Medvedev orders stronger transport security

Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev lays flowers in memory of the victims of two bomb explosions at Lubyanka metro station in Moscow March 29, 2010. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Wednesday ordered the government to strengthen security on national transport in response to recent terrorist attacks.

"I have signed a decree today, ordering to build a complex system to guarantee security on transport," Medvedev told the Security Council as quoted by the Interfax news agency.

According to the decree, priority should be put on public transport such trains and buses to effectively prevent terrorist attacks.

The president also ordered the Security Council to draw up relevant programs that would equip key transport hubs with tighter security by the end of next March, and establish a complex transport security system nationwide by 2014.

Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin said the ministry would implement security checks in all transport facilities, especially the metro, airports, railway stations and seaports.

"Vulnerable transport facilities are being spotted and assessed. We will draw up a plan to protect each of them from illicit intervention," Levitin told reporters after the meeting of the Security Council.

Chief of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev told the Russian daily Kommersant earlier Wednesday that Russia would follow the United States to build an alert ranking system for terror attacks.

On Monday, two female suicide bombers killed 39 and injured more than 60 in attacks on the Moscow's metro, which the authorities have linked to militants from the North Caucasus.

Twelve people, including nine police officers, were killed in two blasts on Wednesday in the town of Kizlyar in Russia's volatile North Caucasus region of Dagestan.

Source: Xinhua