From behind, a guerrilla shoved him and brandished his weapon, threatening him into silence.
In Kabul, Government forces have been left with huge stockpiles of weapons and ammunition, and the guerrillas have threatened to throw up a blockade rather than mount an outright assault.
Mr. Vasilyev said that explosives the guerrillas had threatened to use to destroy the theater had been deactivated and that the worst fears of a massacre had been avoided.
The guerrillas had threatened to kill their hostages at 6 a.m. today unless President Vladimir V. Putin met their demand for an end to Russia's war in Chechnya.
Several grenades exploded, but none of the explosives the guerrillas had threatened to use detonated.
Ethiopian guerrillas have overwhelmed army units in a number of strategic towns and are now threatening to seize control of all roads linking the capital with the last port the Government still controls, military officials said today.
Marxist guerrillas have killed several civilians in recent weeks and threatened others with death.
Islamic guerrillas threatened to behead a South Korean civilian hostage by sundown, unless the South Korean government canceled plans to send troops to Iraq.
She said she stayed, but sent her husband and son to live with her mother because the guerrillas threatened to recruit them.
A decade after his overthrow, Cuban-backed guerrillas threatened to take the eastern third of the country and assassinated an American ambassador.