Lieutenant General Sergey Kudryashov has been appointed Commanding Officer of the Border Guard Service in Murmansk Oblast. Increased focus on the coast guard and the fight against fish poachers are amongst his priorities, he says.
His first visit to the Norwegian border area will take place in the beginning of February.
The new Commanding Officer is experienced in the fight against fish poachers from his time in Kamchatka and by the Caspian Sea, and this will be one of his priorities in Murmansk Oblast. The work of the coast guard’s naval units will be intensified, Mr. Kudryashov says, according to newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda.
Another feature that the newly elected officer believes is typical for the Murmansk region is what he calls cross-border crime, meaning citizens of different countries trying to get into Norway through Murmansk. Just before New Year three Iranians were caught trying to cross the border illegally, the newspaper writes.
Lieutenant General Sergey Kudryashov has served in FSB’s Border Guard Service all along the Russian border: Turkmenistan, Kamchatka, Caucasus, South Ossetia and the border to China.
Sergey Kudryashov He has held post as Commanding Officer of the Border Guard Service in Dagestan. His last position before coming to Murmansk was First Deputy Commander of the Regional Border Guard Service in the Southern Federal District in the town of Rostov-na-Donu.
Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev signed the order to replace Major General Vyacheslav Biryukov with Lieutenant General Sergey Kudryashov in December 2009. The new border guard head has spent the first weeks of the new year visits the border guard attachments and make himself acquainted with the situation.
Mr. Kudryashov is 49 years old and was decorated with the Order of the Red Star after the war in Afghanistan.
It is not yet known what new position the last Commanding Officer Vyacheslav Biryukov will get. Mr. Biryukov has over the last years developed a fruitful cooperation with his Norwegian colleagues, making the Norwegian-Russian border one of the most stable and secure border areas in the world. The new Commanding Officer will hopefully continue this positive process, as he is to meet with Rear Admiral Trond Grytting, Deputy Commander of the Norwegian National Joint Headquarters, in Kirkenes already in the first week of February.
