The idea behind the exercise is to improve coordination between the special services of the four countries in tracking down terrorist groups, releasing hostages and liberating captured facilities, specifically rail and air transport, Mylnikov said.
The Russian participants will include officers of the Special Training Center and the External Monitoring Unit at the Federal Security Service. At preliminary stages of the exercise, Russian officers will act as instructors, providing help and guidance for their counterparts in the preparation of the closing phase, to be carried out in Moldova, Mylnikov announced.
A similar exercise, codenamed Technology 2004, has just been completed in the city of Perm, in Russia's Volga Federal District. Personnel from the regional branches of the Federal Security Service and the Federal Emergencies Ministry, as well as from the Regional Interior Department took part in this exercise. According to spokespeople for the Federal Security Service's Perm branch, the aim was to check the efficiency of measures to ensure the security of industrial facilities located in the region and to detect, prevent and block attempts to blow up such facilities. The exercise was carried out in an industrial neighborhood on the left bank of the Kama River.
According to the script, a fifteen-strong group penetrates into the city to stage subversive and terrorist acts and to take hostage workers of a petrochemical plant. The exercise participants have managed to prevent the terrorist group from blowing up tanks with oil and gasoline on the plant's premises. Two of the terrorists have used exotic means of transportation to arrive in Perm-a hang-glider and a parachute-but the vigilant security men have caught them anyway.
According to the Federal Security Service's Perm branch, the public of Perm have failed to contribute to the effort, despite the police's calls for cooperation and promises of monetary reward for information leading to the arrest of the presumed terrorists.
