OMON

ОMON

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev visiting Bryansk OMON base in 2011
Active 1988 – 2016
Country  Soviet Union (originally)
 Russia
Other post-Soviet states:
 Belarus
 Kazakhstan
 Tajikistan
Branch Police (in Russia)
Type Gendarmerie, riot police
Role Tactical law enforcement, crowd control, riot control, domestic counter-terrorism, VIP protection, patrol and checkpoint duties
Size ~20,000 (in Russia)
Part of Ministry of Internal Affairs
Nickname(s) Omonovtsy, "Black Berets"
Anniversaries 3 October
Engagements January 1991 events in Lithuania
January 1991 events in Latvia
Lithuanian border attacks
Nagorno-Karabakh War
Georgian Civil War
Tajikistan Civil War
East Prigorodny Conflict
1993 Russian constitutional crisis
First Chechen War
Second Chechen War
Jeans Revolution
Russia–Georgia War

OMON (Russian: ОМОН—Отряд мобильный особого назначения, Otryad Mobilny Osobogo Naznacheniya or Special Purpose Mobility Unit) was a system of special police units of Federal Police within the Russian, and previously Soviet, Ministry of Internal Affairs. It was created as the special forces of the Soviet Militsiya in 1988, and then played major roles in several armed conflicts during and following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

OMON was much larger and better known than SOBR, another special police branch of the Russian Interior Ministry. In modern context, the OMON were used more like riot police, or as a gendarmerie-like paramilitary force. OMON units continue to exist in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and other post-Soviet states. However, some post-Soviet units have changed names and acronyms. OMON officers are commonly known as the omonovtsy.

On 5 April 2016, the functions of OMON were taken over by the newly established National Guard of Russia.

History

OMON originated in 1979, when the first Soviet SWAT-like police unit was founded in preparation for the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to ensure that there were no terrorist incidents like the Munich massacre during the 1972 Summer Olympics. Subsequently, the unit was to be utilized in emergencies such as high-risk arrests, hostage crises and acts of terror.

The current OMON system is the successor of that group and was founded on 3 October 1988 in Moscow and was called the Militsiya Squad of Special Assignment.[1] Special police detachments were often manned by former soldiers of the Soviet Army and veterans of the Soviet war in Afghanistan. OMON units were used as riot police to control and stop demonstrations and hooliganism, as well as to respond to emergency situations involving violent crime. The units later took on a wider range of police duties, including cordon and street patrol actions, and even paramilitary and military-style operations.

Dmitry Medvedev inspecting Bryansk OMON in 2011

Following Russia's 2011 police reform, Russian OMON units were to be renamed Distinctive Purpose Teams (KON), while OMSN (SOBR) would become Special Purpose Teams (KSN).[2] It was announced that Special Purpose Centers for Rapid Deployment forces would also be created in Russian regions, to include regional OMON and OMSN units. In essence, all police spetsnaz (special designation) units were brought together under the joint command of the Interior Ministry[3] — the Center for Operational Spetsnaz and Aviation Forces of MVD (Центр специального назначения сил оперативного реагирования и авиации МВД России). In January 2012, Russia's OMON was renamed from Otryad Militsii Osobogo Naznacheniya, (Special Purpose Militia Unit) to Otryad Mobilniy Osobogo Naznacheniya (Special Purpose Mobile Unit), keeping the acronym.

Soviet OMON Activities

Post-Soviet OMON Activities

OMON cracking down on a protest action in defense of Article 31 (freedom of assembly) of the Russian Constitution in Moscow in 2010

Conflict in Chechnya

The force was active in the First Chechen War of 1994-1996 in which OMON was often used in various security and light infantry roles, notably for the notorious "cleansing" (zachistka) operations.[29] Prior to the war, there was also an OMON formation belonging to the Interior Ministry (MVD) of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Chechnya's separatist government. The independent Chechnya had an OMON battalion prior to the war, but it was not battle trained,[30] and did not play any significant role as an organized force before disintegrating. During the armed conflict, almost every Russian city would be regularly sending militsiya groups, often OMON members, for tours of usually three or four months. The pro-Moscow administration of the Chechen Republic also formed its own OMON detachments. In February 1996, a group of thirty-seven Russian OMON officers from Novosibirsk surrendered to Chechen militants of Salman Raduyev and Khunkar-Pasha Israpilov during the Kizlyar-Pervomayskoye hostage crisis;[31] Seventeen prisoners were later swapped for Chechen fighters captured by the Russian side in the same incident. In August 1996, group of about thirty ethnic Chechen members of Russian OMON answering to pro-Moscow commander Said-Magomed Kakiyev were reportedly captured and executed in Grozny by the separatist militias of Doku Umarov and Ruslan Gelayev during the battle for the city.

