Border Service investing in Arctic infrastructure

-The number of individuals and organizations wanting to engage in different kind of activities in the Arctic has increased manyfold. In this connection the presence of border guards in these remote areas are needed, Pronichev underlined in an interview with Rossiiskaya Gazeta.

The Border Service, a unit under the Federal Security Service, has already started upgrading border guarding facilities in the Arctic. As reported previously by BarentsObserver, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in April this year opened a new border station in Franz Josef Land. Vladimir Pronichev confirms to Rossiiskaya Gazeta that several similar border stations are planned built also along the Northern Sea Route

The high-ranking official also confirms that an increasing number of people are caught in border violations in the country’s high north.

-It might seem that smuggling and illegal migration is not characteristic to a region like the Arctic, Pronichev says. –However, our colleagues every month reveal facts about illegal work migration of people from the CIS countries in practically all of the federal subjects in the Arctic region, he adds. Only in 2009, a total of more than 650 people were detained in the region for violations of border regulations.

Read also: 180,000 crossed the Russian border illegally

In the interview Vladimir Pronichev also says that the Border Service now is introducing new electronic surveillance technology and that this eventually will be applied all along the more than 20,000 km long Russian border. He also confirms that the introduction of biometric passports is a priority for the service.

The Russian Border Guard Service now possesses a fleet of more than 500 border guard vessels and seven Russian-developed drones are being taken into service.