30-06:45 - Dozens of emergency vehicles, ambulances, and buses are approaching the building of the cultural center.

06:45-07:00 - Rescuers from the Ministry of Emergency Situations and doctors begin to remove the hostages from the building, provide medical care and hospitalization.

07:25 - Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation Sergei Yastrzhembsky officially announces the completion of the operation to free the hostages.

08:00 - Deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Vladimir Vasiliev reports the destruction of 36 terrorists, the release of more than 750 hostages and the recovery of 67 bodies of the dead.

The first official report of isolated cases of hostage deaths was made around 08:00, but Deputy Chief of Staff Vladimir Vasiliev reports that there were no children among the dead. As it became known from the materials of the criminal case, by that time the death of five children had already been confirmed.

13:00 - At a press conference, Deputy Chief of Staff Vasiliev reported the death of 67 people, but still did not report the death of children. The use of special equipment during the assault was announced for the first time.

13:45 - The operational headquarters has ceased its work.

Consequences

October 28, 2002 declared a day of mourning in the Russian Federation for the victims of the terrorist attack.

As a result terrorist attack According to official data, 130 people died, including 10 children. Of the dead hostages, five were shot before the assault, the rest died after liberation.

During the assault, special gas was used to euthanize members of the terrorist group.

October 27, 2002 chief physician Moscow Andrei Seltsovsky said that “in their pure form they do not die from the use of such special means.” According to Seltsovsky, the impact of the special gas only complicated a number of destructive factors to which the hostages were exposed in the conditions created by the terrorists.

On October 30, 2002, Russian Minister of Health Yuri Shevchenko reported that a composition of gases based on fentanyl derivatives was used during the operation to free the hostages.

On September 20, 2003, Russian President V.V. Putin said that “these people did not die as a result of the action of the gas,” which, according to him, was harmless, but became victims of “a number of circumstances: dehydration, chronic diseases, the very fact that they had to stay in that building." In the death certificates issued to the relatives of the deceased, a dash was placed in the “cause of death” column.

An unnamed representative of the US leadership said that after the terrorist attack on Dubrovka, Maskhadov had completely lost his legitimacy and could not claim to participate in the peace process.

Lawsuits

In 2003 - 2007, six accomplices of terrorists, by decision of the Moscow City Court, received from 8.5 to 22 years in prison.

On November 22, 2002, the Prosecutor General's Office announced the involvement of Chechens Aslan Murdalov and brothers Alikhan and Akhyad Mezhiev, who were detained in the same month for a car explosion near the McDonald's restaurant on October 19, in the terrorist attack. Later, the leader of the group, Aslanbek Khaskhanov, and his accomplice Khampash Sobraliev were detained. In 2004-2006, all four received from 15 to 22 years in a maximum security colony.

On June 20, 2003, the Moscow City Court found Zaurbek Talkhigov guilty of aiding terrorism and taking hostages in Dubrovka and sentenced him to 8.5 years in prison. According to investigators, he conveyed information about the location of special forces to the militants by telephone. On September 9, 2003, the Supreme Court of Russia upheld the verdict of the Moscow City Court.

On October 22, 2003, charges in absentia of organizing a terrorist attack were brought against Chechens Shamil Basayev, Gerikhan Dudayev and Khasan Zakaev. Zelimkhan Yandarbiev, who was in Qatar, was accused of aiding terrorists. In 2004, Yandarbiev died in a car explosion in Doha. Shamil Basayev was killed in Ingushetia in 2006.

On February 12, 2004, the Lefortovo Court of Moscow sentenced to 7 years in prison the police major of the Nizhegorodsky Department of Internal Affairs, Igor Alyamkin, who registered in the capital the Chechen terrorist Luiza Bakueva, a participant in the seizure of the Theater Center.

On June 1, 2007 it became known that The investigation into the circumstances of the terrorist attack at the Dubrovka Theater Center in Moscow has been temporarily suspended. The reason for this was given as the inability to establish the whereabouts of the accused Dudayev and Zakaev. Previously documents on the case were classified. The investigation was resumed in January 2009.

In March 2009, the Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow recovered about 130 thousand rubles from the claims of victims of the terrorist attack at the Dubrovka Theater Center for the theft of the victims' belongings.

