In the capital’s subway, sentries are changed – Newspaper Kommersant No. 8 (7453) dated 01/18/2023

The protection of the Moscow metro facilities will be entrusted to the departmental security of the Moscow government. The published draft decree of the government of the Russian Federation states that the new structure will deal with guards and the organization of access control, its employees can be armed with pistols, smooth-bore guns and other “combat hand-held small arms.” In December 2022, amendments were made to federal legislation allowing Moscow, the only one among other Russian regions, to create such security structures. It is likely that the police will continue to be on duty at the subway stations, and the service will replace the departmental security of the Ministry of Transport, which is currently patrolling 43 technical facilities of the subway.

A draft government decree approving the regulation on departmental security of the Moscow government has been published on regulation.gov.ru. The document says that the structure is being created to protect the metropolitan metro “from unlawful encroachments”, as well as the organization of access control, the suppression of crimes and administrative offenses. The structure will be managed by ANO Departmental Security of the Government of Moscow, which is subordinate to the city government. The staffing and work order of the structure, including uniforms, will be determined by the city authorities. The list of protected objects in the mayor’s office should be coordinated with the National Guard. At posts and guards, security fighters must serve “at the rate of 6.5 units per round-the-clock post,” the document says.

The document states that the employees of the structure can receive “for temporary use certain types and models of combat small arms and cartridges for them,” provided for by law. The list was approved by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation No. 1436: we are talking about pistols (IZH-71, MP-71, PKSK, MP-471, PST Kapral), the RSL-1 revolver and smoothbore guns (calibers 12/70, 12/76, 16 /70, 16/76, 20/70, 20/76, 410/76). However, the published draft resolution states that along with this, the Moscow government, in agreement with the Russian Guard, can receive “other types and models of military hand-held small arms and cartridges for it.” This list, however, is not provided.

The legislative opportunity to create such structures was given to Moscow in December 2022. Then the State Duma adopted amendments to Art. 5 of the federal law “On private security”. Prior to this, only federal ministries, the list of which was determined by the government of the Russian Federation, and individual state corporations, such as Rostec, Rosatom and Roscosmos, could create their own departmental security structures. The amendments allowed the capital’s mayor’s office to create its own departmental security to protect the objects of the city metro and “other objects of transport infrastructure technologically connected” with the subway. It is noteworthy that initially in the State Duma it was about a package of amendments to the law “On weapons”, and the rule on the new structure of the government of Moscow appeared in it only to the second reading. Deputy Alexander Khinshtein, co-author of the amendments, told Kommersant that “the protection of the subway is in fact carried out by the city authorities, this is their enterprise – it is logical that they have such a right under the law.”

Probably, the first thing the newly created structure of the government of Moscow will move away are the metro facilities, which have actually been under the jurisdiction of the departmental security of the Ministry of Transport since Soviet times. In 2021, the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Department of Departmental Security of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation had 16 thousand security guards who provided security for 1.1 thousand transport facilities across the country. The order of the Ministry of Transport No. 222 dated August 3, 2016 mentions 43 objects of the Moscow metro (mainly engineering services buildings, power plants, administrative buildings and technical facilities), where departmental security guards provide security. Mr. Khinshtein, commenting on the logic of transferring the security functions of the subway to Moscow, remarked to Kommersant that “the departmental security of the Ministry of Transport is doing something completely different.”

The metropolitan metro and the city department of transport could not promptly comment on the reasons for the transfer of security functions to the city structure.

However, the draft resolution of the government of the Russian Federation gives the city authorities the opportunity to use new guards outside the subway. So, according to the decision of the capital’s mayor, they can be involved in measures for territorial defense, protection of the population from emergencies and “the implementation of other powers of the highest official of the city of Moscow, aimed at ensuring public safety and law and order during a period of increasing threats.” It should be noted that the subway stations are patrolled by ATC officers on the Moscow metro of the capital’s Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. Nothing was said about their replacement with new guards in the government’s draft. The Russian Guard will control the departmental security of the Moscow government at the federal level, the document says.

Alexander Voronov