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Russian Police Unveil List of Museums to Retain Police Security

Russia's most famous museums — St. Petersburg's State Hermitage and Russian Museum, and Moscow's Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and Tretyakov Gallery — are all included on the list.

A list of federal museums, archives and libraries that will retain police security was published on Russia's Interior Ministry website Monday.

Four libraries (the Russian State Library, Russian State Children's Library and Rudomino All-Russian State Library of Foreign Literature in Moscow, and the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg), 10 archives and 46 museums across Russia made the list.

Russia's most famous museums — St. Petersburg's State Hermitage and Russian Museum, and Moscow's Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and Tretyakov Gallery — are all included on the list.

Federal institutions that are not on the list will have to hire private security agencies starting Nov. 1, due to mass police cuts ordered by President Vladimir Putin earlier this year, the Kommersant newspaper reported Monday.

The report said that in addition to museums, libraries and archives, the following children's centers and camps will keep police officers as security guards: Okean (Ocean) in the far eastern Primorye region, Orlyonok (Eaglet) in the southern Krasnodar region and Artek in Crimea.

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