In March 2017, at the trial in the case of Khasan Zakayev, representatives of the victims demanded to call medical experts who, in relation to the victims, gave an opinion that there was no direct connection between the use of the substance and the consequences - lethal outcome - but were refused to grant the petition. D There is still no answer to the question of what kind of gas was used during the assault. As stated on press conferences“Blank spots” lawyer Karinna Moskalenko, “This violates the victims’ right to privacy, they have the right to know the composition, because the fate of people has changed dramatically. The case is full of blank spots: it is unknown who died how, what the composition of the headquarters was, who made the decisions about the use of gas?

On March 9, 2017, a representative of the official Russian authorities for the first time announced the presence of “victims due to negligence during the special operation on Dubrovka.” “For the first time, Russia admits the presence of victims due to negligence during a special operation. This is a real breakthrough in the case of a terrorist attack,” lawyer Maria Kurakina commented on the prosecutor’s statement in an interview with a “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.

The victims' lawyer, Igor Zuber, said that it is important for him that "the one who is really guilty of the crime is punished," however, "none of the key circumstances of the incident have been established." It is unknown “who led the rescue operation, what specific gas was used during the liberation of the hostages, who gave the order to use the gas, which resulted in the death of each of the victims, and the survivors suffered harm to their health, and how assistance was provided to the victims.”

Criminal case of Khasan Zakaev

On December 17, 2014, the Kommersant newspaper reported that the Moscow department of the Investigative Committee resumed the investigation into the criminal case of the seizure of the Dubrovka Theater Center after the arrest of one of the alleged organizers of the terrorist attack, 41-year-old native of Chechnya Khasan Zakaev, who had been wanted for 12 years.

According to investigators, Khasan Zakaev, along with Shamil Basayev and Gerikhan Dudayev (who is wanted), was one of the co-organizers of the terrorist attack on Dubrovka. According to Kommersant sources, Zakayev, as part of a criminal community organized by Basayev, was responsible for the delivery of weapons, explosives and so-called “martyr belts” to Moscow. The militants brought the explosives from Chechnya in a KamAZ truck in compressed air cylinders, and the weapons in the back under sacks of potatoes. In addition, he and Dudayev distributed the cargo delivered to the capital to apartments and houses previously rented by terrorists.

The Main Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation charged Khasan Zakaev with “Preparation for a terrorist act” (Part 1 of Article 30, Article 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), “Attempted murder committed by a group of persons” (Part 2 of Article 105 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), “ Participation in a criminal community" (Part 2 of Article 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and "Illegal trafficking in weapons and explosives" (Part 3 of Article 222 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

Zakaev's lawyer, Suleiman Ibragimov, was given a non-disclosure agreement to not disclose any information related to the terrorist attack case..

On November 22, 2016, Khasan Zakaev admitted in court to possession of money and weapons, but stated that he did not know about the goals of the militants.

March 9, 2017 the prosecutor asked the court find Khasan Zakaev guilty of complicity in hostage-taking at the Theater Center on Dubrovka in 2002, asking that Zakayev be sentenced to 23 years in a maximum security colony.

On March 21, 2017, the Moscow District Military Court sentenced Khasan Zakaev, a native of Chechnya, to 19 years in a maximum security colony.

August 29, 2017 Supreme The Russian Court of Justice considered Khasan Zakayev’s appeal against the verdict of the Moscow District Military Court and reduced his term of imprisonment in a maximum security colony by three months.

ECHR decisions on claims of victims

On 20 December 2011, the European Court of Human Rights ruled in the case of Finogenov and Others v. Russia, unanimously finding that the inadequate planning of the rescue operation and the lack of an effective investigation by the Russian authorities into the rescue operation violated Article 2 (on the right to life) of the ECHR and awarded 64 victims received compensation in a total amount of more than a million euros; in the decision Russian authorities to use gas, the court, also unanimously, did not find any violations.

On October 23, 2014, on the anniversary of the tragedy, Igor Trunov reported correspondent" Caucasian Knot "that the consideration of all claims filed by it in the ECHR in the Nord-Ost case is over. "We have won all the claims in the European Court. The execution of these court decisions is a personal matter for each of the victims whose rights we defended; I do not know how they receive their payments and how they manage them. Currently, no one else has approached us for legal assistance,” Trunov said.

On September 22, 2016, the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe (CMCE), having considered the report of the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation submitted in August on the implementation of the 2011 decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in the “Nord-Ost case”, invited Russia to assess “what steps in investigations can still be done" and which "cannot be done for practical or legal reasons." The CMSE's only regret was that the decision of the investigative authorities of the Russian Federation not to open a criminal investigation “does not lead to the execution of the ECHR ruling in this part of it.”

