OMON is much larger and better known thanSOBR, another special-police branch of the National Guard of Russia. In modern contexts, OMON serves as ariot police group, or as agendarmerie-likeparamilitary force. OMON units also exist in Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and otherpost-Soviet states. However, some post-Soviet units have changed names and acronyms. Russian speakers commonly refer to OMON officers asomonovtsy (Russian:омоновцы; singular: omonovyets –Russian:омоновец).
Special purposemilitia units were formed on May 5, 1919 in theRussian state in the structure of the "white" (Siberian) militia.[4]Alexander Kolchak emphasized that
OMON is a combat unit for the protection and restoration of state order and public peace, serves as a reserve for the formation of militia in areas liberated from Soviet power to train experienced police officers
These militia units operated where open war gave way topartisan war. The detachment consisted of four foot and one horseplatoons.[5] The staff included 285 people.[4] In those days, there was no such thing as a"omonovets" therefore these units were called"guards".[6]
The modern Soviet OMON originated in 1979, when the first Sovietpolice tactical unit was founded in preparation for the1980 Summer Olympics inMoscow to ensure that there were no terrorist incidents like theMunich massacre during the1972 Summer Olympics. Subsequently, the unit was to be utilized in emergencies such as high-risk arrests,hostage crises and acts of terror.
The current OMON system is the successor of that group and was founded on 3 October 1988 in Moscow and was called the Militsiya Squad of Special Assignment.[7] Special police detachments were often manned by former soldiers of theSoviet Army and veterans of theSoviet–Afghan War. OMON units were used asriot police to control and stopdemonstrations andhooliganism, as well as to respond to emergency situations involving violent crime. The units later took on a wider range of police duties, includingcordon and streetpatrol actions, and evenparamilitary andmilitary-style operations.
Following Russia's2011 police reform, Russian OMON units were to be renamed Distinctive Purpose Teams (KON), while OMSN (SOBR) would become Special Purpose Teams (KSN).[8] It was announced that Special Purpose Centers for Rapid Deployment forces would also be created in Russian regions, to include regional OMON and OMSN units. In essence, all policespetsnaz (special designation) units were brought together under the joint command of theInterior Ministry[9] — the Center for Operational Spetsnaz and Aviation Forces ofMVD (Центр специального назначения сил оперативного реагирования и авиации МВД России).
In January 2012, Russia's OMON was renamed fromotryad militsii osobogo naznacheniya, (Special Purpose Militia Unit) tootryad mobilniy osobogo naznacheniya (Special Purpose Mobile Unit), keeping the acronym.
On 20 January 1991, Soviet-loyalistRiga OMON attacked Latvia'sInterior Ministry, killing six people during theJanuary 1991 events which was not confirmed by an internal investigation, in a failed pro-Moscow coup attempt following theLatvian SSR's declaration of independence.[10] Seven OMON officers were subsequently found guilty by theRiga District Court and were sentenced in absentia. Part of the Riga OMON troops remained loyal to the USSR and their oath of allegiance. The unit was evacuated from Riga to Tyumen in Russia by air force together with all ammunition, vehicles and firearms, and incorporated with local Tyumen OMON.
A series ofattacks on border outposts of the newly independent Republic of Lithuania took place during the period of January to July 1991. These resulted in severalsummary execution-style deaths of unarmed customs officers and other people (including former members ofVilnius OMON), which were attributed to Riga OMON.[11] Some sources say that Soviet leaderMikhail Gorbachev had lost control of the unit during that period. For years, Lithuania has continued to demand that the persons suspected in these incidents should be tried in Lithuania; one suspect was arrested in Latvia in November 2008.[12]
The April–May 1991Operation Ring by theAzerbaijan SSR OMON and the Soviet Army against theArmenian irregular units in theNagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast, resulted in forty deaths of mostly Armenian civilians, and the forced displacement of nearly 10,000 ethnic Armenians. In later attacks, several more Armenian civilians were killed; others suffered abuse which included instances of rape. In continuing fighting in this area, fourteen Azerbaijani OMON members and one Armenian paramilitary fighter were reported killed in September 1991.[13]
Violent and often armed clashes occurred between theGeorgian SSR's OMON and opponents of the first Georgian PresidentZviad Gamsakhurdia prior to theGeorgian Civil War of 1991–1993. Eleven combatants on both sides, including Georgian OMON members and regular militsiya officers, were reported killed in skirmishes during September and October 1991. There were also allegations of OMON firing at unarmed protesters.[13]
Prior to the creation of theArmed Forces of the Republic of Azerbaijan, the bulk of the fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh, on the Azeri side, was conducted by the post-Soviet OMON units and irregular forces. This included the defence of the village ofKhojaly by a group of Azeri OMON troops and armed volunteers against the Armenian andRussian Army forces prior to, and during, theKhojaly massacre on 25 February 1992; most of the group involved died along with several hundred other Azeris, mostly civilians.
