Press Release, 26.10.2021

Photo by the Yabloko Press Service

On 26 October, Deputy Chairman of Yabloko Ivan Bolshakov, head of the Yabloko faction in the Moscow City Duma Maxim Kruglov, and ex-candidate of Yabloko in the elections Gleb Tumanov laid flowers at the memorial “In Memory of the Victims of Terrorism” by the “Theatre Centre in Dubrovka”, Moscow.

On 23 October, 2002, terrorists took hostage the audience and actors of the musical “Nord-Ost”. On 24 October, Grigory Yavlinsky was among those summoned by the terrorists for negotiations, he managed to persuade the terrorists to release eight children. On 26 October, the hostages were released during the operation of special forces. According to the public organisation “Nord-Ost”, 179 people died. At least 125 people died due to the use of gas by the security forces, which paralysed people during the special forces raid and some people got suffocated.

Every year, Yabloko members come to the memorial to honour the memory of those killed in the act of terror.

According to Maksim Kruglov, the act of terror in the “Theatre Centre in Dubrovka” is an unhealed wound, and the country needs truth, so that this does not happen again.

“We commemorate the Russian citizens who died tragically that day. We recollect the actions of the authorities, which still cannot tell the truth about this tragedy,” Maxim Kruglov said.

Gleb Tumanov emphasised that 19 years have passed since the hostage-taking at Dubrovka, but there are still many blank spots in this case: how many people died, what kind of gas was used during the storming of the theatre and how justified such a decision was.

“Our task, as a political party, is to make them tell the truth and do everything possible to prevent similar tragedies in the future,” he said.