In a completely unprecedented move, 20 to 30 armed Chechen rebels took several hundred men hostage in a Moscow theater today. The rebellion, for Chechen independence, has been going on for years with massive amounts of violence, probably tens of thousands of deaths, on both sides. Though the rebels have taken action in Moscow before, I can’t ever recall such a large scale hostage taking in any conflict. I hate, despise violence as much as anyone, I think, and would love to see everyone get out alive. But the rebels seem to be missing a few screws: the gang is apparently demanding that authorities “resolve the situation in the Chechen republic.” So yeah, the Russian government is just going to cave in to the whole conflict over 700 hostages. Since President Vladmir Putin is not one of them, nor is any member of his family, think again.
Update: Apparently I was mistaken in saying that this was an unprecedented move. Chechen rebels, in June, 1995, took approximately 2,000 hostages for five days in a hospital in Dagestan. More than 100 of the hostages died when Russian commandos stormed the hospital. In the end, the rebels were allowed to leave peacefully when the remaining hostages were freed.
BillSaysThis 