Moscow Celebrates Opening of New Security Center - Tight Security Needed for World Cup 2018
Employees of Moscow's police headquarters celebrate the opening of a new building at Petrovka 38. MIA rep Vladimir Kolokoltsev and Moscow's Mayor Sergey Sobyanin participated in the ceremony. How does the operations center which will be responsible for security during the World Cup look?
Here's our special correspondent, Andrey Shtukaturov, with the story.
The head of Moscow's police headquarters takes his guests on a tour of the new police building. VIPs, MIA rep Vladimir Kolokoltsev, and the city's leader, Sergey Sobyanin, couldn't walk past the exhibition at the shooting range. The most modern developments from Russian gunsmiths are presented here.
- It's a Kalashnikov.
- Yeah, I see it's a Kalashnikov.
This is the shooting range itself. It's small, only 25 sq. m., but it's unique, because it's all digital, which reduces the noise. Several people can train here at the same time. The shots are digital, like in video games, the results are instantly displayed on the monitor.
However, the main attraction of the new building is the operations center. In the heart of the center is a special video wall, which displays images from all the city's CCTV cameras. There are 160,000 of them in Moscow. The system is connected to the databases and data resources of the MIA, the Moscow city government, and other authorities. This is where the police will supervise the safety of guests and fans during the World Cup. The center will keep working even after the competition.
Vladimir Kolokoltsev, Russia's MIA rep: "Today, this establishment is on the cutting edge of our system. What has been accomplished here truly deserves recognition".
Sergey Sobyanin, Moscow's Mayor: "I'd like to thank my colleague. Moscow actively cooperates with the MIA and its main branch. In Moscow, the issues of the city's security and the security of its residents are one of the priorities for Moscow City Hall".
As they say, "sound mind, sound body." The new sports complex is equally impressive. Here, they have sambo classes, boxing classes, as well as elliptical machines, treadmills, and free weights. Everything for a great workout. Our crew was tempted, too. The equipment is very compact; it looks very lightweight. Here we have fiberglass horizontal bars with a small diameter. They're probably easy to work out on. That felt great. Police officers work out 4 hours a day, even though special forces troops say it's hard, but there's no room for you in the MIA if you're not in great shape.
Special police services employee: "Because of what I do, I deal with athletes and different habitual offenders on the streets. They're in great shape, too. When they cross the line of being a law-abiding citizen, they're regular people. They become criminals later."
The idea to build a new building for the architectural ensemble at Petrovka 38 had been in the works for a long time. However, they only started working on it in 2016. And here it is, this new 9-story, 14,000 sq.m. building, brought up in record time. There is even a helicopter pad on the roof. The façade faces the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God, which is probably rather symbolic.
Andrey Shtukaturov, Sergey Ukhvalenok, Ramil Batyrov, and Aleksey Shevatov, Vesti, police dispatch center.