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Putin appoints chief of National Guard’s Main Staff

Sergey Chenchik has been appointed to the post
Sergey Chenchik skfo.mvd.ru
Sergey Chenchik
© skfo.mvd.ru

MOSCOW, May 20. /TASS/. Sergey Chenchik has been appointed as chief of the National Guard’s Main Staff, according to the presidential decree posted on the government’s legal information web portal on Friday.

"To appoint Chenchik, Sergey Mikhailovich, as chief of the Russian National Guard’s Main Staff and first deputy director of the Russian National Guard Federal Service and release him from the current post," the decree reads.

The same decree also assigned the military rank of the colonel-general to Chenchik.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the creation of the National Guard in reorganization of the Interior Ministry troops at a meeting held on April 5 with Interior Troops Commander Viktor Zolotov, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Director of the Federal Drug Control Service Viktor Ivanov and First Deputy Head of the Federal Migration Service Yekaterina Yegorova.

Ea the presidential decree on establishing the National Guard as a new federal service was published, after which a bill on the National Guard was submitted to Russia’s parliament.

The National Guard troops will be assigned the tasks to carry out joint operations with police to protect public order, ensure public security and an emergency regime, take part in the fight against terrorism and in the provision of the legal regime of a counter-terror operation, and also participate in the struggle against extremism and in Russia’s territorial defense.

The Russian Guard will also have the tasks to protect important state facilities and special cargoes, provide assistance to the border control bodies of the Federal Security Service in protecting the state border.

"National Guard troops exercise their activity on the basis of the principles of legality, the observance of the rights and freedoms of an individual and a citizen, single authority and centralized control," the explanatory note says.

The National Guard will be subordinate to the Russian president. Former Interior Ministry Troops Commander Viktor Zolotov has been appointed as the National Guard commander.