Notes

1. Maskhadov opened a criminal case against Basayev for the seizure of Nord-Ost // NEWSru.com, 09.11.2002.
2. Nazarets E. “Nord-Ost”: fading hope // Radio Liberty, 10.23.2009.
3. Terrorist attack on Dubrovka (“Nord-Ost”): chronicle of events // RIA Novosti, 10.23.2010.
4. Several hostage actors managed to escape // RIA Novosti, 10.23.2002.
5. Militants demand to resolve the issue peacefully // Kommersant, 10.25.2002.
6. Children released by terrorists feel good // RIA Novosti, 10.24.2002; There are 600-700 hostages in the Theater Center; 150 have already been released // RIA Novosti, 10.24.2002.
7. Duma deputy from Chechnya Aslanbek Aslakhanov held negotiations with the leader of the terrorists // RIA Novosti, 10.24.2002.
8. Terrorists freed two more children // RIA Novosti, 10.24.2002.
9. There are 62 foreigners among the hostages // RIA Novosti, 10.24.2002; Terrorists need Yavlinsky and Khakamada // RIA Novosti, 10.24.2002.
10. Terrorists are waiting for Kadyrov’s arrival // RIA Novosti, 10.24.2002.
11. Terrorists opened fire on the hostages // RIA Novosti, 10.24.2002.
12. Terrorists on television // RIA Novosti, 10.24.2002.
13. According to updated data, 39 hostages were released // RIA Novosti, 10.24.2002.
14. Chronicle of events // Kommersant, 10.26.2002.
15. Three-day special issue // Kommersant, 04.11.2002.
16. Representatives of the Red Cross take eight children out of the building // RIA Novosti, 10.25.2002.
17. The son of director Govorukhin went to the terrorists // RIA Novosti, 10.25.2002.
18. Descriptions of the events of the terrorist attack and special operation - "Nord-Ost". Unfinished investigation...Events, facts, conclusions // Memorial to those killed in Nord-Ost. Book of Memory, 04/26/2006.
19. Uncle, will you save me? // Moskovsky Komsomolets, 10.26.2012.
20. Hostage Drama in Moscow: The Scene; The Survivors Dribble Out, All With a Story to Tell // The New York Times, Oct. 28, 2002.
21. Crime scene - Dubrovka // The New Times, 22.10.2012.
22. Crime scene - Dubrovka. Nobody answered for the death of 125 hostages // The New Times, 10.22.2012.
23. Terrorist attack on Dubrovka. How it happened // 1tvnet, 10.26.2011.
24. Failure to implement measures to minimize harm to hostages - “Nord-Ost”. Unfinished investigation...Events, facts, conclusions // Memorial to those killed in Nord-Ost. Book of Memory, 04/26/2006.
25. What was the gas? // BBC, Oct 28, 2002.
26. Moskomzdrav: out of 117 dead hostages, 116 were poisoned by gas // Lenta.ru, 10.27.2002.
27. The Minister of Health revealed the secret of gas // Kommersant, 10.31.2002.
28. Investigator: “The Chechens did not intend to die on Dubrovka” // Nordost.org, 02/14/2011.
29. For the USA, Maskhadov became “damaged goods” // Lenta.ru, 10/31/2002.
30. In January 2015, it became known that Akhyad Mezhiev died of tuberculosis in a colony in the Kirov region, where he was serving his sentence: The terrorist did not live to see parole // Kommersant, 01/13/2015.
31. How the terrorist attack on Dubrovka was investigated // Kommersant, 12/17/2014.
32. Zaurbek Talkhigov was sentenced to 8.5 years in prison // RIA Novosti, 06.20.2003.
33. How the terrorist attack on Dubrovka was investigated // Kommersant, 12/17/2014.
34. The court satisfied the claims of the victims of the terrorist attack on Dubrovka // Kommersant, 03/19/2009.
35. The investigation returned to “Nord-Ost” // Kommersant, 12/17/2014.

A group of militants took hostage the audience of the musical "Nord-Ost" and theater employees. Almost three days later, the building was stormed, as a result of which the terrorists were destroyed and the surviving hostages were freed. As a result of the terrorist attack, 130 hostages were killed.

