Storming of theater necessary, but costly, Putin admits

MOSCOW -- Meeting with survivors of last month's hostage crisis, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that his government had no doubts about the need to storm the Moscow theater but acknowledged the death toll was high.

At least 120 hostages died -- 118 of them from the opiate-based gas Russia used to incapacitate the attackers, who had threatened to blow up the building if Russia did not end its war in Chechnya. The other two were shot by the gunmen.

"We had never faced a situation of such complexity before, yet no one had any doubt for even a second that the operation was necessary," Putin said during a meeting with cast members of the musical "Nord-Ost," who were among some 800 people seized when a band of Chechen rebels interrupted the performance.

"We have come out of this situation at the price of a terrible tragedy, heavy, irreparable losses," Putin said in remarks broadcast on Russian television.

On Wednesday, 98 of the freed hostages were still in the hospital, six in critical condition, the Interfax news agency reported. Nine of the commandos who stormed the theater remained hospitalized as well, probably also as a result of the gas, the agency said.

"Our nation has lived through a terrible tragedy, a grave ordeal," Putin said. "The consequences could have been much worse" but for the hostages' "courage, reserve and self-control," he said.

During a trip to southern Russia on Tuesday, Putin said the government had drawn lessons from the hostage crisis.