Research center of Russia's major Secret Service marks 25th anniversary

The unique research center of the Russian Federal Security Service, or FSB, whose specialists managed to investigate and prevent dozens of terrorist attacks, is marking its 25th establishment anniversary today.

Researchers with the FSB central special research institute (NII-2) participated in the investigations of almost all the major terrorist attacks in Russia, said the Head of the FSB investigation department, Leonid Baranov, in an interview with RIA Novosti Thursday.

The NII-2 specialists in cooperation with Federal Security Service investigators "took an active part in the investigation of the explosions of Moscow's apartment buildings," perpetrated by the terrorists in 1999. Based on the results of the "initial examination of the explosives" carried out in the research center "the investigators determined the directions" in which the FSB task group conducted "a search for the suspects." According to Baranov, at the beginning of 2000 the institute's researchers among other members of the task group went to Chechnya's Urus-Martan district where they detected the rebels' explosives production centers. As a result, the research institute's experts helped determine the exact "types of explosive devices, their structure and ways of handling." Besides, the FSB investigators frequently address the institute's specialists for handwriting identifications. A number of examinations carried out by the NII-2 researchers during the investigation into the attacks of Chechen terrorist Salman Raduyev in the town of Kizlyar (Daghestan) and the explosion at the Pyatigorsk railway station (North Caucasus), allowed to identify Raduyev as the perpetrator of the attacks.

The central special research institute was set up in 1977 with the then KGB, according to the FSB public relations center. The institute faced the task of applying the latest achievements in crime detection to operations and investigative activity, carried out by the national security service in investigating cases of emergency.

At present, the NII-2 research institute is a powerful criminalistic center equipped with the latest equipment and staffed with highly qualified personnel. The institute's specialized laboratories conduct all sorts of modern criminalistic research into identification of people by their personal characteristics (speech and handwriting, finger-prints, biological activity, composite picture, verbal portrait, etc.).

Besides, the researchers carry out examinations to identify explosives, poisonous substances, pharmaceuticals, precious metals, oil products and food, said the FSB public relations center.

The institute's specialists in crime detection carry out round-the-clock duty in Moscow and the Moscow region and conduct deactivation of the detected explosives and explosive devices.

According to the FSB public relations center, on the instructions of the FSB investigative task groups, the central research institute specialists conduct over 1,600 examinations annually.