Alpha Group

ALFA is a special unit of the Russian Federal Security Service FSB with the use of focus against terrorism.

Order

The unit specializes in fighting terrorism with the areas of hostage rescue, sniper being, personal security and hijacking situations.

Organization

Under the impact of the hostage-taking of Munich during the Olympic Games in 1972, the group A ( " Alfa ", Russ Альфа Russian Группа " А ", colloquially called ) was in the Soviet Union under the 7th division of the KGB formed. Their existence, however, was not revealed until the beginning of the 1990s through the press. Little is known about their structure. Its strength is estimated at about 700 men.

In contrast to the OMON ALFA recruited exclusively from officers.

Recruitment and training

The formation of the ALFA troops is regarded as particularly tough and intense stress, both mentally and physically. Little is known about the content, duration and course of the training.

History

When communist August coup in Moscow in 1991, ALFA had made a historic decision, by refusing to be used as a political tool and as ordered to storm the parliament building, where the liberal forces had entrenched themselves to Boris Yeltsin. The coup with the aim of reversing the begun by Gorbachev's perestroika failed.

In addition, the unit refused the order to storm in October 1993, the lawful incumbent Parliament, as President Yeltsin in his struggle against the Parliament, in which the Communists a majority of votes possessed the storming of opposition strongholds demanded ( cf. Russian constitutional crisis 1993). Ultimately fulfilled a Panzerbatallion the regular army this command.

In recent history, ALFA has been increasingly used in special operations to stabilize the situation in the Russian republic of Chechnya, namely the taking of hostages at the hospital in Budjonnowsk 1995, when the hostage-taking in Moscow Dubrowka theater in 2002, and at the Beslan siege in 2004.

The sister unit of Alfa ie Wympel.