10:30AM. The terrorists demand the arrival of representatives from the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders for talks.
11:00AM. The commander in chief of the domestic troops said that the terrorists have not made any contact for almost eight hours.
11:49AM. The terrorists released a boy who had an asthma attack.
11:50AM. Preparations are made in the Sklifosovsky Institute to receive a large quantity of “sick” people, in other words there was an order to prepare to receive the wounded from Dubrovka, which directly indicates that the decision to raid has already been made.
12: 05. FBI agents arrive to the building. They join the group of diplomats.
12:10. The terrorists refuse to release the foreign hostages because the ambassadors of the countries whose citizens were hostages did not arrive by noon.
12:15. The State Duma prepares a statement in relation to the capture.
12:20. The terrorists said that they are ready to speak only with the Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya.
1:00PM. A terrorist representative who called himself Abu Said contacted the operational headquarters and confirmed their political demands, declaring that there are 50 fighters of the Ichkeria army in the mined building – 25 men and 25 women.
1:25PM. In its statement the State Duma says: “saving the lives and health of the hostages is an obvious priority. All the efforts of the RF State authorities, society and the media must be directed to insure this goal.”
1:30PM. Red Cross representatives led out an old UK citizen from the building.
1:40PM. The State Duma deputy and singer Josef Kobzon and the Sunday Times journalist accompanying him led the Pavlov Posad resident Lyubov Kornilova and her three children out of the Center.
3:00PM. The hostages write an address to president V. Putin demanding to begin the fastest withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya. One of the hostages, president of the association of children’s cardiologists Maria Shkolnikova said this by telephone. The hostages also hope that they will be able to address Putin live on broadcast.
3:10PM. Doctors Without Borders assumed the negotiators’ mission.
3:35PM. The State Duma deputies Irina Khakamada and Josef Kabzon entered the Center.
4:05PM. The deputies Khakamada and Kobzon left the building without released hostages. They were negotiating with a terrorist who called himself Abu Bakar and he said that if Chechnya’s head of administration, Akhmad Kadirov, arrives, they would release 50 hostages. They will not release anyone else. Irina Khakamada said that the terrorists are not crazy and are ready to led doctors to the hostages but only if they have foreign passports. And that they have proposals to regulate the situation in Chechnya.
4:45PM. The psychologists started to fear that the hostages are hit by the “Stokholm syndrome”. When contacting the media by their cellphones many of them affirm that the terrorists should and must be understood and that their demands must be fulfilled.
5:00PM. The terrorists said that from now on they would negotiate only with the official authorities.
5:50PM. A child who needed an urgent hospitalization was brought out of the building on a stretcher. Inside the building there are two Jordanian doctors and Leonid Roshal, head of Children’s Trauma Department of the Pediatric Scientific Center Institute.
6:30PM. Film crews of the NTV and REN-TV television companies went to the building.
6:38PM. Two hostages, Elena Zinovieva and Svetlana Kononova escaped from the bathroom’s window. After this the terrorists stopped to let the hostages to the bathroom and started to use the orchestra pit instead of the bathroom.
6:52PM. The terrorists expelled the doctors out of the building and refused to take food and water for the hostages.
7:30PM. The hostages summon again Russia’s government to withdraw “at least some military sub- unit from Chechnya. /…/ It is a question of minutes of waiting.” The hostages also earnestly request to avoid any violent actions and not to begin the raid of the building.
8:16PM. The terrorists released Maria Shkolnikova, president of the Russian association of children’s cardiologists.
8:30PM. Two Red Cross employees entered the building and gave medicaments.
8:30PM. The official statement of the government: if the hostages are released the terrorists will be able to leave the RF territory unhindered.
9:50PM. The terrorists refused again to take food and water for the hostages.
11:40PM. Grigory Yavlinsky entered the talks with the terrorists.
October 25th
12:58. Grigory Yavlinsky came out of the building without any released hostages. He declined to comment his conversation with the terrorists.
1:35AM. Dr. Roshal was allowed to the terrorists. He gave them medicaments. Some doctors representing the Red Cross entered the building with him.
1:40AM. The terrorists led Russian journalists into the building.
2:40AM. An NTV film crew recorded an interview with the terrorists’ leader. Movsar Basayev said that the action was prepared two months. The fighters have often come to see the Nord-Ost show. Basayev said that he could release all the children by tomorrow morning.
5:30AM. One person was released.
6:30AM. The terrorists released another six hostages.
7:00. NTV showed images taken in the Center on Dubrovka.
7:20AM. Sergey Ignatchenko, deputy director of the FSB’s Center of Special Assignment said: “They force the hostages to make cellphone calls to their relatives and demand that their relatives hold pickets near the House of Culture demanding the withdrawal of troops from Chechnya.”
8.20AM. The terrorists agreed to release the captured foreign citizens in the presence of the States’ ambassadors.
8.30AM. The heating main in the building was broken. The first floors are flooded with water. The terrorists accuse the special services of provocation.
08.45AM. A crowd of the hostages’ relatives appeared near the captured building with posters reading: “Down with the war in Chechnya!”
9.40AM. Ambassadors have gathered near the building. The terrorists do not make any contact. The USA ambassador Alexander Vershbow is among them. They wait a certain time after which they leave.
11.00AM. The terrorists promise to release the children if an anti-military meeting is held on the Red Square before noon. The children were allowed to call their relatives.
12.20. Five Red Cross doctors and Leonid Roshal entered the building.
12.35. The terrorists released 8 children without setting any conditions. The Red Cross doctors led them out.
12.50. Dr. Roshal came out. He said that he managed to give two packages and a package of medicaments.
1:10PM. The FSB Center of Special Assignment says that the terrorists continue to hold 16 children.