South Ossetian ad hoc OMON, organized by a group ofTskhinvali internal affairs division militsiya officers, was reportedly the most combat-ready force on the separatist side at the outset of theSouth Ossetia War in April 1992.
In Tajikistan,the civil war began after local OMON began defecting to anti-Nabiyev protesters in May 1992.[14] The country's minorityPamiri people largely backed theUnited Tajik Opposition, and for that reason were targeted for massacres by pro-government forces during the bloody first phase of the war in 1992–1993. A significant portion of the Tajikistan MVD's command structure and its OMON consisted mainly of Pamiris who were then either killed or forced to flee toGorno-Badakhshan.[15]
North Ossetia's OMON participated in the short but vicious 1992East Prigorodny Conflict in Russia. They killed or 'disappeared' hundreds of local indigenousIngush people. Ossetian OMON reportedly massacred residents of Ingush villages that had first been shelled by Russian federal army tanks that were officially in to the region for 'peacekeeping' purposes.[16]
Following theWar of Transnistria in 1992, several high-ranking former OMON andKGB officers assumed senior posts in Moldova's pro-Russian separatist region ofTransnistria. Former Riga OMON MajorVladimir Antyufeyev, who had led the attacks against Latvian authorities in 1991 and was put on theInterpol wanted list, renamed himself "General Vadim Shevtsov" and became Transnistria's minister of state security and intelligence. He is also alleged to have overseen the self-declared republic's organized criminal smuggling rackets.[17][18][19] In 2012, the KGB of Transnistria announced it has "launched a criminal investigation into Vladimir Antyufeev who is suspected of misuse of state powers."
OMON have broken up several opposition rallies, including theDissenters' Marches since 2006, sparking reports ofpolice brutality, including excessive use of force and arbitrarydetention of participants.[21] In 2007, the brutal actions of OMON against peaceful protesters and arrests of opposition figures were harshly criticised by theEuropean Union institutions and governments.[22] Moscow OMON also made international news when it preventedgay rights activists (including theEuropean Parliament members) from marching after the Mayor of MoscowYury Luzhkov did not allow a planned parade to take place in 2007.[23]
On 24 March 2006, Belarusian OMON stormed the opposition's tent camp atMinsk'sOctober Square without provocation, violently ending the peacefulJeans Revolution against the regime ofAlexander Lukashenko. Thousands of people were beaten and hundreds detained, including the opposition's presidential candidateAlaksandr Kazulin, as a result of the attack.[24]
In February 2008, Tajik OMON commanderOleg Zakharchenko was killed in a shootout with an anti-organized crime police unit composed of former opposition fighters, under disputed circumstances, inGharm.[25] In 2009, the formerInterior Minister of Tajikistan,Mahmadnazar Salihov, allegedly committed suicide to avoid being arrested in connection with the case; Salihov's family claimed he was murdered in a political purge.[26]
South Ossetian separatist OMON took part in the fighting against theGeorgian Armed Forces in August, during the2008 South Ossetia war and were accused of "special cruelty" against civilians in the overrun ethnic Georgian villages.[27] Subsequently, South Ossetian OMON fighters were absorbed into Russian regular forces in the area as contract soldiers and continued to be deployed in the highly disputedAkhalgori zone.[28]
Gulmurod Khalimov, the Russian-U.S. trained[29] OMON chief in Tajikistan since 2012, disappeared in 2015.[30] He had defected to theIslamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria, and threatened to attack American cities.[31] He was declared wanted for treason by Tajik government.[32]
The force was active in theFirst Chechen War of 1994–1996 in which OMON was often used in various security andlight infantry roles, notably for the notorious "cleansing" (zachistka) operations.[33] Prior to the war, there was also an OMON formation belonging to the Interior Ministry (MVD) of theChechen Republic of Ichkeria, Chechnya's separatist government. The independent Chechnya had an OMON battalion prior to the war, but it was not battle trained,[34] and did not play any significant role as an organized force before disintegrating. During the armed conflict, almost every Russian city would be regularly sendingmilitsiya groups, often OMON members, for tours of usually three or four months. The pro-Moscow administration of the Chechen Republic also formed its own OMON detachments. In February 1996, a group of thirty-seven Russian OMON officers fromNovosibirsk surrendered to Chechen militants ofSalman Raduyev andKhunkar-Pasha Israpilov during theKizlyar-Pervomayskoye hostage crisis.[35]
