KHABAROVSK, June 8 (AVN) - The deputy director of the Federal Border Guard Service (FBGS) has ordered the FBGS Amur flotilla command to decommission its Murena landing and assault vessels squadron and six out of eight small artillery ships by August 1, a spokesman for the flotilla headquarters said on Friday.
The vessels are to be junked, the spokesman told the Military News Agency. However member of the Khabarovsk territory legislature Sergei Baranov has voiced his concern over the possibility of leaving unprotected the entire section of the Russia-China border on the Amur and Ussuri Rivers as a result of the decommissioning.
A spokesman for the FBGS naval guard department to the Agency that the concern was groundless. The flotilla will still have enough vessels to protect the border section, he claimed, adding that it operated a roughly equal number of vessels before ships of the Amur flotilla of the Russian Navy were added to it.
It is inexpedient and expensive to maintain outdated vessels that have been selected for junking, the spokesman said. Moreover, problems related to demarcation of the Chinese border have been solved, border relations have settled and stabilised, and border guards are serving in the regular regime in the area, he stressed.