Moscow neighbours join terror watch

The watch will target anything from hooliganism to terrorism

Moscow has been no stranger to terrorist attacks in recent years. But following the latest suicide attack at a rock concert outside Tushino airport, the city's residents are now taking matters into their own hands - through neighbourhood watch schemes.

Caretakers in the Russian capital already provide information to police. But this new initiative takes the idea one step further by involving the whole local community.

Residents from Moscow's Taganskiy District - the site of the Moscow theatre where more than 170 people died during a siege by Chechen rebels - has been selected by the city council to test the scheme.

Residents' groups can report any suspicious behaviour to any one of the 12 "public law-and-order points" around the city.

Promising start

A Taganskiy District official told Russia's Channel One TV that they had already received tip-offs about "people who have unorthodox lifestyles, such as sleeping during the day and being up at night".

A local police officer was equally enthusiastic. In a report on Ekho Moskvy radio, Lt-Col Anatoliy Shtykhov said that the police could not do their job without the help of "public voluntary informers".

Moscow police welcome help from these ''public voluntary informers'

"It is precisely these activists who are the first to report where a den has appeared for the first time, or a suspicious character."

One Taganskiy District resident told Channel One TV that he was very keen to be involved in the scheme.

"These terrorists and bandits are just scum and we ought to get them the hell out of here. Just get rid of them," he said.

There is also a financial incentive for the public to become involved - $100 dollars a month for the chair of each residents' group.

Return to Stalinism?

If the Taganskiy scheme is a success Moscow city council hopes to set up similar watches all over the capital.

But there are concerns from some quarters that the schemes could lead to a return of the "stukachi" - or informers - of the Stalin era, "when proof was not required and merely suspicion was enough".

The leading daily Izvestiya believes that the scheme breaches the constitution by "interfering in the life of the individual".

A Channel One correspondent fears that it "could easily turn into a witchhunt".

"One thing is clear - the blasts at Tushino will leave their mark on Moscow's courtyards for a long time to come," he concludes.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.