Special Purpose Mobile Unit | |
---|---|
Отряд мобильный особого назначения | |
Active | 5 May 1919 |
Country |
|
Agency | National Guard of Russia |
Type | Gendarmerie |
Common name | Omonovtsy, "Black Berets" |
Abbreviation | OMOH/ОMON |
Structure | |
Officers | c. 20,000 (in Russia) |
Notables | |
Significant operation(s) | |
Anniversaries | 3 October (OMON Day/День ОМОН) |
OMON [1] is a system of military special police units within the Armed Forces of Russia. It previously operated within the structures of the Soviet and Russian Ministries of Internal Affairs (MVD). Originating as the special forces unit of the Soviet Militsiya in 1988, it has played major roles in several armed conflicts during and following the 1991 dissolution of the Soviet Union.
OMON is much larger and better known than SOBR, another special-police branch of the National Guard of Russia. In modern contexts, OMON serves as a riot police group, or as a gendarmerie-like paramilitary force. OMON units also exist in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and other post-Soviet states. However, some post-Soviet units have changed names and acronyms. Russian-speakers commonly refer to OMON officers as omonovtsy (Russian : омоновцы; singular: omonovyets – Russian : омоновец).
On 5 April 2016 OMON became part of the newly-established National Guard of Russia, ending its years as part of the MVD. [2] : 20 The MVD continues to operate the Police of Russia. [3]
Special purpose militia units were formed on May 5, 1919 in the Russian state in the structure of the "white" (Siberian) militia. [4] Alexander Kolchak emphasized that
OMON is a combat unit for the protection and restoration of state order and public peace, serves as a reserve for the formation of militia in areas liberated from Soviet power to train experienced police officers
These militia units operated where open war gave way to partisan war. The detachment consisted of four foot and one horse platoons. [5] The staff included 285 people. [4] In those days, there was no such thing as a "omonovets" therefore these units were called "guards". [6]
Soviet OMON originated in 1979, when the first Soviet police tactical 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. [7] Special police detachments were often manned by former soldiers of the Soviet Army and veterans of the Soviet–Afghan War. 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.
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). [8] 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 [9] — 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.
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. [33] 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, [34] 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. [35]
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), [36] the July 2000 suicide bombing which killed at least twenty-five Russians at Argun base of OMON from Chelyabinsk, [37] and the April 2002 mine attack which left twenty-one Chechen OMON troops dead in central Grozny. [38] Control and discipline continued to be questionable in Chechnya, where 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. [39] Among other incidents, several Chechen OMON servicemen were abducted and executed in Grozny by Russian military servicemen in November 2000, [40] 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, [41] 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.[ citation needed ]
OMON was often accused of severe human rights abuses during the course of the conflict, [42] 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. [43] 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. [44] In December 1999, a group of unidentified OMON members manning a roadblock checkpoint shot dead around forty refugees fleeing the siege of Grozny. [45] OMON from Saint Petersburg [46] 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; [47] one officer, Sergei Babin, was to be prosecuted in relation to the case in 2005 but he vanished. [48] [49] 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. [50] 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, [51] with the Grozny court criticising the conduct of OMON serving in Chechnya in broader terms. [52] 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. [53]
In 2021 OMON officers tortured Jehovah's Witnesses in Irkutsk in an attempt to make them inform about other members. [54]
Some OMON units participated in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine where they were intended to disperse riots and control civil unrest after Kyiv would be captured. The failure to capture Kyiv resulted in some SOBR missions becoming redundant, they also ended up engaging in military combat and some of its personnel being killed in action or captured by the Ukrainian Armed Forces. [55]
A group of OMON officers are suing for unlawful dismissal after being sacked for refusing to fight in Ukraine. [56] On 28 September 2022, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine and National Police of Ukraine published CCTV footage showing OMON and Rosgvardiya personnel shooting at civilians during the battle of Hostomel. [57] [58] [59]