According to the investigative data released, practical steps preparations for the terrorist attack began in early 2002. The final decision to carry out a major terrorist attack in Moscow with the capture large number The hostages were received at a meeting of Chechen field commanders held in the summer of 2002.
The actual preparation of the terrorist act began in early October 2002, when explosives and weapons were delivered from Chechnya to Moscow in the trunks of cars. Then, over the course of a month, militants came to Moscow in small groups and settled in several previously rented apartments located in different areas of the city. The total composition of the terrorist group was approximately 40 people, half of which were female suicide bombers. Initially, three objects were considered as the site of a possible terrorist attack, which implied the compact presence of a large number of citizens - Moscow state theater stage, Moscow Youth Palace and Theater Center on Dubrovka. As a result, the choice was made in favor of the latter due to large quantity places in auditorium, and also smallest number utility rooms that would need to be searched and then controlled.

Chronicle of the terrorist attack on DubrovkaOctober 23 marked ten years since the capture of the Theater Center on Dubrovka. An armed group of bandits broke into the theater building, where the popular musical "Nord-Ost" was being performed, and took 912 people hostage. After almost three days, the security forces decided to storm the building. The attack killed 130 people.

It was an ordinary concert hall; pop concerts, theatrical performances, etc. took place here. In 2001, for the needs of the creators of the musical “Nord-Ost” based on the novel “Two Captains” by Veniamin Kaverin, the building was refurbished and renamed.

On October 23, 2002, at 21.15, armed people in camouflage, arriving in three minibuses, burst into the building of the Theater Center on Dubrovka. At this time, the musical "Nord-Ost" was playing in the shopping center. There were 916 people in the building - spectators, actors, theater employees, as well as students from the Iridan Irish dance school.
The terrorists declared all people - spectators and theater workers - hostages and began to mine the building.

The bombs were placed along the walls at a distance of five meters from each other, and metal cylinders were placed in the center of the hall and on the balcony. Inside each is a 152mm high-explosive fragmentation artillery shell. The internal cavity between the projectile and the wall of the cylinder was filled with damaging elements. The female terrorists positioned themselves in a checkerboard pattern along opposite walls. They closed the hall in sectors of 30 degrees. The filling of the suicide belt is two kilograms of plastic explosives and another kilogram of metal balls.
In the middle of the hall, in the stalls, they installed a car cylinder with explosives, and a suicide bomber was constantly on duty next to it. Such an improvised explosive device was also installed on the balcony. The planned explosions were supposed to meet each other halfway, destroying all living things. For this purpose, a central control panel was made.
Some hostages were allowed to call their relatives, report the capture and that for every militant killed or wounded, the terrorists would shoot 10 people.

At 22:00 it became known that the shopping center building was captured by a detachment of Chechen militants led by Movsar Barayev. Reinforced police, riot police, special forces and internal troops began to gather at the building of the Theater Center on Dubrovka.
In the first hours after the capture, some of the actors and employees of the theater center, located in the office premises, managed to escape from the building through windows and emergency exits.
Late at night, the terrorists released 15 children.

On October 24, at 5.30 a.m., a young woman unhinderedly entered the building of the Theater Center (later it turned out that she was Olga Romanova, a saleswoman at a perfume store located next door), and at 8.15 a.m., Lieutenant Colonel Konstantin Vasiliev. Both of them were shot by militants.

The first attempt to establish contact with the terrorists was made on October 24: at 00.15, State Duma deputy from Chechnya Aslambek Aslakhanov entered the center building. After this, from October 24 to the early morning of October 26, the militants were quite active in negotiations, in which some Russian politicians(Joseph Kobzon, Grigory Yavlinsky, Irina Khakamada), as well as public figures(doctors Leonid Roshal and Anwar El-Said), journalists (Anna Politkovskaya, Sergei Govorukhin, Mark Franchetti, as well as the film crew of the NTV channel), head of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Yevgeny Primakov, ex-president of Ingushetia Ruslan Aushev, singer Alla Pugacheva. During these negotiations, the terrorists released several dozen hostages.

Go to the theater and die. 10 years after DubrovkaThree days and three nights of “Nord-Ost” will be united in memory into one continuous special operation. For those who then anxiously wandered around Dubrovka or listened to the broadcast, it was an endless change of milestones and a story from the inside.

October 28, 2002 was declared a day of mourning in the Russian Federation for the victims of the terrorist attack.

On October 31, 2002, Colonel Vladimir Eremin, Deputy Head of the Institute of Forensics of the FSB of Russia, reported that explosives experts had seized a total of 30 explosive devices, 16 F-1 grenades and 89 homemade hand grenades from the Theater Center on Dubrovka. The general TNT equivalent of explosives in memory of the victims of the terrorist attack in the theater center on Dubrovka on Melnikov Street in Moscow.

