SOBR
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Special Rapid Reaction Unit or SOBR (Russian: специальные отряды быстрого реагирования = Spetsial'nyye Otryady Bystrogo Reagirovaniya) is an elite commando unit of the Russian Interior Ministry, involved in anti-criminal operations. On September 16, 2002, Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov ordered that SOBR be dissolved; however this order was never carried out. It was active in Chechnya.
The standard operations style of SOBR was seen in the movie The Jackal (1997) (in the scene where a Russian Mobster is arrested inside a Moscow night club). SOBR was mislablled as "MVD" by the producers.
To date almost all of the SOBR units have been reclassified as OMSN (Otrjad Milizii Spetsialnogo Naznachenija = Police team-special ), and are subordinate to the regional criminal police offices. OMSN units are composed of highly professional, senior-ranking police officers (as opposed to OMON units). OMSN units are tasked with fighting criminal elements, drug trafficking and other special operations under the jurisdiction of MVD. Lately, OMSN's premier task has been to combat terrorism for which they have received extensive counter-terrorism training, special weapons and equipment for this role.
