Special forces to be used to guard Russian embassies - Lavrov
MOSCOW. Nov 19 (Interfax) - Several hundred commandos could be employed in the near future to guard Russian diplomatic institutions abroad, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.
"We have calculated with specialists how many employers of the commando level we need. This is several hundred people. We are experiencing their shortage now," Lavrov said in an interview published in Rossiiskaya Gazeta.
"We are resolving these issues," Lavrov said. "We have won support on the matter in principle from the Russian leadership. I hope that this issue will be resolved in financial terms," he said.
A plan for increasing security of Russian diplomatic institutions abroad was developed several years ago, Lavrov said. "We already have special forces in countries where the military-political situation is dangerous and where there is quite a serious criminal threat. Including in Libya, Iraq, and some other countries. Naturally, at the host country's consent," he said.
"In the past ten years, the trend has been to make sure that those guarding embassies are career officers of the FSB [Federal Security Service] Border Service," he said.
"We earlier contracted civilians to work as commandants on duty to guard embassies in most countries, especially not in large ones. They were not even armed," he said.
