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The President announced the decision to establish the National Guard on the basis of the Interior Ministry Troops. Vladimir Putin also announced that the Federal Drug Control Service and the Federal Migration Service will be incorporated into the Interior Ministry’s structure.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Colleagues,

As you know, we have been actively discussing issues related to improving the work of law enforcement agencies and their national security component, and we have considered and thought about ways of improving this work in all areas, including the fight against terrorism, organised crime and drug trafficking. In this context, many considerations and opinions have been put forward, and we actively discussed them at the level of the Security Council, including quite recently.

Decisions have been made. We are creating a new federal executive government body on the basis of the Interior Ministry Troops. We are creating a National Guard, which will fight terrorism and organised crime and, in close contact with the Interior Ministry, will continue to perform the functions that were previously performed by Special Purpose Police units, Special Rapid Response units, and so on. We will formalise this – as we discussed with the Interior Minister [Vladimir Kolokoltsev] – not only in an executive order, but also in forthcoming federal legislation so that there is no misunderstanding and so that everything works smoothly and efficiently. Again, I hope that National Guard troops will carry out their missions as effectively as has been the case until now and that they will intensify their efforts in those areas that are considered to be priorities.

Regarding the fight against organised crime, specifically drug trafficking, as we said, we will implement one of the proposals: the Federal Drug Control Service will be incorporated into the Interior Ministry. We also discussed this with the [Interior] Minister. I am acting on the premise that this entire structure will work independently and self-sufficiently, but within the framework of the Interior Ministry.

The same applies to the Migration Service. There are issues related to labour relations, especially with regard to foreigners. Clearly, this is purely an issue of civilian life. This issue was also discussed with the Prime Minister, the Interior Ministry and the Migration Service itself. We will look into this in detail. There must be no setbacks, and the same goes for drug control and National Guard troops.

Let’s discuss this more concretely and if there are any comments during our meeting today, I am willing to take them into account in the corresponding documents – presidential executive orders.

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