YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK. Dec 11 (Interfax-AVN) - Far Eastern border guards seized over 600 border trespassers and about 300 poaching vessels this year, head of the Far Eastern Board Guard Department of the Federal Security Service Col. Gen. Valery Putov told a press conference in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Thursday.
"Poachers were fined at several hundred of millions of rubles," he said.
The department still needs new vessels, although two ships were supplied to the Kamchatka and Vladivostok Coast Guard last year.
"The funding of fleet modernization should be multiplied, so we have raised the question with federal authorities," the general said.
"Some 400 billion rubles are necessary for modernization of the fleet of the Far Eastern Coast Guard. We have several hundred of vessels but we need several dozen new ships, as our vessels are becoming obsolete," he said.
There are 10,000 vacancies in the Far Eastern Board Guard Department, including about 1,000 vacancies in Sakhalin alone, he said.