MOSCOW, December 30. /ITAR-TASS/. Alexander Bortnikov, the Federal Security Service chief and the head of the National Anti-Terrorism Committee, has arrived in Volgograd, the National Anti-Terror Committee press service reports.
Bortnikov is planning to hold a joint meeting of the Anti-Terrorism Committee and an emergency operations center of the Volgograd region to discuss the recent terrorist acts.
Bortnikov has arrived in Volgograd following an order by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Thirty-two people died and dozens were injured in the two recent bomb explosions in Volgograd on December 29 and 30.
A suicide bomber blew up a long-distance bus in Volgograd on October 21, 2013. Seven people died and over forty were injured.
Earlier on Monday, Bortnikov instructed the National Anti-Terror Committee to increase security in the territory of Russia and separately in the Volgograd region. Putin will receive daily reports on the measures taken and the general situation.
The National Anti-Terror Committee and the emergency operations center of the Volgograd region have decided to mobilize volunteers and Cossacks to guard public order in the city and on transport and exercise control over the protection of vital infrastructure.
Security has been tightened in places of mass concentration of people in Volgograd. “The emergency operations center is urging the residents and guests of Volgograd and the Volgograd region to carry identity papers with them,” the National Anti-Terror Committee said. The staff of the Volgograd Interior Ministry Academy and the internal troops deployed in the town of Kalach, the Volgograd region, has been placed under the operational command of the chief of the main Interior Ministry department for the Volgograd region.
In the meantime, Nikolai Bordyuzha, the general secretary of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), has called for mobilizing efforts to counteract terrorism in connection with a series of terror strikes in Volgograd, southern Russia.
“This terrible strategy has re-emphasized the need to mobilize forces to counteract odious extremist acts and take a collective effort to avert acts of terrorism which undermine stability and security of the CSTO member countries,” Bordyuzha said on Monday.
He presented profound condolences to those who have lost their relatives and family members in the two recent bomb explosions which occurred in Volgograd on December 29 and 30.