OMON took part in theSecond Chechen War as well. OMON forces sustained severe losses in the conflict, including fromthe March 2000 ambush which killed scores of servicemen fromBerezniki andPerm (including nine captured and executed),[36] theJuly 2000 suicide bombing which killed at least twenty-five Russians atArgun base of OMON fromChelyabinsk,[37] andthe April 2002 mine attack which left twenty-one Chechen OMON troops dead in central Grozny.[38] Control and discipline continued to be questionable in Chechnya, where OMON members were known to have engaged in, or fallen victim to, several deadly incidents offriendly fire andfratricide. Inperhaps the bloodiest of such incidents, at least twenty-four were killed when OMON fromPodolsk attacked a column of OMON fromSergiyev Posad in Grozny on 2 March 2000.[39] Among other incidents, several Chechen OMON servicemen were abducted and executed in Grozny by Russian military servicemen in November 2000,[40] members of Chechen OMON engaged ina shootout with the Ingush police on the border between Chechnya andIngushetia resulting in eight fatalities in September 2006,[41] andRamzan Kadyrov-controlled local OMON clashed with a group of rival Chechens belonging to the Kakiyev'sSpetsnaz GRU military unit in Grozny, resulting in at least five being killed in 2007.[citation needed]
OMON was often accused of severehuman rights abuses during the course of the conflict,[42] including abducting, torturing, raping and killing civilians. By 2000, the bulk of such crimes, as recorded by international organisations in Chechnya, appeared to have been committed either by or with the participation of OMON.[43] Moscow region OMON took part in theApril 1995 rampage in the village ofSamashki, where up to 300 civilians were reportedly killed during a large-scale brutalcleansing operation by federal MVD forces.[44] In December 1999, a group of unidentified OMON members manning a roadblock checkpointshot dead around forty refugees fleeing the siege of Grozny.[45] OMON fromSaint Petersburg[46] are believed to have been behind the February 2000Novye Aldi massacre in which at least sixty civilians were robbed and then killed by Russian forces entering Grozny after the fall of the city;[47] one officer,Sergei Babin, was to be prosecuted in relation to the case in 2005 but he vanished.[48][49] In April 2006, theEuropean Court of Human Rights found Russia guilty of theforced disappearance ofShakhid Baysayev, a Chechen man who had gone missing after being detained in a March 2000 security sweep by Russian OMON in Grozny.[50] In 2007,Khanty–Mansi Autonomous Okrug OMON officerSergei Lapin was sentenced for the kidnapping and torture of a Chechen man in Grozny in 2001,[51] with the Grozny court criticising the conduct of OMON serving in Chechnya in broader terms.[52] In an event related to the conflict in Chechnya, several OMON officers were also accused of starting the May 2007 wave of ethnic violence inStavropol by assisting in the racially motivated murder of a local Chechen man.[53]
Some OMON units participated in the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine where they were intended to disperse riots and controlcivil unrest afterKyiv would be captured. The failure to capture Kyiv resulted in some SOBR missions becoming redundant, they also ended up engaging in military combat and some of its personnel being killed in action or captured by theUkrainian Armed Forces.[55]
In Russia, there is an OMON unit in everyoblast, as well as in many major cities. Since 2016, the OMON units report directly to theNational Guard Forces Command as part of its regional district commands, and they are expected to be deployed in support of the police forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Information from different sources suggested that there were between 10,500 and 15,000 OMON members stationed at population centers andtransportation hubs around the country during the 1990s.[citation needed] The number officially rose to about 20,000 nationwide by 2007; the biggest OMON unit in Russia, Moscow OMON, numbers over 2,000 members. Most OMON officers retire at the age of approximately forty-five.[citation needed] They were also sometimes not paid for their service. In 2001, for example, some fifty OMON members from Moscow filed a lawsuit claiming they had not been paid for one month of combat operations in Chechnya.[60] The use of OMON members in high-risk situations, especially in Chechnya and elsewhere in theNorth Caucasus, often causes the group to lose members in combat.[citation needed]
