28.1. Any negotiations are justified

…Says the Israeli specialist

From “Moscow Komsomolets”

By Mark Deich, October 24^th, 2002

Mark Deich telephoned Yakov Kedmi – the recent former director of one of the Israeli secret services.  Yakov Kedmi has taken part in joint anti-terror exercises with Russia, and in particular during the hijacking of a Russian passenger plane from Mineralny Vody to Israel.  Now Mr. Kedmi is following the latest developments with the (theater hostage) situation in Moscow by television.

What does Israel think of the mass hostage seizure in Russia’s capital?

“Israel is in full solidarity with the hostages.  It all reminds us of what we in Israel have been facing continuously.  It’s true, however, that there’s a big difference between the terrorists that are active in Russia and Israel.  In Russia, terrorism is connected with overt criminal activities, while our terrorism is exclusively political.  In Israel, hostages aren’t taken for ransom; people aren’t for sale.  The terrorists you have today could be involved in rackets and extortion tomorrow.  Our terrorists aren’t into the rackets.”

In your view, what do you think the Russian secret services should do next?

“In general, it’s a typical situation.  The only difference is the number of hostages.  It seems to be that what has happened in Moscow is a result of how in Russia a large number of people know how to use guns.  The various armed groups that are called commercial security firms.  There’s not always a clear difference between these firms and those whom they are supposed to guard against.  This explains how easy it was for the Moscow terrorists to take such a large number of people hostage.

The main thing that the Russian special services should do, I think, is to try and save as many people as possible.  The use of force is possible and necessary, but only in the case of a clear threat to the lives of the hostages.  Until this danger appears, or until the time that the terrorists begin to kill hostages, the decision to storm (the theater), or the decision to use force won’t be made, in my opinion.”

Isn’t this contradictory?  The American conception (of anti-terrorism operations) is that you don’t negotiate with terrorists.  How can you save the hostages’ lives without having some type of negations with them?

“That opinion is a mistake.  I don’t know of a single situation where the special services didn’t negotiate with terrorists, if hostages were in grave danger.  Any negotiations are justified, if you are talking about innocent people.  The other question is – will the terrorists give up under the pressure?  But there was never a refusal to negotiate, ever.”

The terrorists’ demand is that Russian forces be removed from Chechnya. Even if the Russia leadership gives into their demand, such a move can’t be accomplished in a day.  Would the terrorists wait?

“In reality, the terrorist’ demands are not obvious.  We don’t even know what and how they are armed.  Well, automatic weapons, that’s clear.  Supposedly they are hanging some kind of explosives on the walls.  Whether these explosives real or fake is not clear.  They are wearing suicide belts.  Are these real, or also imitations?  The real aims of the terrorists right now are unclear.  There are these possibilities: a show of force, supposedly to demonstrate if the authorities would hold out until the most terrible finale.  The special services should be ready for any turn of events, optimistic or tragic.”

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon stated that Israel was ready to render any type of aid to Russia in this complicated situation.  That is, of course, if needed.  Israel more than once has offered such help to Russia in similar situations.  As far as I know, however, the Russian leadership has always turned down such help.  Will this happen with Mr. Sharon’s offer as well?

“I wouldn’t be so categorically sure that such assistance was refused in the past.  Unfortunately, I can’t say much more about this.

I don’t believe that the Israeli special services, who have much more experience in anti-terrorism operations, in the given, complicated situation in Moscow, would do much better that their Russian colleagues.  We could help in one of three ways: sharing our experience, technology, and any information connected with the direct participants in this act of terrorism.  Chechen terrorists have more than a few representatives from the Middle East in their ranks.  Besides this, we have sufficient experience with many specific problems: how to enter a building held by terrorists, then how to liquidate them and free the hostages.  In short, what will be done (in Moscow) differs very little.  I would guess that my Russian colleagues also have a bit of experience in solving such problems, and so I doubt that the Russian special services need the Israelis to take part in this operation.”

The terrorists are threatening, that if one of them are killed, that they will shoot ten hostages.  What should be done in such a situation?

“If they threaten this in response to attempts to liquidate one of them, this merely proves the thesis: until the situation is hopeless, there should be no attempt to use force.  They aren’t threatening to kill the hostages if their demands are not met.  While the hostages’ blood hasn’t been spilled, force is not only senseless, but it is contrary to all the rules of fighting terrorism.”

