Back in the middle of the 2000s, Russia’s Ministry of the Interior (MVD) began to train its Special Police Force units for deployment against protestors. Last June, the Ministry created a “Special ...

Compared to a unit like OSN Vityaz, which are independent spetsnaz formations in the internal troops, SOBR is more focused on public security and small urban operations. OSN Vityaz is more focused on ...

Security forces detain a protester (ITAR-TASS) MOSCOW, April 16, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Rallies in St. Petersburg and Moscow saw some of the largest displays of police force used against the political ...

MOSCOW — The first attempt by Russian authorities to address the problem of “friendly fire” in the separatist republic of Chechnya fizzled Friday when a court acquitted two senior police officers and ...

Key point: The SOBR teams have an important police role to play. If asked to name a counterterrorism unit in Russia, most people would probably think of the FSB’s elite “Alpha” unit. Alpha ...

On November 22, the Special Task Force celebrates its professional holiday. In 1988, by order of the USSR Minister of Internal Affairs, 19 detachments were created throughout the country, including in ...

At the end of Monday’s anti-Kremlin rally in central Moscow, Garry Kasparov, one of the leaders of the Other Russia opposition movement, announced that he and the other organizers had decided against ...

A year ago this month, the Omon, Russia's police force, opened their doors to foreign media as they showed off the full extent of its weaponry, techniques and no-messing tactics. As Russia prepared ...

This is the dramatic moment a Ukrainian aircraft-style drone explodes after flying into a Russian special forces base more than 700 miles from the front line. Several drones reportedly struck the OMON ...

The mystery of a missing Tajik special-forces commander has deepened, with Turkish reports claiming he was captured with fake documents trying to enter Syria and extradited, and Dushanbe denying he ...

The senior Tajikistan police official who apparently defected to ISIS had taken part in United States training on five seperate occasions, a State Department official has said. Colonel Gulmurod ...