TheZubr Special Purpose Police Detachment (Russian:Отряд Милиции Особого Назначения "Зубр"; is Russian for Bison, particularly theEuropean bison) of theMinistry of Internal Affairs of Russia was created in February 2006 on the basis of the OMON GUVD in theMoscow Region that existed since 1988.[61] It is based inShchelkovo-7 near Moscow. Zubr was made up of officers drawn from the OMON riot police near Moscow and numbered about 430 people. Zubr is equipped with armored personnel carriers,Tigrs and other special equipment, and includes snipers and dog handlers.[62][63]
OMON groups use a wide range of firearms, includingAK-74 assault rifle,AKS-74U carbine assault rifle,9A-91 compact assault rifle, andPP-19 Bizon submachine gun, and theMakarov pistol,Stechkin automatic pistol and theMP-443 Grach orGSh-18 are assigned as sidearms. OMON units may use other weaponry, typically used by Russian light infantry during special operations and in war zones, such as: thePK machine gun, theGP-25 underbarrel grenade launcher for assault rifle or theGM-94 pump-action grenade launcher,RPG series rocket-proppelled grenade launchers, and theDragunov andVintorezdesignated marksman rifles. The kind of issued protective gear is shared with regular National Guard units. The Bagariy body armor is a common sight replacing the older Kora-Kulon while the ZSH 1–2 is the main issued helmet with the older Kolpak being used only on riot duty. They are sometimes called "OMON soldiers".[64]
Moscow OMON "Lavina-Uragan" (Avalanche-Hurricane) riot control vehicle.
OMON vehicles include specially-equipped vans, buses and trucks of various types (often armored and sometimes equipped with mounted machine guns), as well as a limited number of armored personnel carriers such asGAZ Tigr,BTR-60,BTR-70 andBTR-80.
Moscow OMON withBTR-80M assault a building with suspects duringInterpolitex [ru] 2017 exhibition.
Members during the Gulonov MarchMembers of theSt. Petersburg OMON
OMON's headgear remains their signature blackberet (they are thus sometimes calledBlack Berets), which they share with theNaval Infantry.
OMON, as part of the RosGvard, is transitioning to the Russian version of the ATACS LE (blue/grey) but units are still seen wearing the traditional Noch-91 uniform in all-black, and blue or grayTigerstripe camouflage,[66] a not uncommon sight has been a variety of Russian Army andRussian Internal Troops uniforms,[66] often with (black)balaclava masks and/or helmets.
BPDS/OPON – Moldovan paramilitary successor to OMON, falling under the command of theMinistry of Internal Affairs. It is officially known as the Special Purpose Police Brigade "Fulger".[67]
^Russian:ОМОН – отряд мобильный особого назначения,romanized: OMON - otryad mobilnyy osobogo naznacheniya,lit. 'Special Purposes Mobile Unit (SPMU)',pronounced[ɐˈtrʲætməˈbʲilʲnɨjɐˈsobɐvənɐznəˈt͡ɕʲɛnɪjə], previouslyRussian:отряд милиции особого назначения,romanized: otryad militsii osobogo naznacheniya,lit. 'Special Purposes Unit of the Militia'
^МВД России – "Сегодня от работы МВД зависят многие аспекты повседневной жизни граждан. Органы внутренних дел занимаются обеспечением порядка на улицах, предотвращением и раскрытием преступлений, защитой и охраной частной собственности, государственных и коммерческих объектов. Подразделения МВД борются за безопасность на дорогах страны, обеспечивают проведение массовых мероприятий, днем и ночью приходят на помощь гражданам в чрезвычайных ситуациях. От министра до участкового Министерство внутренних дел – на страже интересов гражданина, закона и общества."
^Министерство Внутренних ДелРоссийской Федерации."MVD website, history". Mvd.ru. Archived fromthe original on 5 December 2013. Retrieved23 February 2014.
National Guard of Russia
![Moscow OMON with BTR-80M assault a building with suspects during Interpolitex [ru] 2017 exhibition.](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aDayTechnologies2017p1-71.jpg)
![Mothers' rally. St. Petersburg, 2019-02-10.[65]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aMothers%2527_rally._St._Petersburg%2c_2019-02-10_IMG_3540.jpg)