OMON took part in the Second Chechen War as well. OMON forces sustained severe losses in the conflict, including from the March 2000 ambush which killed scores of servicemen from Berezniki and Perm (including nine captured and executed),[32] the July 2000 suicide bombing which killed at least twenty-five Russians at Argun base of OMON from Chelyabinsk,[33] and the April 2002 mine attack which left twenty-one Chechen OMON troops dead in central Grozny.[34] Control and discipline continued to be questionable in Chechnya, where the OMON members were known to have engaged in, or fallen victim to, several deadly incidents of friendly fire and fratricide. In perhaps the bloodiest of such incidents, at least twenty-four were killed when OMON from Podolsk attacked a column of OMON from Sergiyev Posad in Grozny on 2 March 2000.[35] Among other incidents, several Chechen OMON servicemen were abducted and executed in Grozny by Russian military servicemen in November 2000,[36] members of Chechen OMON engaged in a shootout with the Ingush police on the border between Chechnya and Ingushetia resulting in eight fatalities in September 2006,[37] and Ramzan Kadyrov-controlled local OMON clashed with a group of rival Chechens belonging to the Kakiyev's Spetsnaz GRU military unit in Grozny, resulting in at least five being killed in 2007.

OMON was often accused of severe human rights abuses during the course of the conflict,[38] including abducting, torturing, raping and killing civilians. By 2000, the bulk of such crimes, as recorded by international organisations in Chechnya, appeared to have been committed either by or with the participation of OMON.[39] Moscow region OMON took part in the April 1995 rampage in the village of Samashki, where up to 300 civilians were reportedly killed during a large-scale brutal cleansing operation by federal MVD forces.[40] In December 1999, a group of unidentified OMON members manning a roadblock checkpoint shot dead around forty refugees fleeing the siege of Grozny.[41] OMON from Saint Petersburg[42] are believed to have been behind the February 2000 Novye Aldi massacre in which at least sixty civilians were robbed and then killed by Russian forces entering Grozny after the fall of the city;[43] one officer, Sergei Babin, was to be prosecuted in relation to the case in 2005 but he vanished.[44][45] In April 2006, the European Court of Human Rights found Russia guilty of the forced disappearance of Shakhid Baysayev, a Chechen man who had gone missing after being detained in a March 2000 security sweep by Russian OMON in Grozny.[46] In 2007, Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug OMON officer Sergei Lapin was sentenced for the kidnapping and torture of a Chechen man in Grozny in 2001,[47] with the Grozny court criticising the conduct of the OMON serving in Chechnya in broader terms.[48] In an event related to the conflict in Chechnya, several OMON officers were also accused of starting the May 2007 wave of ethnic violence in Stavropol by assisting in the racially motivated murder of a local Chechen man.[49]

Russian OMON

OMON in riot gear dispersing an opposition march in Moscow in 2012
OMON officer fires an RPG-7 grenade launcher from the top of GAZ-233036 SPM-2 vehicle during Interpolitex-2009 exhibition

In Russia, there is an OMON unit in every oblast, as well as in many major cities; for example, there is an OMON unit within the Moscow City police department, and two separate units within Moscow Oblast police department. Information from different sources suggested that there were between 10,500 and 15,000 OMON members stationed at population centers and transportation hubs around the country during the 1990s. This number officially rose to about 20,000 nationwide by 2007; the biggest OMON unit in Russia, Moscow OMON, numbers over 2,000 members. Most OMON officers retire at the age of approximately forty-five. They were also sometimes not paid for their service. In 2001, for example, some fifty OMON members from Moscow filed a lawsuit claiming they had not been paid for one month of combat operations in Chechnya.[50] Due to the use of OMON members in high risk situations, especially in Chechnya and elsewhere in the North Caucasus, the group often loses members in combat.

