MAKHACHKALA, July 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that 15 billion rubles (approximately $0.5 billion) would be allocated to improve the state border in southern Russia.
The President, who visited the Dzhepel border checkpoint in Daghestan Friday, said two mountain brigades would be deployed in the south as military backup.
"The work, including the withdrawal of the Russian military bases in Georgia, will be completed by 2007. Bases will be withdrawn but the border will be closed," Putin said.
"If we want to develop relations with our partners, in particular our European partners, and to resolve visa issues for the benefit of our citizens, we must first of all ensure that our borders are secure. Until then visa-less travel is out of question," the president said.
He said the government started strengthening the state borders in 2000 but that the real work had started in 2002. He said that the last time work had been carried out to improve the borders had been in the 1920-1930s.
Putin said that the border in the south was being provided with cutting-edge technologies and communications systems using a new technological base.
He added that the social problems of the local population would be tackled as well.
Under the Russian Defense Ministry plan, by the end of the year two mountain rifle brigades will be stationed in Botlikh (the Republic of Daghestan, which borders on Chechnya) and in the village of Zelenchukskaya (the Karachai-Cherkess Republic, which borders on Georgia). Both brigades will be professional units and their priority task will be to assist frontier guards on the Russian-Georgian border.
