Translated material
The price of peace
Russian peacekeepers billed the government
The Supreme Court ruled on yet another lawsuit to invalidate a number of regulations of the Russian government, which brought to light a completely unexpected and scandalous topic - the truly plight of the Russian “blue helmets” carrying out the UN peacekeeping mission as civilian police officers. The initiator of the appeal to the court was one of the Russian policemen, who, having returned from Kosovo, decided to ensure that the peacekeepers’ work was paid decently , at least not lower than maintaining order in their home country. As it turned out, many participants in peacekeeping missions abroad receive salaries that are several times lower. The court, however, recognized his demands as unfounded, but neither the policeman himself nor his numerous colleagues are going to give up and intend to continue to fight for their rights.It is noteworthy that this problem became public on the eve of the celebration of the victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War, which led to the creation of the United Nations by the world community. Namely, at the call of the UN - “to help ease tension in conflict areas, separate the troops of the warring parties and create a calm environment that allows us to seek ways for a peaceful settlement” - combined military and police units from different countries are working in hot spots of the planet.
Tver criminal police officer Yuri Kazimirov served as a civilian police officer at the UN Mission in Kosovo for two years, from December 2004 to December 2006. At first he patrolled the streets, then he worked in the criminal information department - in general, he did the same work as his other peacekeeper colleagues from Europe, Africa and the USA. The Russian “blue helmets” were no different from their colleagues, except for one thing - they were paid the least.
“The UN paid everyone the so-called missionary subsistence allowance - 68 euros per day,” Yuri Kazimirov told a Vremya Novostey correspondent. - Half of this money went to pay for housing, the rest - for food, travel and other expenses associated with living in the mission. And according to the UN standard agreement, the Russian side had to pay us wages.”
The government decree “On provision of internal affairs officers and military personnel of the Federal Border Service sent to serve as part of the international police personnel in Kosovo” provides for the preservation of seconded peacekeepers with payments in the amount of 100 percent of salaries for a special or military rank and a regular position at the last place of service , as well as a percentage bonus for length of service and special conditions of service. The same thing is regulated by another decree - “On financial support for Russian military and police UN observers.”
It sounds nice, but in fact, 100% of the salary and bonus for rank and length of service is less than half of the full allowance of an internal affairs officer. Everything else is compensated by bonuses for class, academic degrees, work with classified information, all kinds of bonuses and rewards. Such a complex system of remuneration for employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and all other employees of law enforcement agencies was at one time developed for a reason, but for a specific purpose - so as not to pay large pensions to retirees. And if, say, we now increase the salaries of current employees, and with it the pension, the same will have to be done for those old people who left the service a long time ago, and our budget, apparently, cannot afford such a luxury.
“For my work in Kosovo, I received only 35% of what I earned at home, which is about 3-4 thousand rubles,” said Yuri Kazimirov. - Is it normal for a person to be sent to a hot spot, and their money to be cut by three quarters? It’s like the joke about a traffic cop who was given a baton and a cap and told: “Now go and earn money.” At the same time, according to Mr. Kazimirov, the financial situation of army peacekeepers is much better than that of their police colleagues. “In addition to the salary at the place of main service, payments for rank and length of service, as well as UN daily allowances, the military receive an average of $1,500 per month. For example, the salary of a regiment commander in Sierra Leone is $1,600,” he explained .
Policemen from other countries who served with Yuri in Kosovo and performed the same duties, according to the stories of our peacekeeper, lived much more freely. The Germans and Danes, in addition to receiving exactly as much in the hot spot as they did in their homeland, also flew home every month at the expense of their countries’ budgets. For Ukrainians, a year of service in Kosovo is equivalent to two, they receive the title of combat veterans, have the right to free travel on public transport and lifelong benefits on utility bills. Thanks to their peacekeeping mission, Americans are generally becoming wealthy people. “They say that upon returning home they have 100 thousand dollars in their accounts, tax-free, and they earn 3-4 thousand dollars a month in Kosovo - this is three times more than at home homeland. Even Africans get more,” Yuri complained. - The only thing worse than us is the Bulgarians - they are generally sent on leave at their own expense during the peacekeeping mission. Can you imagine going on vacation with a weapon?”
“If there is no money in the budget to pay us additionally, then they could at least preserve what they already have,” Yuri Kazimirov reasoned and went to the Supreme Court, demanding that those provisions of the government resolutions that deprived the peacekeepers from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of a decent earnings. At the trial, he stated that these norms contradict the UN model agreement, the Constitution, and the Labor Code.
The government ordered the Ministry of Internal Affairs itself to act as a defendant in the complaint of an internal affairs officer, but it was not going to support its colleague and asked the court to refuse to satisfy his demands. Sending police officers to join international police personnel, in their opinion, is not considered a business trip, and therefore the norms of labor legislation designed for business travelers do not apply to them - “blue berets” are paid what the government determined for them in the contested resolutions. “While the police are serving in Kosovo, receiving both daily allowance and their salary, someone else is doing their work for them at their place of duty, and they are being paid all the extra allowances associated with their direct duties and the complexity of the work. And this is fair,” a source in the Ministry of Internal Affairs shared his opinion with Vremya Novostei.
And the court agreed with this. “In this case, we are not talking about sending these persons on a business trip, but about seconding them at the disposal of an international body (UN. - Ed. ), - the court decided. “They are not fulfilling their official duties and are engaged in activities to implement the tasks of an international organization.” From the court's point of view, references to the Labor Code also turned out to be groundless, since it does not contain a word about peacekeeping activities. And the UN model agreement, which talks about the responsibilities of UN member states , is therefore a model agreement because specific documents should be developed on its basis.
But, as it turned out, Russia has not yet ratified this very standard agreement - as far as is known, it has not even been submitted to the State Duma for consideration. Accordingly, the Russian authorities have no obligation to legislatively or at least normatively regulate the conditions of stay and funding of Russian police peacekeepers abroad. But of their own free will, it is clear that none of the departments will want to take on such a burden, especially since they are all strictly limited by budget limits. Any initiative here faces a criminal charge for “misuse of budget funds.”
By the way, former peacemaker Yuri Kazimirov himself does not argue with this problem. “It turns out that the service of our police officers in peacekeeping missions is simply not regulated by any laws, but this is wrong and unfair, so we will continue to fight, defending our rights.”