ST. PETERSBURG. Aug 25 (Interfax-AVN) - Two hundred seventy national border intruders and 750 border regulations violators have been held on the border section of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Border Department for the Kaliningrad region over the seven months in 2009.
This is a 27% increase compared to the same period last year, the regional border department told Interfax-AVN.
"Border guards carried out 130 arrests of the contraband which totaled around 11 million rubles in monetary terms, a 2.9 increase compared with the first seven months in 2008. Ninety-seven percent of all the contraband was held on the Russian-Lithuanian border," the source said.
Instances of incompliance with the border guards' legitimate orders have increased, he said. "This year border guards have already used their weapons several times to prevent illegal activities," the source said.
Forty people among those detained intended to illegally migrate to the European Union, he added. This is a 50% increase compared with the 2008. Among those detained are nationals of the CIS countries, as well as Algeria, Cameroon, China, Pakistan, Syria, Turkey and Ecuador.