Russia’s fed security service to assist Brazil in ensuring security at Rio Olympics

MOSCOW, March 26. /TASS/. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) will give assistance to the counterpart security agencies in Brazil in ensuring public security at the Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016, Yuri Nagornykh, the deputy minister of sports who chairs the commission for preparing Russian teams for the forthcoming Olympics told TASS on Thursday. On Thursday, the commission devoted its regular meeting at the Ministry of Sports to preparations for the summer games in Brazil in 2016 and the winter games in South Korea in 2018. "Extensive attention was given to ensuring the security of our really big delegation that will be staying Brazil for a long enough period of time," Nagornykh said. "That’s why FSB experts who will tackle the job in cooperation with Brazilian counterparts attended the meeting." At the beginning of the year, the director of the antiterrorist department of Agencia Brasileira de Inteligencia (the Brazilian Intelligence Agency, ABIN), Luiz Alberto Sallaberry, admitted that the terrorist threat at the future Olympics had moved to a higher level of after the terrorist acts committed by Islamic fundamentalists in Paris in January. "We have no terrorist cells, but there are certain people who can lend assistance to such groups or aid logistically," he said in an interview with the Brazilian news portal G1. Sallaberry said Brazilian security services were closely watching the lone wolves who did not belong to any particular terrorist grouping but were overwhelmed by extremist ideology. "We are to host the Olympic Games (from August 5 to 21, 2016), bringing together athletes, high-ranking guests and fans from countries that have become priority targets for terrorists - all this increases the level of threat," said Sallaberry. In February, a delegation of the Russian Ministry of Sports, the National Olympic Committee, and the Federal Medical and Biological Agency made a familiarization trip to Brazil. "Our representatives visited all the OIympic facilities and now we have full understanding of the conditions in which the Olympic tournaments will be held," Nagornykh said. "Contacts with all officials of the Rio’2016 Organizing Committee were established." "Proceeding from the data we received, we’ll adjust the issues related to the final stage of preparations for the Games," he said. "We’re working together with the sports federations in each Olympic sport to select facilities for the teams that would like to have the last phase of training right inside Brazil." Read more