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Medvedev instructs to resume transport security program

MOSCOW, January 09. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev instructed to continue the anti-terrorism measures at major transportation hubs and to resume a program to ensure transport security of people. He has made a statement to this effect after a visit to the Kursky railway station in Moscow and has examined the security system for passengers at the railway station.

“In any case, we should proceed from the assumption that this program should be continued. I was discussing this issue with the transport minister, as we face quite serious budget restriction,” Medvedev said at a meeting devoted to the issues of transport security.

He pledged to discuss with Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin, Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov and President of OJSC Russian Railways (RZD) Vladimir Yakunin how and from which sources to find this money. “Most probably, the program that we had implemented for three years should be resumed at another scale,” the premier added.

Medvedev said at the beginning of a meeting with high-ranking state officials that it was initially planned to debate the development of transportation hubs. “But the life has made its changes, at first we will discuss how to develop a complex program for transport security of people,” he said.

The prime minister recalled that the program had been approved under a governmental resolution in 2010 “over the tragedies that broke out at this period of time.”

“Under this program the scope of problems were settled, but not in all spheres. We should discuss which settled issues can be found efficient, which issues should be paid attention to in the future, which amount of money will be needed for this work, which allocations should be provided for security, personnel training and which sources should be used for this,” the prime minister said.

The country’s government has allocated more than 6 billion roubles ($183.7 million) from the federal budget under the program of railway security in effect in Russia since 2010. Notably, Russian Railways have allocated 4.5 billion roubles ($137.7 million) in 2010-2012 to equip more than 30 railway stations and several transport infrastructure facilities at different railways, including the North Caucasus railway, with transport security systems, particularly radio frequency interference suppression systems, blast-proof containers, modern smart video monitoring systems and etc.

The government resolution issued on December 11, 2013 envisaged an additional 576.3 million roubles ($17.6 million) to equip 28 railway stations and 309 million roubles ($9.4 million) for development of professional personnel training centres to ensure transport security under the specific program in 2014. The premises housing the authorities of the railway stations were provided with an additional 382.2 million roubles ($11.7 million) to equip them with security devices.

The complex transport security program was intended for 2010-2013 with total funding of more than 47 billion roubles ($1.4 billion).

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