The theater on Dubrovka during the hostage-taking in 2002. Photo: Sergei Ilnitsky / EPA
Former FSB director and Vladimir Putin aide Nikolai Patrushev said in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta that the deaths of hostages during the storming of the theater center on Dubrovka in Moscow seized by terrorists were caused by the confusion of rescuers.
What Patrushev said. According to him, the FSB units “worked professionally,” but the other services did not have the same level of coordination. “The fact is that after the terrorists were eliminated, all the hostages were supposed to receive the necessary assistance. It was supposed to be provided by rescue services that entered the auditorium after the special forces. But they became confused.
As a result, the antidote was not administered to all the victims, and some of the hostages received a double dose. This is what led to the losses,”
Patrushev said.
At the same time, he emphasized that the assault plan “was carried out”: “The bandits were unable to detonate any of the explosive devices, the terrorists were eliminated.”
After the hostages died during the assault, the former FSB director said, “conclusions were drawn,” including regarding the coordination of various agencies and their preparation for actions in extreme conditions. He added that now the Emergency Situations Ministry, under the leadership of Alexander Kurenkov, “acts much more effectively and professionally.”
In 2018, Patrushev had already spoken about the Dubrovka terrorist attack in Andrei Kondrashov’s film “Putin.” The former head of the FSB then emphasized that some of the victims regained consciousness even without an antidote.
“This confirms that this substance is completely normal. And later on — we did not publicize it — this substance was used, and there were no casualties,” Patrushev said at the time. At the same time, he did not make any claims against the Emergency Situations Ministry.
The Dubrovka terrorist attack. On October 23, 2002, dozens of Chechen militants seized the audience and actors of the musical “Nord-Ost.” A total of 916 people were taken hostage.
On the morning of October 26, security forces began storming the building. According to official data, 130 people died, while according to the Nord-Ost movement, created by the hostages themselves and their relatives, 174 people died. According to the relatives and the hostages themselves, 125 people died because of the sleeping gas used by the special forces.
The Russian authorities rejected accusations that the use of the gas caused the deaths. Materials from the case of Khasan Zakayev, convicted for the Dubrovka terrorist attack, indicate that the cause of the deaths was a combination of “unfavorable factors.” The document says that there is no direct connection between the victims and the gas that was used.
Terrorist attacks in the Putin era
How the Russian authorities responded to past attacks — from installing cameras in the metro to blocking Telegram
The ECHR ruling. In 2011, the European Court of Human Rights issued a ruling on a lawsuit by the victims against the Russian authorities. The court ordered Russia to pay the plaintiffs compensation totaling 1.3 million euros, and also demanded a thorough investigation into the causes of the hostages’ deaths, but it was never begun.
The ECHR found that there were not enough toxicologists to assist the hostages, and that rescuers and medics were not told what gas had been used and how the victims should be treated. In addition, the court pointed to a lack of coordination between the services involved in the operation.