From
The Telegraph (UK) report on Russian riot police (ht Drudge):
Techno music filled the air as officers formed a circle, picked a partner and then demonstrated dozens of different ways to disarm, disable and then finish him off with a gunshot to the back, an exercise that was accompanied by theatrical grunts.
With lengthy demonstrations of Kalashnikov firing, grenade tossing and Chechen killing, the sensitive bit of the exercise seemed in danger of being drowned out.
But then Ajax the attack alsatian appeared and Omon's cuddly side suddenly shone forth.
An officer placed a cat on the ground just yards away from the panting dog.
If Ajax's soul was tormented by this feline temptation, it did not show. After all, this was a dog on whose shoulders lay the responsibility of reshaping Omon's battered reputation.
To the orders of his handler, Ajax proceeded to lick and nuzzle the cat, whose expression of nonchalance only started to slip when the dog lifted it into the air in its jaws, carried it several feet and then gently placed it back on the ground.
"You see," said Maj Gen Alexander Ivanin, commenting through a microphone, "our service dogs wouldn't threaten a thing."
Then it was back to what Omon does best: crowd control.