This action, in your opinion, does it fit in with the recent events throughout the world?

“Unfortunately, it does fit in.  It proves the prediction that the 21^st century will be the ‘Century of Terror’.  This is a universal calamity, especially Islamic terrorism, is fused to crime.  Today it is not just a problem in Russia, not just in the US and Israel, but everywhere.  The solution to this problem is through preventative measures and the complete crushing of terror, including the physical destruction of all terrorists.”

What do you mean by preventative measures?

“Not giving the terrorists the ability to establish bases where they can train and practice.  This is what is going on right know in the Pankissky Gorge (in Georgia), and in regions adjacent to Israel, for example, in Lebanon, and what existed in Afghanistan until recently.  Besides this, it is necessary that only governmental agencies in a nation have access to weapons.  In the framework of a civilized nation, it is impermissible for there to be organizations allowed to use weapons, other than the government.”

But in several nations, in the US, for example, weapons are freely sold…

“Sooner or later the Americans will have to make a decision: either the free sale of weapons, or the spread of terror – political, religious, and criminal.  Besides, in the modern world it’s not a matter of weapons in the general sense.  It’s also about all diseases that can be created in the lab.”

Let’s return to the subject of Moscow.  Outside of what you know about the situation, is it possible, in your view, that there will be a peaceful outcome?  Or, as a specialist, do you guess that there will be a bloody ending?

“At the moment the situation is such that, it seems to me, that there may not be bloodshed.  For now all the data shows that it is a political act, made possible through terror, and that it won’t lead to bloodshed.  But whenever we have dealings with such unbalanced people, who have no moral foundations, this can change in a second.”

28.2.       The Russian secret service has no agents in the Caucasus

From “Izvestiya”, Evgeny Krutikov, October 25^th, 2002

Let’s be honest: even the most professional secret service cannot control a huge city in its entirety, let alone such a huge country.  You could place five officers with assault rifles in every theater, turning Moscow into a besieged fortress, but it would not prevent people from being taken hostage, and this measure would certainly get on the nerves of the average Russian.  They would glance at the machine-gunners at the entrance of, say, ‘Notre Dam’, and shudder – their safety has been placed in doubt.

Russians lost their feeling of protection back in the autumn of 1999, after the apartment blasts.  In principle, nothing new, from a psychological standpoint, has happened.  But such a psychological justification is evident in the reaction of the special services to the latest terrorist attack. According to our data, by 7 am after the night of the hostages’ seizure there were 4 (!) operational headquarters set up at Dubrovka.  It is not a case of the left leg not knowing what the right leg is up to, but some kind of a multi-armed Shiva goddess who cannot control even one of her extremities.    Each newly arriving general at the cordon has contrived to create his own operational staff and start negotiating again.  Just who else has contrived to hold negotiations with the terrorists?  Russian parliamentary delegates, and even city council representative Platonov - whose main occupation should be, logically, speaking with the worried Moscow residents, people whose panic rather quickly changed to a general anti-Caucasus aggressive crowd mentality, which I have become personally acquainted with.  The events are unfolding under the dictation of the terrorists, whose nerve is also limited.  The bewilderment of the special services has changed to feverish activity, and one of its main motivations is the generals’ fear for their own hides.  Therefore, a large number of these “negotiators” have nodded to the press, which allegedly bothers the regular work of the special services.

Less than anything, we are not inclined to curse the Russian special services.  We will repeat this: to place a machine-gunner in every building in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and still a dozen other cities, is impossible, and useless.  We recommend that conversations about how the special services have still not caught Basayev and company be saved for the kitchens of intellectuals.  Everything is just not that easy, and, besides, there is another, more real aspect of it all.

After the Moscow apartment blasts, the principle problem of the fight against terror was raised: when should one occupy oneself with terrorists – after the terrorist attack, or before it?  Four operational headquarters, confusion of command and a general bewilderment – all this appeared after the terrorist attack.  How to free the hostages who are being held in the booby-trapped building is a technical question, and one for slightly different operational personnel.  Our question is another.  Such a large-scale operation, such as the seizure of ‘Nord-Ost’, was not prepared in a single week, and in isolation.  This means that there SHOULD be information leaks.  Not in the form notes on (FSB chief) Patrushev’s desk, which read: “I report that on October 23^rd a unit of Movsar Barayev-Suleimenov will seize the building at Dubrovka,” but in a general form, “something big is going on”.  Something similar happened at the (US) FBI before the events of September 11^th. Upon receiving such a hint, it would follow that agents would be activated for work not just in Chechnya, but in Arab nations as well. 

