MOSCOW, April 15 (Itar-Tass) - The Border Service of the Federal Border Service finds it necessary to suspend the railway traffic with Tajikistan unless several serious flaws, which Russia exposed, are eliminated, Deputy Head of the Border Service of the Federal Security Service Vladimir Mochalov said on Monday. Mochalov has made a statement upon the results of a visiting session of the State Border Committee, which was held at the railway station Aksaiskaya in the Astrakhan Region last weekend.
“It is proposed to the Russian Finance Ministry jointly with JSC Russian Railways (RZD) to submit for consideration of the CIS Council on Railway Transport a relevant document, which is aimed to suspend the railway traffic with the Republic of Tajikistan in the way it is now, unless the found flaws are eliminated,” Mochalov said.
He added that one more initiative will be submitted in the Russian consumer rights watchdog. Mochalov noted that this document will contain a resolution about the violations found in the Dushanbe-Moscow train, as well as the proposals to ban the entry in Russia for a train, which does not comply with the sanitary requirements. “The situation with drugs alarms us very much. This train is a systematically used channel for the delivery of drugs in the Russian Federation,” the deputy head of the Border Service of the Federal Security Service explained.
In particular, Mochalov explained that the control is complicated by the fact that Tajik citizens could arrive in Russia with the Tajik national passports up to now. He noted that the national documents of the Tajik citizens do not have a proper level of protection and are not identified by the Russian automatic control systems.
For his part, RZD Vice-President Mikhail Akulov stated that already 117 transport security inspectors have been working in the RZD staff since April 2012 and are convoying all the trains composed on the territory of Asian countries to the territory of the Russian Federation from the border to a destination station.
“Before the end of this year we will serve all the trains of composition in Ukraine and Belarus and will finalize this work, so, before the end of this year all trains of foreign composition will be escorted by the RZD specialists, who will perform the same functions, as the conductors on our trains running on the European railway lines,” Akulov explained.
He noted that he does not find it possible to serve the trains of foreign composition by Russian brigades of railway workers. “We realize that it is impossible and it is actually banned by the rules to assume responsibility for a coach, which is not controlled by the railway carrier and handed over from another company,” the RZD top manager underlined.