In Russia, there is an OMON unit in every oblast, as well as in many major cities. Since 2016, the OMON units report directly to the National Guard Forces Command as part of its regional district commands, and they are expected to be deployed in support of the police forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. 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.[ citation needed ] The 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.[ citation needed ] 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. [60] The use of OMON members in high-risk situations, especially in Chechnya and elsewhere in the North Caucasus, often causes the group to lose members in combat.[ citation needed ]
The Zubr Special Purpose Police Detachment (Russian : Отряд Милиции Особого Назначения "Зубр"; is Russian for Bison, particularly the European bison) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia was created in February 2006 on the basis of the OMON GUVD in the Moscow Region that existed since 1988. [61] It is based in Shchelkovo-7 near Moscow. Zubr was made up of officers drawn from the OMON riot police near Moscow and numbered about 430 people. Zubr is equipped with armored personnel carriers, Tigrs and other special equipment, and includes snipers and dog handlers. [62] [63]
List of equipment of the National Guard of Russia
OMON groups use a wide range of firearms, including AK-74 assault rifle, AKS-74U carbine assault rifle, 9A-91 compact assault rifle, and PP-19 Bizon submachine gun, and the Makarov pistol, Stechkin automatic pistol and the MP-443 Grach or GSh-18 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 designated marksman rifles. The kind of issued protective gear is shared with regular National Guard units. The Bagariy body armor is a common sight replacing the older Kora-Kulon while the ZSH 1–2 is the main issued helmet with the older Kolpak being used only on riot duty. They are sometimes called "OMON soldiers". [64]
As riot police, OMON often uses special equipment termed riot gear to help protect themselves and attack others. Riot gear typically includes personal armor, batons, riot and tactical shields, and riot helmets. OMON also deploys specialized less-than-lethal weapons, such as water cannon, pepper spray, tear gas, sponge grenades, pistols, rifles, and shotguns which fire rubber bullets, bean bag rounds, stun grenades, and Long Range Acoustic Devices.[ citation needed ]
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 such as GAZ Tigr, 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.
OMON, as part of the RosGvard, is transitioning to the Russian version of the ATACS LE (blue/grey) but units are still seen wearing the traditional Noch-91 uniform in all-black, and blue or gray Tigerstripe camouflage, [66] a not uncommon sight has been a variety of Russian Army and Russian Internal Troops uniforms, [66] often with (black) balaclava masks and/or helmets.
The First Chechen War, also referred to as the First Russo-Chechen War, was a struggle for independence waged by the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria against the Russian Federation from 11 December 1994 to 31 August 1996. This conflict was preceded by the battle of Grozny in November 1994, during which Russia covertly sought to overthrow the new Chechen government. Following the intense Battle of Grozny in 1994–1995, which concluded with a pyrrhic victory for the Russian federal forces, Russia's subsequent efforts to establish control over the remaining lowlands and mountainous regions of Chechnya were met with fierce resistance and frequent surprise raids by Chechen guerrillas. The recapture of Grozny in 1996 played a part in the Khasavyurt Accord (ceasefire), and the signing of the 1997 Russia–Chechnya Peace Treaty.
The Second Chechen War took place in Chechnya and the border regions of the North Caucasus between the Russian Federation and the breakaway Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, from August 1999 to April 2009.
Spetsnaz are special forces in many post-Soviet states. Historically, this term referred to the Soviet Union's Spetsnaz GRU, special operations units of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Soviet General Staff (GRU). Today it refers to special forces branches and task forces subordinate to ministries including defence, internal affairs, or emergency situations in countries that have inherited their special purpose units from the now-defunct Soviet security agencies.
Militsiya were the police forces in the Soviet Union until 1991, in several Eastern Bloc countries (1945–1992), and in the non-aligned SFR Yugoslavia (1945–1992). The term Militsiya continues to be used in common and sometimes official usage in some of the individual former Soviet republics such as Belarus, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, as well as in the partially recognised or unrecognised republics of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Transnistria, DNR and LNR. In Russian law enforcement, the term remained official usage until 2011.
The Special Rapid Response Unit or SOBR, from 2002 to 2011 known as OMSN, is a spetsnaz unit of the National Guard of Russia (Rosgvardiya).