The public demands to know how 50 heavily armed Chechens were able to move about Moscow.  It is an absurd question.  It is the simplest: rent a pair of garages for far from the object of the attack, bring all members of the group into Moscow one at a time and along different routes, buy a couple or three tickets to ‘Nord-Ost’, check out the premises, buy weapons somewhere in Stavropol, and it is a done deal.  But in order to think up the entire operation and to keep it all a secret – that is a real problem for terrorists, and one that they have solved.

One really wishes to believe that the secret services did not receive any warning about the preparation of a large terrorist attack in a Russian city.  Then their bewilderment (like the bewilderment of the CIA after September 11^th) would be understandable.  True, then one has to admit that there is no intelligence gathering apparatus in Chechnya whatsoever, while the resident agents in the eastern countries have given themselves up to the eastern languor.

The matter of agents in Chechnya and Georgia is a bad one – the countries are difficult for field intelligence work, and area specialists can be counted on the fingers of one hand, while the counter-intelligence climate is completely poisonous.  For one thing, the continuous squabbling between the “Russian Chechens” does not add to the ease of being a counter-intelligence agent, but something in this regard is getting done anyway, right?

If there was no warning, then it is a true failure of counter-intelligence, a system failure, on which our special services fallen more than once, and who do not even learn from their own tragic mistakes.

28.3. The war must stop!

From “Moscow Truth”, October 26^th, 2002

Our colleagues Anna Andrianova and Zhanna Tolstova are among the hostages on Melnikov Street, and have stated that there is a mass disinformation campaign against the public going on in the media.

Yesterday once again we were in contact with Anya – she is the only one allowed to use the phone and pass on the terrorists’ demands.  According to her, in the media’s broadcasts there is a specific political undertone.

“We are afraid.  We can only hear the radio, but the receiver is not very loud, and we don’t know which station it is.  The main thing is that everywhere there is ‘deza’ (disinformation).  They all talk about how we are drinking, how we’re being fed, what we’re being fed, if they are taking us to the toilet or not.  Taking us…  Well, it’s understandable that these aren’t domestic conditions!  But we are suffering because we are worried for our lives, and not because of the food.  It is cynical to discuss the quality of the food in such a situation – anyway, one can go a few days without eating.  Especially since everything is really so intellectual.  But for some reason we’ll say one thing in an interview, and then 15 minutes later the journalists broadcast on the air something completely different!  For example, we wrote a message to Putin completely voluntarily, but later we heard that there was some kind of pressure.”

Among the hostages is a doctor, and Anya says that he thinks that people are suffering most of all from the stressful situation.

“Because nothing is being done for our rescue,” Anya pronounces these words quietly into the telephone.  “With such background stress people’s chronic health problems get worse: cardio-circulatory, gastro-intestinal, and other problems.”

For now there have been no hypertonic crises, but the people’s blood pressure, naturally, has jumped.  There are also some women in the later stages of pregnancy, and for them it is insanely difficult.

“Someone said that they can clearly see ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ on us.  Well, do people really not understand that such information can make us seem inadequate in the public’s view, and justify in the end any action?”

Our girls say to let the people go out into the streets, because the “probability that we are going to get blown up is great, the situation is rather frightful.”

“Really, no one needs war, neither subjectively or objectively.  Objectively, because people are destroyed in war.  Subjectively, because we could be destroyed.  We see that the solution to the problem lies in the Russian people going out and saying that they don’t need this war.  Not just the relatives need to do this, but all the rest of the people.  Everyone has children, they all have to go to school and kindergarten, but we can never cease worrying about our children, our relatives, and our loved ones!”

Anya and Zhanna also said that if Masha Shkolnikova not made contact, then the inaction of our special services would have stopped a bit earlier:

“We are dying of fright.  From inaction.  We can’t sleep.  But the media reports that some of us our being beaten, that some are fed and some are not fed, that there are a thousand of us, that there are five hundred.  It’s obvious that they want to minimize us, to talk about harsh treatment and save us before death.  The patience of these people can come to an end, and they will take things all the way to the end.

