Stalin style for Kremlin force

THE long black leather coats once favoured by Stalin's henchmen, the murderous NKVD, are making a comeback among Russia's secret police.

The unit which protects president Dmitry Medvedev and prime minister Vladmir Putin, the Federal Guards Service, wants to buy 60 of the long leather coats and have put the order out to tender.

They also want 60 short leather jackets. The order is worth worth three million rubles (65,000).

Stalin's NKVD was primarily responsible for carrying out the dictator's repression and purges in the 1930s. Its officers executed hundreds of thousands of people and also ran labour camps.