22.06.2005
The Internal Corps - The Kremlin's Private Army
As to increasing the mobility of the Internal Corps the plan is to achieve it by emphasizing the forces of special purpose (so-called "special troops" or, in Russian, "spetznaz"). At the last stage of reform, that is, by the end of the current decade, "special troops" should account for about 60 % of all operative divisions of the Internal Corps. By that time units of special troops reaching a total of 3.5 thousand soldiers should be created and operate as an independent element of VV (internal troops).
There are 16 groups of special purpose (10 old and 6 new) among which are the well-known "Vityaz", "Rosich", "Russ" and "Scythian" units. Fighters of these divisions participate in operations in the Chechen Republic and in special operations on the liquidation of terrorists. At the same time, the level of their professional training is still lower than expected. Such a conclusion could be reached, for example, based on the tragic results of the participation of the "Vityaz" group in the attempted rescue of the hostages seized in October, 2003 in Moscow, at the "Nord-Ost" musical.
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