“On the first night is was awful, but it got a little easier later – a faint glimmer of hope flashed by.  The journalists have once again started to lie, and so hope has faded.  And so it is, all the time…

“The situation is very complicated.  Colleagues!  If you can’t help us, well, at least don’t do anything stupid!”

28.4. Operation Cover-up

From “Moscow Truth”, Nikolai Petrov, October 26^th, 2002

The story of the hostages is hilarious.  To the point of tears, to the point of hysterical laughter, to the point of beating one’s fists against the wall.  It’s the laughter of impotence, the laughter of pain, the laughter of sympathy, the laughter of not understanding what went on.

I must confess honestly that I feel sincerely sorry for those people who had to decide the fates of those children, women, and men who had fallen into misfortune…  It is impossible to imagine how difficult it must be to solve what is in principle an unsolvable problem: to tear all the hostages from the claws of the terrorists whose strength lies in the barrels of automatic weapons and explosives, and whose weakness is in their impossible demands. 

But I find it funny to listen to the shining bureaucrats, and look upon the police and armed forces members, as well as the other “masters” of this world, filling up the television airwaves and with authority discussing the “extremely difficult situation”.  The feeling remains with me, that everyone without exception is playing some type of special, officially sanctioned, game of chance.  Even a name comes to mind: something along the lines of “Cover your ass” or “Raise your ratings”.  You can do this by means of a shooting gallery.  The elections are just ahead, sirs?  Is that the explanation?

It is too bad that the leaders of the armed forces and police are not able to organize a more literate presentation of the events.  It is bad when journalists have to creep about and slither into the scene of the crime, with the help of deceit and bribery carry out their professional duties, tormenting the people taking part in the operation with their whining and threats.  The result of such “work” is clear: inhumane “exclusives”, discrepancies, disinformation, and what is dangerous for the hostages and crippling to the military and police, information about their preparations for an assault.

It turned out, that building number seven on  Melnikov Street contains two of our colleagues – Anna Andrianova and Zhanna Tolstova.  Anya is maintaining continuous communications with her editor, reporting the demands of the terrorists and – sometimes – her own observations.  Do you know who the hostages blame for the fact that their children were not released?  The television people.  When the terrorists saw that TV station NTV aired a broadcast from the building “without sound”, they decided not to let go the group of children that was being readied for release.  Whose fault it is, is not hard to guess.  The report had gone through the counter-intelligence censors.  Our dear Chekists, do not destroy the children!  They could have been free last night.

I will not talk about the criminally undesirable law enforcement organs that cooperate with the media editors, who have very important information not meant for the average citizen, but for the authorities.  In the collective opinion of Moscow Truth, the information Anya gets from “wherever” should summon a special interest.  It is strange, but for now it seems only to be important to us here.

Many colleagues at Moscow Truth had to put aside their work on the upcoming edition to act as middlemen between the bandits and those people with whom they were ready to negotiate.  Here the journalists at Moscow Truth collided with the bureaucratic machine, which is fit only for peacetime.  

But now we are at war.  War between the community and terror.  Where did this wall of misunderstanding come from?  Really, are we not on the same side?  Or, perhaps, do we differ as to the desired outcomes?  WE wish to see LIVING people, how about YOU?  Why will the Moscow police not give us the number for the operational headquarters, so that our hostage colleague from Moscow Truth can pass on the terrorists’ demands?!  Why is a worker from the information department of the Moscow police unable to connect us with her supervisors?  Answer us!

Perhaps the answer will be transmitted to Evgeny Maksimovich Primakov’s receiver.  He, according to Anya, was ready to talk with Movsar Barayev…  Reader, you will not believe this, but an aide to the parliamentary delegate dryly asked for Anna’s cell phone number: well, I call her back and tell her what she needs!  I am ashamed for Evgeny Maksimovich’s team.  I remember that Anya and hundreds of other unfortunates are sitting next to bombs and under the barrels of automatic rifles!  One can with certainty guess that it was not out of spiritual malice that the hostages tore Primakov from the steering wheel of the governmental machine.

