Law enforcement agencies are considering the issue of reassignment of the Grom police special forces to the National Guard

Information about the imminent transfer of the Grom police special forces to the Russian Guard was brought to the regional divisions of the Main Directorate for Drug Control (GUNK) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which includes the special unit, three sources close to law enforcement agencies in different regions told Vedomosti. According to them, the preparation of Grom for transfer to the Russian Guard began after President Vladimir Putin met with the leadership of law enforcement agencies and personnel of the Ministry of Defense, the Russian Guard, the FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSO, who, as the president noted at the time, “ensure order and legality during the rebellion “. An interlocutor of Vedomosti, close to the Russian Guard, confirmed that the issue is really being actively worked out, but there is no corresponding decree yet. Vedomosti sent official requests to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Russian Guard and the press secretary of the President of Russia.

The Grom special forces were created within the Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN), which was liquidated in 2016. Each regional department of the anti-drug agency, as well as at the federal level, had its own Grom units.

The personnel of the special forces was assembled from officers with experience in the special forces of various departments, including the FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the SVR and the GRU, they had a good material base and training, former employees of the abolished FSKN told a Vedomosti correspondent. Grom remained part of the GUNK and was supposed to be used during anti-drug operations, but in fact it gradually began to serve as SOBR units, many of whose fighters transferred to Grom’s staff. At the next MIA final board after the reform, in March 2017, Putin warned the police leadership against duplicating the functions of the National Guard.

In the spring of 2023, deputy Alexander Khinshtein, a former adviser to the director of the Russian Guard, Viktor Zolotov, published a series of posts on his Telegram channel with examples of the use of the Grom special forces instead of units of the Russian Guard. The MP sharply criticized this approach, calling it a “dangerous experiment.” “In the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the creation of its own mini-Russian Guard is proceeding by leaps and bounds. A decision has already been made to increase the number of “anti-drug” special forces “Grom” to 6,200 people,” Khinshtein wrote. – At the same time, the functionality of the Gromovs has been radically expanded and they are now allowed to work across the entire range of tasks of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Corresponding changes were made to the order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which defines the standard provision on the DOS “Thunder”. Now the duties of the detachments include “measures to ensure the physical protection of employees of operational units during the ORM, not only in the field of drug trafficking, but also other crimes.”

According to Khinshtein, when Grom joined the Ministry of Internal Affairs, its entire strength did not exceed 2,700 people, and now the number of police special forces has exceeded the number of fighters in all SOBRs of the Russian Guard. The deputy also claimed that the Ministry of Internal Affairs “recruits” and “buys out” SOBR fighters into the Grom special forces, and OMON fighters into special police regiments created under the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Moscow and St. Petersburg. At the end of June, the Baza edition published data according to which the soldiers of Grom and special regiments received additional salary bonuses of 50,000 and 20,000 rubles. respectively.

In response to Khinshtein’s publications, the press center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs officially replied that the increase in the staffing of special regiments and the Thunder unit “is dictated by the operational situation associated with the conduct of a special military operation in which employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs are directly involved.” Vedomosti’s interlocutors in law enforcement confirm that Grom’s fighters did indeed take part in hostilities in the zone of military operation and raised an alarm to defend Moscow during the Wagner PMC march. But according to these Vedomosti sources, the fighters are not happy with the prospect of moving to the Russian Guard, since many of them value the status of police special forces, in which they are spared from additional “drilling” and can interact with operational officers without unnecessary formalities.

On June 27, Zolotov announced that the department would receive heavy armored vehicles and artillery. Then Khinshtein stressed that the decision to provide military equipment to the Russian Guard was made by the president at the beginning of the year and “is not related to recent events.” However, according to the deputy, the attempted military rebellion confirmed the correctness of the decision. In addition, the Russian Guard in the near future can count on an influx of former Wagner PMC fighters who do not want to enter into contracts with the Ministry of Defense, Vedomosti wrote on June 28, in fact, Zolotov’s department can count on becoming an alternative center of military power in that direction where PMC Prigozhin worked.