Members of OMON are required to achieve a high level of fitness and expertise in small arms and hand-to-hand combat. Males between the ages of twenty-two and thirty who have completed their two-year military service can apply to join OMON. The application includes medical and psychological tests, and tests of speed and fitness. The initial training lasts for four months. The applicants are extensively trained in the use of different weaponry and close combat, and are also trained to follow orders at any cost. Special emphasis is put on urban combat and the entering and clearing of buildings. The training also includes legal training. The application procedure closes with a final test, where the applicant has to fight three to five trained members of OMON by hand wearing boxing gloves. Fewer than one in five applicants pass and are selected to join.

OMON groups use a wide range of firearms, including but not limited to: AK-74 assault rifle, AKS-74U carbine assault rifle, 9A-91 compact assault rifle, and PP-19 Bizon submachine gun while the Makarov pistol, Stechkin automatic pistol and the MP-443 Grach are assigned as sidearms. OMON units may use other weaponry, typically used by Russian light infantry during special operations and in war zones, such as: the PK machine gun, the GP-25 underbarrel grenade launcher for assault rifle or the GM-94 pump-action grenade launcher, RPG series rocket-proppelled grenade launchers, and the Dragunov and Vintorez sniper rifles. They are in fact sometimes called "OMON soldiers".[51]

OMON vehicles include specially-equipped vans, buses and trucks of various types (often armored and sometimes equipped with mounted machine guns), as well as a limited number of armored personnel carriers (BTR-60, BTR-70 and BTR-80). OMON's headgear remains their signature black beret, (they are thus sometimes called Black Berets), which they share with the Naval Infantry. The group's members usually tend to wear either all-black or blue or gray camouflage police uniforms, but a not uncommon sight has been a variety of Russian Army and Russian Internal Troops uniforms, often with black balaclava masks and/or helmets.