In connection with the hostage taking, a criminal case was opened on October 23, 2002. As part of the investigation, charges of organizing a terrorist attack in absentia were brought against, in particular, Shamil Basayev, Zelimkhan Yandarbiev and Akhmed Zakaev. In June 2003, the Moscow prosecutor's office discontinued cases against the invaders in connection with their death.

In April 2004, the Moscow City Court sentenced brothers Alikhan and Akhyad Mezhiev, as well as Aslan Murdalov and Khanpasha Sobraliev to 15 to 22 years in prison. They were found guilty of blowing up a car at a McDonald's in the southwest of Moscow, as well as aiding terrorism and taking hostages in Nord-Ost. Aslanbek Khaskhanov was also found guilty of complicity in hostage-taking. In July 2006, the Moscow City Court sentenced him to 22 years in prison.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources

As a result of the assault, 40 militants were killed - according to official data, this is exactly how many terrorists seized the Theater Center on Dubrovka. But, for example, hostage Svetlana Gubareva claimed that she saw at least 24 suicide bombers in the hall, although 19 were killed. And six months later, journalist Anna Politkovskaya met at the Sputnik Hotel on Leninsky Prospekt with a certain Khanpash Terkibaev, who told her in an interview that he was among the militants on Dubrovka as an FSB agent. In addition, the investigation materials contain the number 52 - this is the number of militants Shamil Basayev selected to prepare terrorist attacks in Moscow.

There is even more serious confusion with the number of deaths: officially 130 people died, but the hostages’ lawyer Karinna Moskalenko, adding up all the investigation data, got 174.

Vladimir Kurbatov:

“After a lot of requests to the prosecutor’s office, we gained access to investigative materials, and simply counted in a column how many died in the building, how many on the steps, in ambulances, on buses, in hospitals - in total it turned out to be 174 people. In court, we asked the head of the investigation team, Kalchuk, how he could explain these figures. He replied: “Well, you think so, and I think so, what do you want from me?”

Perhaps this is still an error in the calculations: 44 is too big a discrepancy. Three years ago, at the site of the terrorist attack, a memorial plaque appeared with all the surnames - I think that if some surname had not been there, the relatives would have been indignant.

There is a lot of testimony that there were more terrorists, but the investigation did not take them into account. When asked why Khanpash Terkibaev was not interrogated, Kalchuk replied that they went to the hotel that Politkovskaya named and did not find anyone. Then it turned out that Anna was talking about the Sputnik Hotel, and the investigators went to the Cosmos Hotel. And as soon as the FBI became interested in Terkibaev (an American citizen died at Nord-Ost), Terkibaev crashed in a car accident in Chechnya.”

Karinna Moskalenko:

“We studied the decisions of the investigation itself and received the number 174 - this is data without names, only numbers. The question arises: where are the relatives of these 44 people? We believe that these are unclaimed people. We came to Moscow for a walk, to see our mistress, on a business trip - whatever. And they disappeared. Who will deal with these statistics - find out those who disappeared at the same time in Russian cities? Those who they came for are on the official list.”

Andrey Soldatov:

“I saw the assault from the window of the apartment opposite: the hostages were carried out and stacked in ranks as if they were dead. And in these ranks there was definitely more people, what the authorities called it.

But the story with Terkibaev was unverified. Terkibaev is from that category of people with a special psychological makeup who jump out on various occasions and say that they can be the most best helpers. I don't think this has anything to do with reality.

But this does not at all negate the fact that some of the terrorists managed to escape. -Many operatives later told me about this. It was a complete madhouse there. The assault was carried out by more than one organization: there were several special forces groups that were supposed to clear out the terrorists, and there were also internal troops who initially provided the security perimeter, but when the big shooting started, they also went somewhere for some reason. As a result, chaos arose: the building is large, there are a lot of communications, exits in different directions, people move around it different groups armed people who themselves do not know where they are moving. The situation, of course, is not as catastrophic as in Beslan, where people simply ran around different directions, but the people who participated in the assault said that the task of ensuring the security of the perimeter had not been solved. Moreover, not only me, but also many journalists sat where, generally speaking, they should not have sat - this also speaks of the transparency of the perimeter. It was possible to come and go quite freely, which is why the special services say that a certain number of people left.”