October 30, 2020 ▸ Disaster, History, Places, War & Conflict

Episode 529: Moscow Theater Hostage Crisis: Death in the Cheap Seats

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On this episode of the world famous Sofa King Podcast, we look at the infamous Moscow theater hostage crisis. Also known as the Nord-Ost Siege, this horrible event saw a Russian rescue attempt become far more lethal than the terrorist hostage-takers. The terrorists were Chechnyan and were there to get Russia to cease hostilities in the war against their country. It was around 50 people, men holding assault rifles, women strapped down with body bombs. When Russian special forces arrived, the final assault involved a mystery gas that killed around 120 hostages and vast majority of terrorists.

In the second act of a popular musical that was put on in a theater close to the Kremlin, a bus filled with Chechnyan terrorists parked and emptied. They ran into the theater firing guns and took the entire place hostage. Some actors escaped out the back window and called the cops, but the rest were there for the duration, roughly 850 of them.

It was four crazy days. There were negotiations between the terrorists and media personalities as well as government officials. Some hostages were let go, mostly foreigners and pregnant women. A couple of times, big headed Russians snuck past the police barriers to either try to get the hostages to rebel or to look for relatives who were in the theater. Those didn’t end well.

Eventually, the Spetznaz and local and federal Russian police decided to storm the building. But the choke point getting in was a murder zone, and the terrorists had explosives and booby traps. Someone decided the best way to assault was to first pump gas into the theater. A mystery gas was released (later discovered to be a more potent version of fentanyl), and people collapsed asleep (or dead) as the invasion took place. As the gunfight died down, the media and the world watched in horror as the bodies of the living and the dead were piled in the street and then crammed onto city busses to get them away from cameras.

So, what was Putin’s reaction to this event? What did they get as end up being, and who found out? Who was to blame for the deaths of the hostages? How many hostages were killed by the Russian government instead of the terrorists? Why did so many die after the gas, during the evacuation? Listen, laugh, learn.

 

Visit Our Sources:

https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/moscow-theater-hostage-crisis?mediatype=photography&phrase=moscow%20theater%20hostage%20crisis&sort=mostpopular

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_theater_hostage_crisis

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/hostage-crisis-in-moscow-theater

https://www.history.com/news/opioid-chemical-weapons-moscow-theater-hostage-crisis

https://apnews.com/article/256605b7679d4a61bde9a8eac8906ea9

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/yearbook-of-international-humanitarian-law/article/moscow-hostage-crisis-in-the-light-of-the-armed-conflict-in-chechnya1/3572BDBF09EC73BEDE4EBB8317625296

https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/10/the-dubrovka-theater-siege-in-moscow-a-decade-later/263931/