By Vestnik Kavkaza
Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev has sent a new bill to the State Duma. It is aimed at improving security on public transport. One of its articles requires the inspection of passengers and their personal items on all types of transport: in airports, railway stations, bus stations and undergrounds.
Alexander Starovoitov, the deputy chairman of the State Duma committee on transport, states that the bill brings clarity and certain corrections to the problem of transport security. “As you know, an integrated program of providing security for citizens on transport has been operating for several years. Huge sums of federal money are being spent on purchasing various items of equipment. And of course people want to know who will work on this equipment and how and what functions the transport security subdivisions will have,” Starovoitov states.
He emphasized that “transport infrastructure facilities which belong to airlines are provided with security by air security services within air law. But in other transport infrastructure facilities, the functions of transport security subdivisions are not regulated by any law.” The new bill will correct the situation.
Sergey Goncharov, president of the Association of veterans of the anti-terrorist unit “Alpha”, thinks that tragedies are taking place because there is no significant cooperation between security services. “A single center should be organized to manage all these structures. For example, in Israel the airport of Ben-Gurion – they have a different position. You won’t reach a target until they inspect you completely. Security service staff dressed like ordinary people watch passengers in the airport. If they notice strange behaviour from you, suspicious talk, they will take you to a room and will conduct a long psychological talk with you. Unfortunately, we don't have such a practice. I hope we will gain it,” Gonacharov says.
According to him, the problem of the metro cannot be solved by metal detectors as million passengers won’t be able to pass through them, because it cannot be done either physically or technically. “It will be a selective system which will detect people who may be dangerous. They will be taken through metal detectors and so on. Then, the police officers who are on duty at the station will carefully check the citizen,” Goncharov explains.
The coming Olympic Games in Sochi continues to be discussed by experts. Sergey Goncharov stated that the main trouble for all security services is providing security. “One could get to London by two paths – by sea and by plane. That’s why the UK special services could easily control the situation. What do we have? We have the North Caucasus. You know that the situation in Dagestan is unstable. People who have bought tickets to the Olympics will come to Sochi by sea, by plane, by train. If you think our enemies who want to ruin the Olympics aren't thinking about it, I can tell you they are thinking and dreaming about spoiling the Games. We have to be prepared. Transport is the weakest point in our preparation for the Olympic Games,” the expert emphasized.
