Moscow, July 03: Russia will put its fighter jets on high alert and the airspace over Moscow will be a no-fly zone as part of security measures put in place for the maiden visit of the US President Barack Obama.
Russian special services and police are taking heightened
security measures and the Army and Air Force will be engaged
in efforts to ensure the US leader's safety on July 6-8.
"Several dozen jet fighters will be on high alert on
airfields near Moscow. Airspace over the capital and nearby
areas will be declared a no-fly zone," a security official
said.
"Measures normally taken during events like visits by
heads of state have long been worked out by secret services,
but this time additional steps, which will not be disclosed,
are being taken," the official was quoted as saying by RIA
Novosti.
Several thousand uniformed and plain-cloths men would be
engaged and Moscow police will step up ID card checks and
patrolling in public places. Additional police forces,
including riot-control units, will also be brought from other
regions.
According to the Kremlin foreign policy aide Sergei
Prikhodko, Obama is scheduled to arrive in Moscow on Monday
morning and would spend five hours with President Medvedev
over tête-à-tête and delegation level talks.
To give more time for the parleys the White House and
Kremlin have agreed to declare Obama's tour as a 'working
visit', which allows to ignore a whole set of time consuming
protocol, Prikhodko said.
On Monday evening Obama and Medvedev are to address a
Kremlin press conference and later have a private dinner with
Russia's First Family.
On Tuesday Obama is scheduled to have a working breakfast
with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and meet with ex-Soviet
President Mikhail Gorbachev.
On the same day he will deliver a speech on US-Russian
relations at the convocation of the Higher School of Economy.
Later Obama and Medvedev would address the US-Russian
Business summit.
In Moscow Obama and family will stay for two nights in
the Presidential suite of the five-star Marriott Grand Hotel
on Tverskaya (formerly Gorky) Street leading to the Kremlin.
The suite costing over 1 lakh roubles per day (over USD
three thousand) in the past has been used by former US
President Bill Clinton, Secretaries of State Madeline Albright
and Condoleezza Rice.
Bureau Report
First Published: Friday, July 03, 2009, 21:34