Volodin announced the preparation of an amendment to equip the National Guard with tanks

Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy Alexander Khinshtein, together with the Russian Guard and the government, has prepared an amendment on equipping the Russian Guard with tanks, it will soon be submitted to the lower house for consideration. This was announced by the speaker of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin at the plenary session.

“As far as I know, Khinshtein, together with the Russian Guard and the government, prepared an amendment to the legislation regarding equipping the National Guard with heavy equipment, it will be introduced in the near future,” Volodin said (quote by Interfax).

On June 27, after the speech of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin in front of the military on the Cathedral Square of the Kremlin, the head of the National Guard Viktor Zolotov informedthat the department will receive heavy military equipment, including tanks. Khinshtein later clarifiedthat this is not connected with the events of June 23-24. According to him, Putin made such a decision at the beginning of 2023. The deputy added that for the Russian Guard, the availability of heavy equipment is “the most important issue”, and stressed that the issue of transferring military equipment to the department from Wagner PMC “is not discussed”.

On the night of June 24, an armed rebellion was attempted in Russia, during which the founder of Wagner PMC Yevgeny Prigozhin announced a campaign against Moscow, and also blocked Rostov-on-Don and took control of the city’s military facilities. In the evening, the Kremlin reported on the agreements reached to de-escalate the situation: the PMC will return to the field camps, the criminal case against Prigozhin will be dropped, and he himself will “leave for Belarus.” On June 27, the FSB announced the termination of the criminal case.