Young FSB border guards in Alakurtti could soon be sent to war

Judging from photos shared by local politician Irina Prosolenko, there were up to a hundred men that on the 10th of August had lined up in the base of Alakurtti to swear oath to the Russian Border Guard Service.

Alakurtti is base for Russian border guards, as well as the 80th Motorised Rifle Brigade, and is located in the Kola Peninsula only 50 km from the border to Finland.

The young men were “full of dedication and patriotism as they faithfully swore oath to the Motherland,” Prosolenko writes on her VK social media page.

“Their eyes sparkled of determination and readiness to protect their country,” the member of the Murmansk regional Duma adds.

It is the first time in 17 years that conscripts are sent to serve in the Russian Border Guard Service. The new arrangment was approved by the State Duma in September 2023 and shortly later signed by Vladimir Putin.

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The law amendments allow the Border Guard Service to recruit conscripts and volunteers and establish armed groups similar to the ones operated by the Armed Forces.

According to newspaper Kommersant, the conscripts that from before have vocational secondary education will be offered contracts in the Service and could subsequently be deployed in the war against Ukraine.

The Russian Border Guard Service is part of the Federal Security Service (FSB). Their prime task is to guard the country’s borders, including to the Nordic neighbours of Finland and Norway. Nonetheless, officers from the FSB and its Border Guards Service have been active also in Ukraine since Moscow started its full-scale onslaught in 2022.

The ceremony in Alakurtti took place as Ukrainian forces made their way into the Kursk Oblast in the surprise attack on the neighbouring Russian region.

The Ukrainian troops are reported to have taken several hundred Russian soldiers prisoner, among them many conscripts.

Vladimir Putin is believed to have assigned the FSB and its leader Aleksandr Bortnikov with the main task of fighting the incursion.