putin
Russian President Vladimir Putin, pictured here Dec. 23, 2015, has ordered counterterrorism operational headquarters to be set up in several coastal areas. Maxim Shipenkov/Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered counterterrorism operational headquarters to be set up in several coastal areas, the state-run RIA news agency quoted the Kremlin as saying Saturday.

The units are to be set in Kaspiysk on the Caspian Sea, Murmansk in Russia's northwest and in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk on Russia's eastern coast, the Interfax news agency said.

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