Putin boosts military powers after theatre crisis

Russia’s armed forces are to get broader powers to strike against suspected terrorists following the Moscow hostage crisis.

President Vladimir Putin took the step a day after his troops stormed a theatre seized by Chechen rebels, shooting dead 50 of the attackers after releasing a noxious gas that killed 116 of the more than 750 hostages.

The Russian military would change its approach “in connection with the growing threat of international terrorism with the use of means comparable to weapons of mass destruction,” he told Cabinet officials.

“Russia will not give in to any blackmail,” the president said.

“International terrorism is becoming bolder, acting more cruelly, and here and there around the world threats of the use of means comparable to weapons of mass destruction are heard,” Putin said.

“If anyone even tried to use such means in relation to our country, Russia will answer with measures adequate to the threats, in all places where there are terrorists, organisations of these criminals or their ideological or financial sponsors,” he said.