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BORDER GUARDS CHANGE THEIR MISSION

RIA Novosti

MOSCOW, March 11. (RIA Novosti)-Amendments to Russian legislation will change the ideology of the border service. Until recently, border guards were soldiers who had to engage border violators if necessary, but now they must fight terrorists, smugglers and poachers, prevent crime and ensure order on the border by using operational methods, writes Rossiiskaya Gazeta.

Lieutenant General Nikolai Rybalkin, deputy head of the border service of the Federal Security Service (FSB), said the border service should develop as an operational agency with a new structure, manned by professionals of a different class.

The border service is gradually closing its warehouses, phasing out heavy weaponry, and changing its command system. It will no longer use the district structure of service copied from the army. From now on, it will have a territorial structure, with regional departments in federal districts and border departments in border regions. According to service spokesmen, this will not affect the combat ability of the service, which will remain a security structure.

In the future, the border stations, which have been a symbol of the border, will be replaced with operational investigation departments manned by field staff, technical staff, and security forces. The coast guards will also become an operational service.

According to General Rybalkin, the border service has entered a fundamentally new stage of development. "Our objective is to ensure that the territorial agencies of the FSB and border units work as a single body," he said.