Independent Perspective News

Berlin. EFE. The command from Chechnya that broke into a Moscow theater last October 23 and kidnapped more than 700 people offered several times to free all the foreigners among them, "but the Russian auhorities did not let that happen" because of their political interests, according to the German magazine Die Zeit.

In the edition published today, the magazine quotes diplomatic sources according to which the Russian authorities deliberately impeded the release o the 75 foreigner hostages and rejected all the suggestions from both the kidnappers and the embassies involved.

According to these sources, Russia wanted to take advantage from the presence of foreigners in the theater to harden the pressure on the command and enforce the UNO's Council of Security's resolution in order to make their struggle against terrorism in Chechnya international.

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The command had announced on October 25, Friday, one day before the recovery of the theater and two days after having taken control of it, that they would soon free all the foreigner hostages.

The attackers stated that the release would take place on the condition that the foreigners should be received outside the theater's doors by their ambassadors.

But that never happened, according to certain versions, because some ambassadors missed the date and, according to others, because the kidnappers suddenly changed their strategy.

German TV channels that broadcasted live from the theater short before the time announced by the kidnappers to release the foreigner hostages showed the German embassador in Russia's official car driving out of the room.

After the violent recapture of the theater and the death of the terrorists, again according to the diplomatic sources consulted by Die Zeit, the foreigner hostages did not matter anymore, but the Russians kept interfering with their release when they did not allow the embassies to establish contact with them.