Russian First Deputy Interior Minister Mikhail Sukhodolsky noted that mass public events are becoming more common in Russia and have been handled by the regular police until now.
Photo: Nikolay Cyiganov
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Police Turn to Teamwork
Russian First Deputy Interior Minister Mikhail Sukhodolsky announced the creation yesterday of a center to guarantee the preservation of public order (Russian abbreviation TsOOOP). The center will handle security during mass events, such as public meetings, concerts, soccer games and public celebrations. It will also maintain a database of the most egregious soccer hooligans and participants in unauthorized demonstrations.
Sukhodolsky noted that such events are becoming more common in Russia and have been handled by the regular police until now. The police have sometimes been caught unprepared. In May, the police moved a fireworks festival from the center of Moscow to the Tushino neighborhood, and then cancelled it altogether, after last year’s festival attracted half a million people. Nor did the police expect the crowd of 700,000 that came out after the Russia-The Netherlands match in the European Championship of soccer.
The TsOOOP will have a permanent staff of 68, who will analyze every public event. The main police department (Russian abbreviation GUVD) already has a database of sporting and political disturbers of the peace (the latter category is almost exclusively participants in the Marches of the Dissenters). Now that all of the organizational aspects of policing large events will be coordinated, it is hoped that the police’s efforts will become more effective.
Andrey Malosolov, press attaché of the Russian Soccer Union, noted that “Many people do not go to the stadium because of difficulties entering and leaving, because of the excessive strictness of the police toward fans of the visiting team. People have been placed on the notorious blacklist only because they were caught drunk, and now they can go to matches abroad only with great difficulty.” Alexander Shprygin noted that there is no legal basis to keep a fan on the blacklist from entering a stadium.
Oleg Kozlovsky, coordinator of the Defense movement, which has participated in all Marches of the Dissenters, noted, “If they want to find the people who cause the fights at our actions, they can pay attention to the special forces. They’re the ones who provoked all the clashes and arrests.”
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of July 03, 2008
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