ABSTRACT
Common sense suggests that a person's behavior in critical situations tells us much more about their real intentions than any proclamation or public speech. The crisis undoubtedly represents one such critical situation rendering the priorities of the licit authority more explicit. About 700 theatre-goers, attending the performance of the patriotic musical 'North-East' in Melnikova Street, Moscow, were taken hostage on 2002, by a group composed of a few dozen Chechen separatists. Official comment particularly emphasized the international dimension of the hostage-taking in Melnikova Street: it was seen as a kind of confirmation of the full participation of Russia in the processes of decision-making and problem-solving that face the international community. As Sergey Kovalev, a wellknown Russian defender of human rights, justly emphasizes, 'the main priority was not the life of hostages'. The low value put on the life of the hostages by the representatives of the state confirms our key thesis about the imposed character of authority in post-Soviet Russia.
