Russia marks fifth anniversary of Moscow music theater hostage crisis

Mournful ceremonies dedicated to the fifth anniversary of the Nord Ost hostage crisis will take place in Moscow near the music theater, where the horrific crisis occurred on October 23, 2002. Music excepts from the Nord Ost musical and footage of the terrorist act itself will be played to those attending the ceremony.

Photo: Russia marks fifth anniversary of Moscow music theater hostage crisis

Officials of the government of North Ossetia (where the Beslan hostage crisis occurred) as well as those who suffered in other terrorist acts in Moscow and other Russian cities have been invited to participate in the meeting of mourning.

The names of the Nord Ost hostage crisis victims will be read out during a moment of silence. One hundred and thirty balloons symbolizing the number of victims of the terrorist act will fly into the sky afterwards. Flowers and wreaths will be laid to the memorial board with victims’ names engraved on it.

An armed group of 40 Chechen terrorists broke into the music theater at night of October 23, 2002. About 1,000 people including women and children were taken hostage in the middle of the show. The majority of the hostages were rescued from the mined building; all the terrorists were killed. One hundred and thirty hostages died during the siege of the music theater.

The investigation on the case of the 2002 hostage crisis in Moscow continues for five years already.

Nord-Ost is a Russian musical theatre production that was composed by Aleksei Ivaschenko and Georgii Vasilyev, based on the novel The Two Captains by Veniamin Kaverin. It is a fictional story based around the historical events surrounding the discovery of the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago in 1913. The musical was first staged on October 19, 2001 in the Dubrovka theatre where it played over 400 performances.

After the attack, Nord-Ost returned to the same theater stage in Moscow on February 8, 2003 and continued showing there until May 10, 2003, when the producers took it off the stage, quoting the loss of viewer interest due to fears caused by the attack. Since then, there have been guest performances of Nord-Ost in various cities in Russia and other countries.

Based on news reports of Russian online media

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov
Pravda.ru