NEWS

Gryzlov Says City Unsafe for Celebration

By Claire Bigg

Staff Writer

Alexander Belenky / The St. Petersburg Times Gryzlov (c) flanked by local Interior Ministry chief Mikhail Vanichkin (l) and public-security head Alexander Chekalin on Tuesday.

Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov said on Tuesday that not all necessary steps to guarantee public safety during St. Petersburg's upcoming 300th-anniversary celebrations have been taken. He also said that the Interior Ministry is monitoring extremist groups that could disrupt the festivities, and vowed to crack down on criminals and illegal residents in St. Petersburg.

"I thought the [security] plan was not being carried out thoroughly, and that adjustments had to be made. My concerns have proved to be justified," Gryzlov told journalists at a press conference following a meeting at the headquarters of the Interior Ministry's St. Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast department devoted to questions of public safety during St. Petersburg's 300th anniversary.

Gryzlov stressed that the celebration would be a unique political happening that required a maximum level of security to protect official guests, tourists, and residents.

"St. Petersburg is expecting at least 45 heads of state during the peak period of the anniversary. This is an unprecedented event for Russia, and this type of gathering happens rarely anywhere," he said. "Our aim is to guarantee the safety of official guests, while enabling the city to maintain a festive atmosphere."

Gryzlov said that, in order to guarantee public safety, the Interior Ministry was planning a number of preventive measures, including a crackdown on foreign citizens who are not registered in St. Petersburg. Gryzlov added that the government was currently working on new measures to identify and deport foreigners living in the city without registration.

With regard to the threat of attacks by extremist groups, Gryzlov said that the Interior Ministry was carrying out surveillance on the activities of a number of these. He named China's Falung Gong and anti-globalist movements as two dangerous groups that could be planning to disrupt the anniversary.

"We have the names of members of these organizations who want to come to St. Petersburg," Gryzlov said.

During the festivities themselves, Gryzlov said that law-enforcement agencies would have an increased presence on the streets of the city.

"There will be at least one police officer on each corner," he said. "We are planning to bring an extra 2,500 Interior Ministry troops and have another 850 in reserve. We are also putting together reserve detachments that will come from other parts of Russia's Northwest Region."

According to Gryzlov, St. Petersburg's Interior Ministry University will also provide 100 students with a knowledge of foreign languages to meet foreigners at border points.

"In the best sense of the word," he added.

The public-transport system will be policed thouroughly, with the metro receiving particular attention.

In what should be welcome news to drivers and commuters alike in the city, Gryzlov said that official guests will, when possible, travel by boat, reducing the number of traffic jams that events of this type usually generate. This will require, he said, the establishment of new security controls along the Neva River and in the Gulf of Finland.

Despite the shortfalls in preparations mentioned during the press briefing, Gryzlov said that he was confident that the celebration would not be marred by criminal acts.

"We are putting together a whole series of preventive measures, and I hope that, in light of this, criminals will just leave the city," he said. "They have a choice: They either turn themselves in to the police, leave the city, or else they will all be thrown into jail."

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