Security Council Secretary Inspects Volga Region

Vladimir Rushailo, Secretary of Russia's Security Council, appreciates the effectiveness of Security Council officials' visits to the regions to monitor the progress of implementation of decisions made and study in depth the situation on the ground. Tours of that kind enable briefings for Security Council meetings that are based on the real state of affairs, Rushailo told reporters on Wednesday while touring the Saratov Region.

He went on to say, "Comprehensive work carried out earlier in the Volga River and Far East and Ural Mountains federal districts demonstrated its effectiveness." The delegation of Security Council Office staff and senior government department officials is working in Saratov at the behest of President Vladimir Putin, Rushailo stressed.

The working tour of the Saratov Region is one of preparatory stages leading up to a Security Council meeting due next month on major threat neutralization in the border enforcement area, he disclosed, adding that the trip's results will also be used during the course of meetings between security council secretaries of Collective Security Treaty participant states.

In the Saratov Region, implementation will be monitored of earlier made decisions on the protection of Russian national interests in the enforcement of the state border, notably in the Central Asia area. An interdepartmental meeting has been planned on borderland security enforcement issues. Rushailo said part of the delegation, led by Deputy Security Council Secretary Valentin Sobolev, will then visit the Orenburg Region in the southern Urals.

Further during the course of the Saratov Region tour, issues relating to Russia's fulfilment of its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention will be looked into. To that end, the delegation will visit the city of Gorny, where the first facility for chemical weapons disposal has been activated.

The working tour's findings will be summarized in a report to the President of the Russian Federation for decision-making in the national security area, Rushailo announced.