WHEN A NUCLEAR POWER PLANT IS SEIZED BY EXTREMISTS
by Igor Plugatarev
Translated by A. Ignatkin

DEFENSE and SECURITY (Russia)
September 27, 2006 Wednesday

Special forces of the Federal Security Service are to be involved in
liberation of hostages taken at a strategic object in Armenia

EXERCISE ATOM-COUNTER-TERRORISM’2006 OF CIS SECRET SERVICES WILL TAKE
PLACE IN ARMENIA; CIS secret services will run an counter-terrorism
exercise in Armenia.

Atom-Counter-Terrorism’2006, an exercise that will take place on the
territory of Armenia between September 26 and 29, is not going to
be ordinary. Officers of the CIS Counter-Terrorism Center told this
newspaper that the exercise would be an element of a conference of
senior officers of CIS special forces.

What distinguishes the exercise is that it will be run at the
Armenian nuclear power plant in the town of Metsamor in the Ararat
Valley (35 kilometers southwest of Yerevan). This is going to be
the fifth exercise of this kind in six years of existence of the
CIS Counter-Terrorism Center (the previous were run in Tajikistan,
Kazakhstan, Moldova, and Ukraine) and the first to involve units
of the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization. A great deal
of observers are expected at the exercise. They will represent G8
countries, Counter-Terrorism Unit of the Secretariat of the CIS
Collective Security Treaty Organization, Counter-Terrorism Committee
of the UN Security Council and UN Directorate for Drugs and Crimes,
and Regional Counter-Terrorism Structure of the Shanghai Organization
of Cooperation.

This correspondent unearthed some details of the legend of the
exercise. As a matter of fact, the exercise is already under way.

"Terrorists" are already fighting their way through the territories of
some other countries to the nuclear power plant in Armenia. Their part
is being played by officers of the Armenian National Security Service
and Special Task Center of the Russian Federal Security Service. The
officers are disguised as gunmen of Al-Qaeda, Moslem Brothers,
Islamic Movement of Turkistan, Hizb-ut-Takhrir, Taliban, and other
international extremist organizations operating in the Commonwealth.

"We know their ways," officer of the CIS Counter-Terrorism Center
said. "This information was obtained in a series of actual operations
secret services of CIS countries (first and foremost Kyrgyzstan,
Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan) ran in 1999, and in the 2000’s.

The CIS Counter-Terrorism Center has compiled all the data. The
information was used when the exercise was planned."

The first phase of the exercise began in the middle of September. The
involved assets drill actions needed to localize, contain, and destroy
terrorist groups determined to invade the territory of the Republic
of Armenia. The "terrorists" are numerous and well-trained.

The Armenian National Security Service and law enforcement agencies
are trying to cope with the problem but available information on
"terrorists’" numerical strength and gravity of consequences of
the potential terrorist acts persuades the national leadership to
holler for help. CIS leaders and the CIS Collective Security Treaty
Organization are asked to come to Armenia’s help. Once the decision to
help is made, the national army of Armenia together with the tactical
team of the United Headquarters of the CIS Collective Security Treaty
Organization will plan and mount a special operation against the
criminals. The operation will take place on the shooting range of
the Armenian army.

And yet, by the legend of the exercise several splinter groups will
escape and seize the nuclear power plant in Metsamor. The "terrorists"
will put forth political demands threatening to blow up the reactor.

Once the threat is valuated, Armenian leaders will appeal to the CIS
Council of the Heads of States to dispatch Special Forces to save the
hostages and retake the seized objects. Officers of the Special Task
Center of the Russian Federal Security Service will immediately fly
to Armenia.

This correspondent will try to see the developments right in
Metsamor. This is going to be the first such exercise in the last
twenty years. It will be an analog of the unique drill servicemen
of Vympel (a KGB special force) ran at a nuclear power plant in the
Soviet Union in the distant 1980’s.

Source: Nezavisimaya Voennoe Obozrenie, No 34, September 22 – 28,
2006, p. 7.