MOSCOW. Sept 5 (Interfax-AVN) - Up to 60 per cent of operational purpose units from the Interior Ministry troops are deployed in the North Caucasus, Deputy Interior Minister and Interior Ministry Troops Commander Vyacheslav Tikhomirov told reporters in Moscow on Thursday.
Those units are the basics of the Interior Ministry group involved in anti-terrorist operations in southern Russia, Tikhomirov said.
"Special motorized military units together with public security police forces maintain law and order in the streets of 44 cities in 41 Russian regions and take part in the public security support in mass events. The number of street crimes decreased in 32 Russian cities where the Interior Ministry servicemen are operating. In the past eight months military units detained over 600,000 people for various violations including over 2,800 people for crimes," press bureau of the Interior Ministry Troops Command said.
Starting from September 1999 law-enforcement agencies hold special operations on combating terrorism. The Interior Ministry troops together with police forces were engaged in the Vikhr- Antiterror, Modzhakhed, Vahhabit-4, Signal, Arsenal wide-scale operations in Russia and Vikhr-Antiterror operation in the Southern federal district. Over 990,000 people including over 5,000 suspected criminals were detained for various violations.
The Interior Ministry troops are located in seven districts such as the North Caucasus, Moscow, North-western, Volga, Ural, Siberian and Eastern ones.
The Interior Ministry troops feature control bodies, operational purpose units, special motorized formations and military units, units and formations for the security of vital state installations and special cargo, units and formations for life support to troops.