It is good that not all bureaucrats will compromise with their consciences, thinking about their ratings and their own importance.  When the terrorists once again through Anya, and Anya through us, expressed the desire to communicate with the former president of Ingushetia, Ruslan Aushev, he did not relate to us as he would with journalists, but as citizens of the nation, and, sorting the situation out, expressed a readiness to participate in the complicated negotiations.  Even if in the end it turns out to be another bit of posturing for the cameras, it is more humane than bureaucratic dryness.

It is frightening and offensive.  While the bureaucrats and soldiers and police play according to their rules, hundreds of hostages have for three days been on the edge of life and death.  For the statesmen, however, they have ceased to be people - they have been transformed into human units.

28.5. “I was only brining water”

A special report from the operational headquarters and at the theater taken hostage by the terrorists

From “Novaya Gazeta”

By Roman Shleinov, October 28^th, 2002

Friday, October 25^th, at the operational headquarters.  I have been here for two days.  At first it was rather simple to come and go, but today they thought up a pass system. A pass is shown on entering and exiting, but that was towards evening, so for now the secretariat’s door is guarded by FSO (the Federal Protective Service, stocky men in civilian clothes) and you cannot ask questions.  The secretariat is composed of civilians who sometimes do things faster and better than those who are appointed to do it, such as Yuri Luzhkov and Sergey Yastrzhembsky…

A pair in camouflage barricaded the corridor leading to the FSB HQ with a couch.  Now you cannot get in.  It is a fully understandable security measure, but a bit late.

Despite all of the precautions, the police officer had a more open plan of attack – he paid more attention to the license numbers and makes of the automobiles that he was getting ready to pull over, and these could be seen from afar.

Until the HQ had yet to start its pass system, there were a lot of interesting characters showing up there.  A gray-haired, completely naïve Cossack general in a real army uniform, accompanied by an active lady in fur, who told the staff that he had to but “say two words to the terrorists and the whole problem would be solved”.  Clearly, those manning the cordon feared the general’s epaulets and let him in without asking to see his documents.

By the way, a huge multitude of people who supported simple decisions and explanations showed up during those days.  There was little difference between the crazy inventors (one of whom for some reason called me on the cell phone with an offer to end everything momentarily), and those bureaucrats who put the ideological machine into high gear in order to blame it all on worldwide terrorism, while somehow forgetting how and why worldwide terrorism all got started.  These naïve lovers of simple decisions on both sides of the barricades are very similar to each other.  Judge yourself from the slogans: “Let’s take Russians hostage and end the war”, versus “Let’s kill more Chechens, and the war will be over”. 

Here, for example, running from office to office is Zdanovich, a speechwriter for the FSB.  Instead of hot and cold, he has propaganda and ideological settings.  He pricked up his ears on hearing that our correspondent Anna Politkovskaya has arrived at Sheremetevo-2 airport.  The terrorists had demanded that she come and act as a negotiator.  Only the Lord knows what we can expect from Zdanovich.

Politkovskaya arrived.  The FSB representative, who not ago confirmed that they were waiting for her at HQ, has started to try to persuade us that none of the terrorists asked for her, since the authorities would find it nice to be rid of her.

The dynamic Sergey Yastrzhembsky saved the situation.  The confirmed the idea of negotiations, and the FSB representative (one must give him his due, he was courteous and patient) has disappeared from sight.  An hour and a half was wasted on all of this.

Various agencies are in various rooms, and have various approaches and a noticeable amount of competition: Federal Security, Interior Ministry, and Ministry of Defense.

“There goes an ‘Alphonse’ greyhound,” said one of the headquarters security staff.  He mumbled this to his subordinates while indicating a colleague from Anti-terrorism Directorate ‘A’.  (‘Alphonse’ is Russian slang for a gigolo – trans.)   The gray-clad ‘Alpha’ team member had left HQ for some air without showing his pass.

After her talks with the bandits, Politkovskaya reported that they would allow water and juices to be brought into the theater hall.  She entered HQ accompanied by a machine gunner, which was shouted at.  “Were are you taking her, I said over here,” thundered some bureaucrat from his office.

“I’m following orders,” answered the escort. 

“Yeah?  And who are you?” The official did not quiet down.  But then someone more important came out and solved the conflict to his own benefit.  The various sub-departments would not share the negotiator.

