SOBR

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The Special Rapid Reaction Unit or SOBR (Russian: специальные отряды быстрого реагирования = Spetsial'nye 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. SOBR continues to exist in Belarus and as of 2006 was headed by Dmitri Pavlichenko

[edit] Reorganization into OMSN

On September 16, 2002, the SOBR was officially dissolved. To date almost all of the SOBR units have been reclassified as OMSN (Otryad Militsii Spetsial'nogo Naznacheniya, Special Police Unit), and are subordinate to the regional criminal police offices. OMSN units are very similar to the SOBR, and 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. Due to the popularity of the name, as well as the similarities between SOBR and OMSN, the OMSN is usually still referred to as SOBR by both soldiers and civilians alike.

[edit] In popular culture

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 mislabelled as "MVD" by the producers.