Authorities and businesses propose to deploy armed guards in Moscow shopping centers

Russian authorities, together with business representatives, are considering placing armed guards at the entrances to Moscow shopping centers. This was reported “Izvestia” President of the Union of Shopping Centers (STC) Bulat Shakirov and member of the Presidium of the Russian Council of Shopping Centers Dmitry Tomilin. The police, private security companies, as well as private security of the Russian Guard may be involved in the protection. Whether there are resources for this is unknown.

“The fact is that there are about 500 shopping centers in the capital, each of which has about five to six exits, which must be controlled by at least one person with a weapon. Such a plan may be realistic if we use private security companies that have licenses to use weapons,” said the president of the Union of Shopping Centers.

The final decision on the issue of strengthening security at retail facilities may be announced at the beginning of this week. First of all, the deployment of armed guards at the entrances to buildings is being considered. Dmitry Tomilin notes that such measures require large resources – whether they exist is unclear. Now shopping centers are strengthening security on an operational basis on their own – setting up additional security and using metal detectors.

“Despite these steps, we understand that traffic will drop at first. We see this already this weekend – sales volumes have dropped significantly,” noted Dmitry Tomilin. The initial restoration of traffic after the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall, according to the Russian Council of Shopping Centers, will take at least two weeks. Bulat Shakirov noted that after the fire in the Kemerovo shopping center “Winter Cherry,” traffic was restored for about a year.

The head of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Alexander Khinshtein, said that the security of Crocus City Hall was not carried out by the Russian Guard, as some media reported, but by a private enterprise.

The terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall occurred on the evening of March 22. A group of unknown people approached the complex and started shooting at visitors already at the entrance. According to the latest data, 137 people were killed and 182 were injured in the terrorist attack. Debris clearance continues. Four accused of the terrorist attack have been arrested.

About the investigation of the case – in the material “Kommersant” “Arrest in hot pursuit”.