MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The Russian Defense Ministry regularly carries out operations to recover Russian citizens and compatriots in distress worldwide, this practice has been in place since the Soviet times, a military and diplomatic source told Sputnik Tuesday.
"The Russian Defense Ministry, given the global scale of national security-related tasks, has always carried out missions to provide help to our citizens in distress worldwide, wherever they are. It used to be like that earlier, during the Soviet times, this is still applicable nowadays, and it will be there in the future," the source said.
4 October 2017, 13:31 GMT
The ministry engages in such rescue missions not only to recover Russian servicemen, but also all compatriots of the country, regardless of their relation to state agencies or private institutions, the source specified. Sometimes, such missions are carried out in Russia's neighboring Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region.
According to the source, all the resources at the ministry's disposal are used to solve tasks of this kind.
