When did Moscow police start driving Chevy Cavaliers?
Posted on 10/23/2002 11:12:47 AM PDT by McGruff
MOSCOW (AP) — Armed men entered a Moscow theater Wednesday and took the audience hostage, the Federal Security Service said.
The theater was holding a performance of the musical Nord-Ost, one of the Russian capital's most popular productions.
The Interfax news agency said one of its reporters was inside the theater at the time of the raid. She told them in a telephone call that the men had fired into the air and were preventing the audience from leaving, the agency said.
Police units were on their way to the scene.
When did Moscow police start driving Chevy Cavaliers?
"Basayev and his men crossed the border from Chechnya into the Stavropol District on Wednesday, 14 June. Everything was going according to plan until the convoy passed the outskirts of Budennovsk-a city of about 100,000, 120 km north of the Chechen border. After a routine stop, the Chechen convoy was unwittingly escorted by local police back to the militia headquarters in downtown Budennovsk. Upon arrival, the Chechens stormed out of the trucks, killed a number of police and occupied the militia headquarters. The decision to move to the hospital was apparently made after a number of the Chechen rebels were wounded.24 Basayev would not abandon his men. Reaching the hospital, they sealed the exits. Approximately 1,500 patients, family members and medical staff were in the hospital, guarded by some 150 heavily armed Chechens. This was the beginning of an eight-day ordeal of terror, anxiety and surreal negotiations.
Realizing they could not flush the Chechens out of the hospital, the local authorities requested assistance. Regular army forces and internal troops rushed to the scene and set up a perimeter.25 Having secured their hostages, the Chechens stated their conditions: cessation of combat in Chechnya, withdrawal of Russian troops and entry into negotiations with Dudayev. At this point in the crisis, the Russian authorities would not even consider negotiating with the Chechen terrorists and developed plans to storm the hospital.
The tense wait continued. The Russians deployed a variety of special forces units to Budennovsk.26 More than once, Basayev threatened to kill hostages if the Russians attempted to storm the hospital. He positioned hostages along the windows to discourage the Russians from shooting.27 On 15 and 16 June, Basayev repeated Chechen demands and warned the Russians not to attack. Alongside the Russian military units, the Russian media flooded to Budennovsk, and soon the entire country was following the dramatic events.
On 16 June, Yeltsin arrived in Halifax, "smiling and waving hands to a welcoming crowd of young Canadian high school students."28 The situation was not so peaceful back in Russia. That evening, members of the Russian Duma (parliament) were already discussing a vote of "no confidence" in the government and perhaps impeachment proceedings against the president.29 The small group of Chechen fighters was beginning to shake the Russian government's very foundation.30 The minister of defense continued to insist there would be no negotiations with the terrorists and that a "special operation" was being developed.31
The Moscow News reported, "Saturday, June 17th will go down in the annals of the struggle against terrorism as a day of folly, unprofessionalism of the military and the complete idiocy of their superiors. These are the most delicate expressions which we happened to hear there."32 At dawn and again at 2 p.m., Russian special forces attempted to storm the hospital. The results were gruesome: More than 100 hostages were killed. Who killed them-Russians or Chechens-is unclear. The Chechen and Russian soldiers also suffered some casualties. Between the two attacks, perhaps to illustrate he was not totally ruthless, Basayev released about 150 pregnant women and children. When their rescue attempts failed, Russian leaders quickly denied they had given any orders to attack.33
On day five of the crisis-Sunday, 18 June-the Russians began to seriously consider negotiating with the Chechens. In a surreal media event, the Russian prime minister conducted telephone negotiations with Basayev on live Russian television. Millions of Russians watched as Victor Chernomyrdin pleaded with the Chechen leader not to harm the hostages.34 Chernomyrdin finally agreed to Chechen demands to halt combat and begin peace negotiations.35
Basayev now faced a dilemma: how to return to Chechnya when he and his men were completely surrounded by the humiliated Russian security establishment, who considered him guilty of countless murders and other crimes. He was not about to take the prime minister at his word, because it was apparent Chermonyrdin did not control the "power" ministers. Negotiations continued through 19 and 20 June. To ensure safe passage, Basayev demanded that a number of "volunteer" hostages-mostly journalists and a number of Duma deputies-accompany the Chechens back to Chechnya.
It took some time for the Russians to assemble six buses and a refrigerated truck-to carry the bodies of the dead Chechen rebels. The convoy left Budennovsk 20 June but was forced to stop at the Chechen-Dagestani border when the Russian military commander refused to issue a written guarantee for the convoy's safe passage through Russian-held territory in Chechnya.36 The convoy was always surrounded by armed Russian personnel. After receiving a guarantee from the prime minister, the convoy entered Chechnya, and Basayev released the hostages in the mountain village of Zandak. Basayev and the Chechens celebrated this victory.37
The fallout from this incident was felt throughout Russia and much of the world. A week later, Yeltsin remarked: "The Russians and the whole world saw the low capability of our special services to fulfill the tasks entrusted to them."38 The following day, he accepted the resignations of two of his "power" ministers and two regional leaders...."
Thanks! Being multi-lingual comes in handy sometimes. Gazeta.ru is great, they are updating every 5-10 minutes.
IMHO, it's actually the followers of the God of Abraham (Judeo-Christians) v. the rest of the world.
This breaks down roughly to US-UK-Israel plus a few minor states, v. China-Ruusia-Islam-US press-Godless Socialists-Humanists-Wiccans-France and other assorted Euroweenies-Academia-Narcissists-Rapists, Pedophiles, and Homosexuals-the Self-Important- and william jefferson clinton, et al.
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