The service is offered by paramilitary guards, who work under the Interior Ministry and have been installing alarm systems and protecting property since the 1950s, said Col. Mikhail Khobov, deputy chief of the guards, at a news conference on Tuesday.
They are now beginning to publicize themselves in order to remain competitive, he said.
According to Khobov, 93 out of 100 robbery attempts are prevented when property is hooked up to this alarm system.
He also said the guards arrested 1. 5 million people during bungled robbery attempts in 1991.
The service promises to be on the scene 3 minutes after an alarm goes off - although sometimes this pledge is unfulfilled because of traffic jams or other unpredictable events, said Maj. Gen. Vietcheslav Ryabov, an Interior Ministry official.
He added that people are charged 50 rubles if they set off their alarms mistakenly.
The cost of the service for an average two-room apartment in Moscow is about 190 rubles a month. That's up from 4 rubles in 1982.
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