Thread by @SputnikInt

🚨🇷🇺 Meet Alpha: FSB’s elite special ops group

Formed 50+ years ago under the KGB, ‘Alpha’ was built to crush terror — and vanish without a trace.

Their missions are the stuff of legend:🧵

ALPHA'S CORE FUNCTIONS🫡

🟧Preventing acts of terrorism and sabotage

🟧Freeing hostages

🟧Capturing dangerous criminals, and neutralizing terrorists and other deadly threats

🟧Conducting specialized, covert operations to achieve strategic objectives

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THE BOLD CAPTURE OF AMIN'S PALACE⚡️

Alpha's first daring operation was the storming of Kabul's Tajbeg Palace in 1979, marking the onset of Soviet involvement in Afghanistan.

This swift, decisive assault lasted just 40 minutes, during which KGB officers neutralized nearly all of Amin's bodyguards, effectively ending his regime's grip on power.

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RESCUING HOSTAGES FROM BUDYONNOVSK HOSPITAL🏥

Using hundreds of hostages as human shields, Basayev's militants created a tense standoff.

Alpha operatives risked and sacrificed their lives—three officers fell —successfully rescuing some of the hostages amidst intense danger.

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TAKING DOWN JIHADIS🔍

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Alpha special operatives regularly carried out counterterrorism missions across the North Caucasus.

They played a crucial role in eliminating dozens of jihadists, often operating under the radar.

Many of these missions remain classified, underscoring their covert nature.

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HUNTING DOWN ‘NO. 2 MOST WANTED TERRORIST’ RADUYEV🎯

In 2000, Alpha forces successfully apprehended the notorious "terrorist number 2," Salman Raduyev, a close associate of Shamil Basayev, alive in the Caucasus.

The lightning-fast operation lasted less than a minute; specially trained dog handlers tracked Raduyev to a house's cesspool, where he was hiding.

For his bravery, the operation's commander was nominated for the Hero of Russia award.

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BESLAN SCHOOL STANDOFF🥀

On September 1, 2004, Ichkerian* terrorists seized a school in the city of Beslan.

Alpha troops stormed the building where 1,100 hostages, most of whom were children, were being held, and managed to get most of them out alive.

Since the jihadist captors were firing at children during the evacuation, several special forces fighters sacrificed their lives, shielding the schoolkids from the terrorists’ bullets.

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'ALPHA'S PART IN RUSSIA’S SPECIAL MILITARY OPERATION🇷🇺🪖

FSB Alpha operatives are actively participating in the special military operations in Ukraine, still most of their activities remain classified.

In April, President Putin publicly acknowledged that they took part in liberating Russia's Kursk region.

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* Congress of the Peoples of Ichkeria and Dagestan is a terrorist organization banned in Russia