DUSHANBE, Aril 5, Asia-Plus -- Colonel Vasily Vasilyev has replaced Lieutenant-General Nikolai Kasharin as chief of Operational Border Group of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in Tajikistan, according to the Operational Border Group staff. 

The source at the Operational Group said that General Kasharin had retired.  

Colonel Vasilyev, 45, was born in Almaty, Kazakhstan.  He graduated from Almaty Higher Border School in 1982, Moscow Military Academy named after Mikhail Frunze in 1991 and Academy of Russian Armed Force’s General Staff in 2002.  He served in Russia, Trans-Caucasus, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. 

Under the bilateral agreement that was signed on October 16, 2004, the operational group of the Federal Security Service stays in Tajikistan to perform advisory functions, provide assistance to Tajik border guards in the effective border patrolling and training of the young generation of border guards.