Hi Nadine...Just catching up here, but this just in: Russia reveals name of gas used to end hostage crisis
By MARA D. BELLABY, Associated Press Writer
story.news.yahoo.com
MOSCOW - After scoring a major victory Wednesday with the arrest of a key aide to Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov in Denmark, the Kremlin responded to Western criticism and shed some light on the secret gas used to storm the Moscow theater seized in last week's hostage crisis.
AP Photo
Slideshow: Gunmen Take Moscow Audience Hostage
Special Forces Veteran Defends Gas Use
(AP Video)
But Russia's top health official insisted that the compound, based on fast-acting opiate fentanyl, was an anesthetic that by itself could not cause deaths.
At least 117 of the hostages died after their exposure to the gas, which also incapacitated the hostage-takers, leading to the safe rescue of more than 660 theatergoers from their Chechen captors. Health Minister Yuri Shevchenko said that the deaths occurred because the compound was used on people who had been starved of oxygen, dehydrated, hungry, unable to move adequately and under severe psychological stress.
"It is precisely these factors which 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.
Heavily armed Chechen rebels interrupted the production of "Nord-Ost" on Oct. 23, taking more than 750 people hostage, as part of a bid to force Russian President Vladimir Putin (news - web sites) to pull federal forces out of Chechnya (news - web sites). Russian officials accused elected Chechen president Aslan Maskhadov of being behind the attack, though they have not offered evidence and Maskhadov has denied any connection.
But the man once seen as the key to any political settlement in Chechnya has increasingly been sidelined, and the Kremlin's bid to further isolate the Chechen leader, whose envoy was once received in world capitals including Washington, was boosted by Wednesday's arrest of Akhmed Zakayev in the Danish capital, where he had attended a Chechen congress.
"Zakayev is suspected of a series of terror attacks during the period 1996-1999 and is suspected of taking part in the planning of the hostage-taking crisis in Moscow," the Danish police said in a statement, as Zakayev was ordered jailed for up to two weeks.
Danish authorities have said Zakayev may be extradited to Moscow, something the Kremlin has pursued for years.
Meanwhile, Shevchenko's revelation about the type of gas pumped into the theater at dawn Saturday is likely to win the Kremlin some relief from foreign governments, which have been pressing for more details.
The U.S. Ambassador to Moscow, Alexander Vershbow, said Tuesday that "with a little more information at least a few more of the hostages may have survived."
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 patients overcome the effect of the gas. He did not name the antidote. Some Russian doctors had said, however, that they were given little information about the type of gas used.
The effects of opiates like fentanyl can be reversed with the drug naloxone, known by the brand name Narcan.
The gas continued to claim lives, with two more hostages dying overnight, said Lyubov Zhomova, a spokeswoman for the Moscow health committee.
As of late Wednesday, 152 rescued hostages remained hospitalized, ITAR-Tass news agency reported, citing Moscow health authorities. A total of 501 patients had been released. But many continued to visit hospitals for treatment, Interfax news agency reported.
Meanwhile, anguished families continued to gather under rainy, gray skies to lay to rest hostages who died.
Colleagues of cellist Vladimir Zhulyov filled a small chapel at Moscow's Kalitnikovo cemetery to remember their friend, who was in the orchestra pit when masked gunmen interrupted a performance of the musical "Nord-Ost" last Wednesday night. It had been Zhulyov's 46th birthday and he could have taken the day off, but he wanted to perform, his colleagues said.
Doctors blamed the gas for his death.
Across the city, weeping child actors from the musical buried two of their colleagues at the Vagankovo Cemetery: Kristina Kurbatova and Arseny Kurilenko, both 13.
Russians appear to largely support the rescue operation, with many emphasizing that if the explosives rigged around the theater had been set off, the Soviet-era cultural center would have turned into a tomb for all of the hostages and their rescuers.
Both houses of the Russian parliament — largely filled with pro-Putin factions — also unsurprisingly gave their support to the Kremlin on Wednesday.
Russia's upper house, the Federation Council, voted unanimously to adopt a resolution Wednesday praising law enforcement agencies that "saved hundreds of people (and) deserve high public acclaim and active state support."
The chamber admitted, however, that "the hostages were liberated at a dear price."
The lower house, or the State Duma, unanimously passed a similar resolution praising the "responsible professionals and courageous people who work in the Russian special forces."
The hostage crisis appeared to strengthen public support for the war in Chechnya. In a poll of 1,600 Russians taken from Friday to Monday by the All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion, 46 percent of respondents said the military should continue its campaign in the rebel region; 44 percent said officials should begin peace talks. Last month, 34 percent voiced support for continuing the war and 57 percent said talks should begin. |
