Railways to be safer

By Vestnik Kavkaza

Security levels in Russian railway stations have been criticized many times, including top level criticism. On April 1st, 2013, measures on improvement of security were adopted – in 32 railway stations examination areas for passengers were installed; more than 1 billion rubles were spent on this. The measure touched on the cities of Central Russia and the North Caucasus.

“The executive bodies set a task for us. It was connected with certain information on security in these territories,” the head of the Railway Stations Board of the Russian Railways, Sergey Abramov, said. He used to be the prime minister of Chechnya in 2004, and after Akhmat Kadyrov’s death was the acting head of the Chechen Republic for several months. In 2005 Abramov was seriously injured in a car accident in Moscow – some said it was an attempt to his life. So, Abramov is perfectly aware of the security problems in the North Caucasus and Central Russia.

“The goal of the program is to create not only infrastructure for providing complex security, but also a regulatory framework, other forces and means which together will lead to the highest effect, from the point of view of security,” Abramov says. “Examination areas have special equipment: scanning roentgen systems, portative and fixed metal detectors, systems which enable detection of explosives, radioactive substances, and so on. We have build special examination areas and so-called “safety zones”, involved special employees, conducted training. About 2 thousand people begin working in examination areas today.”

According to Abramov, Russian Railways is implementing a program of the integration complex of the security system. It enables online monitoring of what is going on in 150 railway stations of Russia, making warnings through the platform emergencies system and reacting to them quickly: “It was established with the company’s money. Today the system enables us to prevent crimes and we can see a reduction in crimes – in comparison to the situation three years ago, the number has fallen 2.7-fold. As for profiling, our employees have not been trained in this sphere yet, and we ask all passengers who have voluminous baggage to go through scanning equipment. During the test period the number of withdrawn things and means which are forbidden for transportation increased significantly. In the south in two railway stations we confiscated 800 guns of various types. In Vladivistok – more than 200 guns.”