Yet another law enforcement body, this time to protect the environment, is being created in Russia. Moskovskii komsomolets on 23 April quoted Environment Minister Viktor Danilov-Danilyan as saying the president's administration has already approved a plan to set up an ecological police force and that discussion is currently centering on whether it should be a department within the Environment Ministry or a separate federal agency. The force's task will be to prevent the violation of legislation on the environment. Danilyan said that the first units should be set up in Moscow within a few months. Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze interrupted his visit to Brussels to return to Tbilisi on 23 April after three people were killed in an explosion at a local store, ITAR-TASS and Reuters reported.
Preliminary reports suggest the blast was an accident rather than sabotage.
The Russian presidential security adviser, Yurii Baturin, met with Tajik President Imomali Rakhmonov in Dushanbe on 23 April to discuss bilateral military cooperation, ITAR-TASS reported on 24 April. He also attended military exercises of the Russian 201st Motorized Infantry Division, which is based in the country. Baturin will also make an appearance at an OSCE seminar on confidence-building measures that begins on 24 April. Kazakhstan urgently needs more prisons, according to Deputy Interior Minister Nikolai Vlasov. Health standards are virtually non-existent, and of the 76,000 prisoner population, an estimated 1,300 died from tuberculosis last year and an additional 10,000 were afflicted with the disease.