THE world looked on in horror when Russian special forces stormed a Moscow theatre to try and free more than 800 people held hostage for three days in October. About 130 of them were killed by a “calmative gas” pumped into the theatre to prevent terrorists blowing up the building.
The incident brought into sharp focus the role that so-called nonlethal weapons will play in future conflicts, and the very real risks they pose. The Russian gas is thought to have been a derivative of fentanyl, a powerful opiate-based anaesthetic. It killed 1 in 6 of the people it was…
