AP World Politics Russia announces gas used in special forces' raid was based on fentanyl
34 minutes ago
By JUDITH INGRAM, Associated Press Writer
MOSCOW - Ending four days of official silence, Russia's top health official revealed Wednesday that the gas used in the special forces storming of a Moscow theater held by dozens of gunmen was based on fentanyl, a fast-acting opiate that has many medical applications.
Health Minister Yuri Shevchenko said that the compound was an anesthetic and could not cause death.
"By themselves, these compounds cannot provoke a lethal outcome," Shevchenko said in comments broadcast over Russian television.
The announcement appeared to be an attempt to counter criticism, especially from foreign governments, that Russian officials were being too secretive and that the lack of information about the gas used in the storming on Saturday may have increased the number of fatalities. At least 117 of the hostage-takers' victims were felled by the gas.
Shevchenko said that the deaths were caused by the use of the chemical compound on people who had been starved of oxygen, were dehydrated, hungry, unable to move adequately and under severe psychological stress.
"It is precisely these factors that led to a lethal outcome for some of the hostages," Shevchenko said.
However, injected, skin patch and oral doses of fentanyl sold in the United States carry warnings that the anesthetic can be fatal if administered in too high a dose, and that doses must be customized, taking into account the patients' size and to any previous exposure to similar drugs.
The gas was intended to incapacitate the hostage-takers and prevent them from triggering explosives strapped to their waists and rigged around the theater. It worked but it also knocked out most of the hostages.
The U.S., British and other foreign governments had pressed Moscow to name the gas used. On Wednesday, a spokesman for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in the Netherlands said that the group's director-general, Rogelio Pfirter, had requested that Russia clarify what gas was used.
On Tuesday, the U.S. ambassador to Moscow, Alexander Vershbow, told reporters that the lack of information provided by Russian authorities "contributed to the confusion after the immediate operation to rescue the hostages was over."
"It's clear that perhaps with a little more information at least a few more of the hostages may have survived," he said.
Alexander Yakovenko, spokesman for Russia's Foreign Ministry, said on Russian television that the use of the gas didn't violate any of Russia's commitments to international conventions governing chemical agents.
Dr. Thomas Zilker, a toxicology professor at Munich University Clinic in Germany, said Wednesday that blood and urine samples from two Germans among the former hostages showed traces of halothane, a gas used as an inhaled anesthetic. He said he believed the gas pumped into the theater likely also contained other substances.
Shevchenko defended the actions of medical workers after the storming, saying they had prepared more than 1,000 doses of an antidote that could help victims overcome the effects of the gas. He did not name the antidote — and top Moscow doctors who were personally involved in the rescue operation had said earlier in the week that they, too, had not been informed about just what gas had been used.
The effects of opiates like fentanyl can be reversed with the drug naloxone, known by the brand name Narcan. U.S. officials said some of the former hostages had responded to doses of Narcan.
Fentanyl was among drugs that Pennsylvania State University researchers suggested two years ago that the U.S. military explore as weapons to subdue angry mobs. The Pentagon (news - web sites) has put such research on hold, however, because of worries that it would violate the international ban on chemical weapons.
Shevchenko adamantly denied that the use of the gas could have violated the Chemical Weapons Treaty.
"I officially declare that chemical compounds that could fall under the authority of the international convention banning chemical weapons were not used during the course of the special operation," Shevchenko said.
Chief Moscow prosecutor Mikhail Avdyukov pledged Wednesday that forensic medical workers and prosecutors would investigate each death in the hostage crisis and provide an official expert opinion.
"We don't intend to hide anything," Avdyukov said.
The hostage-takers seized the theater, with more than 800 people inside, on Oct. 23. They demanded that Russian President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) withdraw Russian troops from Chechnya (news - web sites), where the most recent war began in 1999.
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