Russia Prepares for Martial Law

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia is creating a new department to enforce martial law, ministry spokesperson Irina Volk said Tuesday.

Among other things, the powers of the GUOR (Main Directorate of Rapid Response) will include "ensuring the legal regimes of martial law," Volk said, according to The Moscow Times.

The department is being created in response to a decree Russian President Vladimir Putin issued on Monday, the Times reports.

According to Volk, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev "instructed the relevant departments of the department to immediately begin" implementing Putin's order.

The Times reports that Putin issued the decree to reform the structure of the ministry because changing conditions have impacted the functioning of the internal affairs bodies.

This "required the strengthening of the units that bear the main burden of timely response to any complication of the operational situation," Volk said, according to Interfax.

The GUOR will take the lead in developing and implementing state policy and ensuring legal regulation, Interfax reports.

It will also organize the intake and registration of applications and reports on crimes, administrative offenses, and incidents, and respond to them.

Staff will focus on enforcing the legal orders of martial law, states of emergency or counterterrorism operations, if they are declared, as well as on activities related to territorial defense, according to Volk.

According to Interfax, the new directorate will coordinate activities to ensure law enforcement in closed administrative-territorial formations and at especially important and sensitive facilities, such as those of the nuclear power industry.

Mobilization training of personnel is also among the goals of the emerging department.

At a briefing on Tuesday, presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Putin's decree is related to the "requirements of the times."

"Everything is quite obvious here, and it is unlikely that any additional explanations are needed," he said.

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