The Special Purposes Mobile Unit (OMON) is a special police unit within the National Guard of Russia, founded on 5 May 1919 as a police force operated by the White Army. The Soviet Union established its own OMON in 1979, and it became the special forces unit of the Soviet Militsiya in 1988 and took part in the suppression of nationalist protests at the time of the dissolution of the Soviet Union. OMON was incorporated into the National Guard in 2016, serving as a riot police group and gendarmerie-like paramilitary force.