See also

References

  1. Министерство Внутренних ДелРоссийской Федерации. "MVD website, history". Mvd.ru. Retrieved 2014-02-23.
  2. Moscow News, 22 August 2011: Retooling Russia's Riot Police
  3. "Police spetsnaz reforms 2011". Agentura.ru. Retrieved 2013-11-23.
  4. BBC News, 27 March 2007: Timeline: Latvia
  5. Pasienio apsaugos tarnyba // Fight for Independence 1990–1991 (English)
  6. Novaya Gazeta, 29.11.2008: The unmasked face
  7. Human Rights Watch World Report 1992: Events of 1991. Books.google.pl. Retrieved 2014-02-23.
  8. Human Rights Watch World Report 1992: Events of 1991. Books.google.pl. Retrieved 2014-02-23.
  9. From Promise to Practice. Books.google.pl. Retrieved 2014-02-23.
  10. Human Rights in Tajikistan: In the Wake of Civil War - Rachel Denber, Barnett R. Rubin, Jeri Laber. Books.google.pl. 1993-06-08. Retrieved 2014-02-23.
  11. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order - Samuel P. Huntington. Books.google.pl. 2007-05-31. Retrieved 2014-02-24.
  12. Russia and the New States of Eurasia: The Politics of Upheaval - Karen Dawisha. Books.google.pl. 1994-01-28. Retrieved 2014-03-03.
  13. Galeotti, Mark (1970-01-01). "The Transdnistrian Connection: Big Problems from a Small Pseudo-state | Mark Galeotti" (in Polish). Academia.edu. Retrieved 2014-03-03.
  14. Michael Wines (2002-03-05). "Trans-Dniester 'Nation' Resents Shady Reputation - New York Times". Moldova; Trans-Dnestr (Moldova): Nytimes.com. Retrieved 2014-03-03.
  15. Memorial, April 1994: HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS UNDER THE STATE OF EMERGENCY IN MOSCOW DURING THE PERIOD FROM NOON, OCTOBER 4 TO OCTOBER 18, 1993
  16. Amnesty International, 16 April 2007: Russian Federation: Attack on public dissent
  17. (Polish) Polska Agencja Prasowa, 26 November 2007: Milicja biła opozycję, Europa oburzona (Dziennik Polska-Europa-Świat)
  18. The Associated Press, 27 May 2007: Russian Police Detain Gay Activists (The Washington Post)
  19. TIME, 25 March 2006: Belarus: 'They Knocked My Husband Down and Dragged Him Away'
  20. IWPR Central Asia - Central Asia. "Murder Invokes Ghosts of Tajikistan's Past - Institute for War and Peace Reporting - P220". Iwpr.net. Retrieved 2014-02-24.
  21. 24 February 2014 (2008-02-04). "Tajikistan: The opposition braces itself for clashes with the regular army - Ferghana Information agency, Moscow". Enews.fergananews.com. Retrieved 2014-02-24.
  22. "Tajikistan: Former Interior Minister Commits Suicide to Preempt Arrest, Officials Insist". EurasiaNet.org. 2009-06-17. Retrieved 2014-02-24.
  23. The Georgian Times, 15 September 2008: "Resistance does not make any sense: they will kill us on the spot"
  24. Imedi TV, 16 October 2008: Ossetian militiamen join Russian regular army (trans. BBC Monitoring)
  25. http://www.rferl.org/content/tajikistan-is/27045624.html
  26. http://www.rferl.org/content/tajikistan-missing-police-commander-case/27027116.html
  27. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/05/28/the-u-s-trained-commander-of-tajikistans-special-forces-has-joined-the-islamic-state/
  28. http://www.rferl.org/content/tajikistan-police-commander-islamic-state-treason/27051207.html
  29. Human Rights Watch, February 1995: Russia: Three Months of War in Chechnya
  30. "Dalkhan Khozhaev" (PDF). Retrieved 2014-02-23.
  31. The Independent, 20 January 1996: Fog of battle clouds Pervomayskoye's ugly truth
  32. The Sunday Times (UK), 9 April 2000: Chechens wipe out Russia's top troops (Center for Defense Information)
  33. People's Daily, 3 July 2000: Chechen Truck Bomb Kills at Least 25 Russians
  34. The St. Petersburg Times, 19 April 2002: Mine Leaves 21 OMON Troops Dead
  35. The Independent, 15 January 2002: Russia invented ambush by Chechens to hide friendly-fire massacre
  36. European Court of Human Rights, 2007-11-15: CASE OF KUKAYEV v. RUSSIA
  37. The Moscow Times, 14 September 2006: 7 Dead in Police-OMON Battle
  38. The Washington Post, 2 June 2000: Civilian Massacre Fits Pattern Of Earlier Human Rights Abuse
  39. Institute for War and Peace Reporting, 5 April 2000: Chechens Rub Salt in Old Wounds
  40. Memorial, 1996: By All Available Means: The Russian Federation Ministry of Internal Affairs Operation in the village of Samashki: 7–8 April 1995
  41. The Independent, 6 December 1999: Rebels inflict heavy losses as Russian forces close on Grozny
  42. Institute for War and Peace Reporting, 9 August 2007: Chechen Massacre Survivors See Justice
  43. Human Rights Watch, June 2000: FEBRUARY 5: A DAY OF SLAUGHTER IN NOVYE ALDI
  44. Los Angeles Times, 3 July 2005: An Unlikely Antiwar Hero for Russians
  45. Prague Watchdog, 27 July 2007: ECHR on Russian war crimes: responses from Moscow and Grozny
  46. Prima, 11 April 2005: European Court of Human Rights finds Russia guilty in disappearance of man in Chechnya
  47. The St. Petersburg Times, 1 April 2005: Chechen Court Sends OMON Officer to Jail
  48. Amnesty International, 31 March 2005: Russian Federation: Russian police officer found guilty of crimes against the civilian population in the Chechen Republic
  49. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 7 June 2007: Russia: Ethnic Tensions Mounting In Restive Stavropol
  50. Gazeta.ru, 27 June 2003: Moscow policemen want Chechen money
  51. Google: "OMON soldiers" search results
  52. Associated Press (2014-02-26). "Ukraine's Feared Berkut Riot Force Disbanded - ABC News". Abcnews.go.com. Retrieved 2014-03-03.

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