In any type of occupation of one country by another, there will exist those who will rebel, and form a resistance. On December 11, 1994, Russian troops invaded Chechnya to crush the independence movement. It would be a long occupation, not ending until 2009. During that time, the Chechen people were angry, and eventually they decided to rise up and protest. On October 23, 2002, around 50 Chechen rebels stormed a Moscow theater, taking 700 people hostage during a sold-out performance of the popular musical “Nord Ost.” As the second act began at the Moscow Ball-Bearing Plant’s Palace of Culture, an armed man walked onstage and fired a machine gun into the air. It’s possible that people initially wondered if this was part of the show, but it couldn’t be. There was no part of the show that involved a machine gun.
The terrorists, including several women, were well prepared. They were wearing explosive vests and identified themselves as members of the Chechen Army. With that, there would be little question that they meant 
business. They had just one demand, and it was intended to be non-negotiable…the immediate and complete withdrawal of Russian military forces from Chechnya, a war-torn region north of the Caucasus Mountains. Chechnya is a predominantly Muslim area and has long faced challenges in asserting its independence. A devastating two-year war ended in 1996, but that was far from the end of hostilities. Russian forces returned three years later, blaming Chechens for a series of bombings in Russia. This terrorist attack was a recipe for disaster, because of President Vladimir Putin’s rise to power in 2000, his tough stance on Chechnya, and his refusal to negotiate with terrorists. When Putin took over, the Soviet Union collapsed and Russia adopted capitalism, although its interpretation of a “free market” differs from much of the world.
The refusal of both sides to negotiate resulted in a 57-hour standoff at the Palace of Culture that resulted in the deaths of two hostages. Russian special forces raided the theater on the morning of October 26th. It was later revealed that they had used a powerful narcotic gas, which rendered nearly all the terrorists and hostages unconscious, before breaching the walls and roof and entering through underground sewage tunnels. The raid resulted in the deaths of most of the guerrillas and 120 hostages. Security forces later defended their decision to use the gas, claiming that a complete surprise attack was the only way to prevent the terrorists from detonating their explosives. In the end, the hostage situation did nothing to accomplish the demands of the 
terrorists. Following the theater crisis, Putin’s government tightened its control over Chechnya, facing accusations of kidnappings, torture, and other atrocities. In retaliation, Chechen rebels escalated their terrorist attacks on Russian soil, including a suspected suicide bombing in a Moscow subway in February 2004 and a major hostage crisis at a Beslan school that September.
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