Under the heading " Lessons Learned , " the authors state " It seems likely that the 800 hostages were about to be killed by Chechen rebels . To rescue them , the Russian military used a calmative agent in an attempt to subdue the rebels . The intent was likely to win control of the theater with as little loss of life as possible . Given the large number of explosives in the hands of the hostage takers , a conventional assault or the use of more toxic chemical agents might have significantly increased the number of casualties . Although it may seem excessive that 16 % of the 800 hostages may have died from the gas exposure , 84 % survived . We do not know that a different tactic would have provided a better outcome . " The authors said that the high therapeutic index of one of the fentanyl derivatives used may have inappropriately reduced the Russian government 's concern about the potential lethality of these agents , the drugs ' lipophilicity , and how the hostages could have been overdosed in the enclosed space of the theater as factors that should have been considered more thoroughly . They concluded by saying that poisoning by opioid agonist drugs such as Kolokol-1 is relatively simple to treat , and that many of the deaths after the Moscow theater hostage crisis could have been avoided if trained rescuers and medical teams with the proper antidotes were made ready in advance . They stated that naloxone , long a critical antidote to treat heroin overdose and unintentional poisoning with opioids during medical treatment , " has now become a crucial chemical warfare antidote . " Carfentanil , one of the two fentanyl derivatives used in the Moscow theater hostage crisis was actively marketed by several Chinese chemical companies at the time . Carfentanil was not a controlled substance in China , where it was manufactured legally and sold openly over the Internet up until May 1st of 2019 , when a ban on fentanyl and all fentanyl analogous went into effect
Moscow theater hostage crisis
Moscow theater hostage crisis
Kolokol-1