MOSCOW. Dec 9 (Interfax-AVN) - Interior Ministry units in Chechnya, including special task forces, will not recruit local residents under contract, Russian Interior Ministry Forces Commander-in-Chief Nikolai Rogozhkin told a Thursday news conference at the Interfax main office.
"We do not plan to recruit local residents by contract into our units in Chechnya. We can accomplish our missions with the personnel we have," he said.
Rogozhkin thinks that security in Russia is now better than it was in 1994, before the first Chechnya campaign.
"The security level is now higher than 10 years ago. Uniformed agencies are more prepared and equipped for combating terrorism and other threats. We have reached a quite high, if not optimal, level of counteraction to present-day challenges," the commander-in-chief said.
"We must admit that nobody is guaranteed safety from terrorist attack under the circumstances of ongoing fight against terrorism. But we are reach to combat existing threats," Rogozhkin stressed.