They organized the water comparatively fast, but not a lot of it.  The terrorists only would allow Politkovskaya, a Red Cross worker, and me to carry it all from the barricades, where it was delivered by several trucks, through the ‘neutral’ territory to the theater building.

They allowed the Red Cross worker because they were used to them in Chechnya.  They allowed me because as a journalist I do not make people suspicious (or at least, at first I thought so).

The candidates agreed, grabbed some water, and walked to the square in front of the theater, but from the wall of a nearby house came a man in black camouflage with a rifle, who decisively intersected our line of movement: “Who are you and where are you going?”

Indecisively we looked to the plainclothes officer who was escorting us.

“It’s all taken care of, let them through.”

“No, I haven’t gotten confirmation from higher up,” insisted the man with the rifle.

“I’m from ‘Alpha’, it’s all taken care of,” said are escort in bewilderment.

“I don’t care if you’re from ‘Pennant’ (another elite SWAT group), it don’t mean a thing.”

And so we stood for ten minutes while the coordination dragged on, and one special service slowly figured out what the other was doing.

In the area in front of the theater, which the day before had become a neutral zone, separating the terrorists and hostages from the rest of Moscow, stood a lot of light vehicles.  Among them were the abandoned minibuses that the gunmen came in.  The doors stood open, and there was something in camouflage on the seats.  The witness who saw them arrived was right: they drive right in, not hidden, right up to the main entrance.  Judging from everything, they exited the vehicles and right away chased everyone they met up the steps.  A coat that an employee had not managed to hang up lay on the counter on the first floor.

We went past the coat checkroom, turned left at the stairway and stopped.  “Hey, we’re here!”

Two men with assault rifles came down from the second floor.  At first they seemed to me to be high school children.  They asked who we were.  They demanded that we show our ID cards.  One was very nervous.  He had donned his mask in a hurry, and it was crooked.  He was dressed unimpressively: worn-out shoes, and some type of cheap, poorly fitting children’s jogging suit.  Unimpressive, had it not been for the mask and wide belt full of grenades. 

The other, who did not wear a mask, was more decisive.  He was dressed all in camouflage, but had sort of an innocent expression on his face.  He quickly scanned our ID cards and asked why a Red Cross representative wasn’t wearing a Red Cross lapel pin.  We had the impression that he was the last link and was not allowed to act independently.  If something were to happen, he probably would not even allowed to shoot.  He turned out to be Barayev – the head of the terrorists.

Putting the water and juice down by the stairs, we then returned to the vestibule.  It was obvious that the terrorists’ nerves were shot.  They were suspicious to the point of paranoia.  They would only accept water and juice, and only in factory packaging.  “To make sure the FSB didn’t lace it with anything.”  They insisted that the Red Cross representative open one up and take a few swallows.  Getting some people to help carry the water and juice was out of the question.  A decisive: ‘No’.  They refused the offer of food, not even yogurt.

And so we were prepared to cross the neutral zone and enter the theater a few more times.

When we got back to the operational headquarters, it turned out that the rest of the juice and water was gone.  We waited until dark.  Finally a truck came, and we put the juice on a medical gurney, which was wet from the rain, and returned to the theater once again.

On the second or third time we were met at the stairs by two different terrorists, young fellows like before, with automatic weapons, and in camouflage and masks, but more serious.  One of them, wearing gloves, held a grenade demonstratively, with the pin around his thumb.  They brought out a few hostages to unload the gurney and carry the beverages upstairs.

I do not know what these two found suspicious in me (perhaps because I would not make eye contact), but one demanded that I go over to him.  He asked if I was from the FSB, and searched me just in case. 

“That’s all.  Let’s go.”

When we returned from the barricades and headed to the operational headquarters, once again the guards would not recognize us, once again we had to stand around.  For show.

While we were waiting, a well-dressed Chechen woman came up to Politkovskaya and said that she was the wife of Boroda (‘Beard’, a well-known Chechen field commander).  “How did this Chechen get here?!” a radio loudly crackled.  It was truly strange, since a couple of hours ago they had grabbed a middle-aged man who had said he was a relative of a hostage.  “Ah-ha, yesterday he was a retired FSB colonel,” the men in uniform.  “Send him out of here and don’t let him through anymore,” someone ordered.