The 141st Special Motorized Regiment, colloquially known as the Kadyrovites or the Akhmat special forces unit, is a paramilitary organization in Chechnya, Russia, that serves as the protection of the Head of the Chechen Republic. The term Kadyrovtsy is commonly used in Chechnya to refer to any armed, ethnically-Chechen men under the control of Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov, although nominally they are under the umbrella of the National Guard of Russia. As of 2023, the regiment's official commander was Adam Delimkhanov, a close ally of Kadyrov.
In Chechnya, mass graves containing hundreds of corpses have been uncovered since the beginning of the Chechen wars in 1994. As of June 2008, there were 57 registered locations of mass graves in Chechnya. According to Amnesty International, thousands may be buried in unmarked graves including up to 5,000 civilians who disappeared since the beginning of the Second Chechen War in 1999. In 2008, the largest mass grave found to date was uncovered in Grozny, containing some 800 bodies from the First Chechen War in 1995. Russia's general policy to the Chechen mass graves is to not exhume them.
Human rights violations were committed by the warring sides during the second war in Chechnya. Both Russian officials and Chechen rebels have been regularly and repeatedly accused of committing war crimes including kidnapping, torture, murder, hostage taking, looting, rape, decapitation, and assorted other breaches of the law of war. International and humanitarian organizations, including the Council of Europe and Amnesty International, have criticized both sides of the conflict for blatant and sustained violations of international humanitarian law.
In June 2000, the North Caucasian Chechen separatist-led Chechen insurgents added suicide bombing to their tactics in their struggle against Russia. Since then, there have been dozens of suicide attacks within and outside the republic of Chechnya, resulting in thousands of casualties among Russian security personnel and civilians. The profiles of the suicide bombers have varied, as have the circumstances surrounding the bombings.
Sergei (Sergey) Lapin, also known by his radio communications call sign Kadet ("Cadet"), is a former Russian police officer who had served in Grozny, Chechnya as a Lieutenant in the OMON from the Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug. He has been convicted for the torture and "disappearance" of a Chechen student.
The Battle of Grozny of August 1996, also known as Operation Jihad or Operation Zero Option, when Chechen fighters regained and then kept control of Chechnya's capital Grozny in a surprise raid. The Russian Federation had conquered the city in a previous battle for Grozny that ended in February 1995 and subsequently posted a large garrison of federal and republican Ministry of the Interior (MVD) troops in the city.
The Novye Aldi massacre was the mass murder of Chechen civilians on February 5, 2000, in which Russian forces went on a cleansing operation (zachistka) summarily executing dozens of civilians. The village had been cluster-bombed a day prior to the massacre, and local residents urged to come out for inspection the next day. Upon entering the village, Russian forces shot their victims in cold blood, with automatic fire at close range. The killings were accompanied by looting, rape, arson and robbery. As a result of the deadly rampage by Russian forces, up to 82 civilians were killed in the spree. Houses of civilians were burnt in an attempt to destroy evidence of summary executions and other crimes. Looting took place on a large scale and organised manner.
The Grozny OMON friendly fire incident took place on March 2, 2000, when an OMON unit from Podolsk, supported by paramilitary police from the Sverdlovsk Oblast in armored vehicles, opened friendly fire on a motorized column of OMON from Sergiyev Posad, which had just arrived in Chechnya to replace them.
The Samashki massacre was the mass murder of Chechen civilians by Russian Forces in April 1995 during the First Chechen War. Hundreds of Chechen civilians died as result of a Russian cleansing operation and the bombardment of the village. Most of the victims were shot in cold blood at close range or killed by grenades thrown into basements where they were hiding. Others were burned alive or were shot while trying to escape their burning houses. Much of the village was destroyed and the local school blown up by Russian forces as they withdrew. The incident attracted wide attention in Russia and abroad.
The Internal Troops of the Ministry for Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation was a paramilitary force of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia from 1991 to 2016.
Zachistka is a Russian military term for "mopping-up" operations to cleanse a territory from enemy military forces. They were frequently conducted in villages and included house to house searches. The term was widely used in the Second Chechen War. A number of zachistka operations became notorious for human rights violations by Russian forces, including ethnic cleansing and pillaging, and the term zachistka is used in English exclusively to refer to these violations, particularly in Chechnya and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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