Russian President orders counter-terrorism units to be set up on coasts

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered counter-terrorism operational headquarters to be set up in several coastal areas, the state-run RIA news agency reported on Saturday.

The units are to be set in Kaspiysk on the Caspian Sea, Murmansk in Russia's north-west and in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Russia's eastern coast.

Putin also ordered a similar operation to be set up in Crimea's capital of Simferopol, the peninsula Russia annexed back from Ukraine in 2014.