Why do I remember all this?  Well, because during the day some student was brought in he had climbed over the fence.  Evidently they wanted to question him, since they were frequently saying that the gunmen might have coordinators on the outside.  It was a mystery: why had they brought the student into the headquarters, while another unknown person was allowed through without a problem.  No suspicion at all, just according to some principle that was unknown to me.

O course, these questions do not relate to those officers in the various detachments of the special services, who risked their lives.  But they relate to the people from the FSB’s anti-terror center, to director of interior affairs Vladimir Vasilev, to presidential aid Sergey Yastrzhembsky, who did all that they could.  It is just that they live alongside other people, men in camouflage who are unpredictable and incapable of coordination, generals and men without discernable rank, who create chaos and muddle, and hostility between the armed forces and police.

And perhaps because now you are reading this text and still do not know the real numbers of the dead, more and more questions arise.  And they will not be answered.  But there will be consequences.

28.6. Hell on Wheels

An “MK” correspondent and doctors saved hostages

From “Moscow Komsomolets”

By Dmitry Kafanov, October 28^th, 2002

Just as soon as I get information that the terrorists had been neutralized, I go over to the buses that were standing ready: “Hey guys! Take me with you!” One of the drivers is suspicious, but the rest say okay…

The patrol cop hysterically waving his arms on the other side of the barricades lets us in.  Around the theater façade stand dozens of ambulances with flashing lights.  They start to bring out living hostages, and carry out bodies.  Arms and legs waggle involuntarily, and the bodies are half naked…

The nerve-wracking situation gets worse with every passing second.

“What are you standing around for?!” shouts a cop to our driver.  “Come on, load up!”

A woman in an ambulance uniform jumps into our vehicle and yells at me: “Go help!”  Together with the rest I begin to drag hostages into the bus.  The first one is a girl with long hair a vacant stare.

“What’s your name?”

She blinks, and does not understand a thing.  I pinch her cheeks: “Breathe!  Breathe deep!”  The girl nods and I put her in the rear seat.  The next are unconscious.  I do not know why, but for some reason the women have lost practically all their outer clothing.

Olya, an ambulance medic who they stick on our bus, is constantly trying to hurry the MChS (emergencies ministry) workers and policemen: “Faster, faster or we won't make it.”

We are off.  The bus starts to work its way through the congestion of special-mission vehicles.  Olya and I do not have time to look around.

“Stop!  That one’s already cold, you won’t get anything out of him…  What are you, a reporter?” she unexpectedly guesses.

There is no time to clarify our relationships.  We are dashing between the unconscious people lying on the floor, throwing ourselves on one after another, doing indirect cardiac massage and artificial respiration.  Two men in the front are in bad shape.  We beat on them for five minutes.  I hammer one of them on the face with all my might: “Breathe, you reptile!  Come on, breathe, darling!”

He breathed, and even blinked.   While we were working on him, a man in the rear has died.

Vasily, our driver, at first was still stopping for traffic lights.

“To Hell with them!” I yell to him.  “Honk and go!”

And he does.

I count the people in the bus as I walk past them: 22.  We are physically incapable of helping all of them.  Olya is almost in tears: “The medicine case is still on the ambulance.  All we’ve got is the first aid kit from the bus.”  A thin girl, about twenty years old, slips out of the front seat.  We we’re paying attention to her…

The inside of the bus begins to smell of excrement.  It is apparent that the gas used by the special services is acting on the bowels in this way.  I hurry over to the girl, stepping on this or that body on the way.  She is the one who was put on the bus first.

“What’s your name?”

“Yulia”

“How old are you?”

“14.”

I take down her parents’ phone number and promise to call.

Alongside, 16 year-old Arkady sits, his head lolling from side to side.  Next to him another young person wheezes and chokes on his saliva.  I grab Arkasha’s arm and order him to hold onto his neighbor’s hair.  Only about four of the twenty-two on the bus are able to react to what is going on.  The rest are intoxicated and shell-shocked, but there are no signs of gunshot wounds on any of them…

We fly down Leninsky.  We are driving to the 1^st City Hospital.  The patrolmen run from the road as we race past.

The hospital gate is closed behind a barrier.  We curse at the guard in the window: “Are you asleep or what?  Open up!”

Some bored cops are hanging out by the hospital entrance.  Olya loses it.