October 23–26, 2002
A team of approximately 40 Chechen terrorists seized the Dubrovka Theater in Moscow during a performance of the musical Nord-Ost, taking roughly 850 hostages. Russian special forces pumped an aerosolized chemical agent — likely a fentanyl derivative — into the ventilation system before storming the building. The gas killed at least 130 hostages and all the terrorists. Russian authorities refused to tell hospitals the identity of the gas, hampering medical treatment and almost certainly raising the death toll. The siege demonstrated both Chechen desperation and Russian willingness to sacrifice its own citizens to project strength.
Commanders