Human Rights Officer

Vladimir Lukin will deal with police officers who ignore traffic rules

In the near future, the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights and the Ministry of Internal Affairs should begin a joint inspection of road accidents caused by police officers. As Russian Ombudsman Vladimir Lukin said on Wednesday, he could not help but listen to the many complaints that come from citizens who are faced with law enforcement officers who ignore traffic rules. “On Tuesday, at a meeting with the Minister of Internal Affairs Rashid Nurgaliyev, one of the topics discussed was the increase in road accidents involving vehicles belonging to our law enforcement agencies,” said Mr. Lukin.

According to the Ombudsman, a few years ago law enforcement officers complained that they did not have vehicles capable of catching up with criminals, but now “they can catch up with anyone, but it is often very difficult to distinguish whether they are catching up with criminals or pedestrians.” Mr. Lukin claims that his proposal for joint action was met with understanding by Mr. Nurgaliev. The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs fully agreed that the increasing number of complaints against his subordinates cannot be ignored.

In a conversation with a Vremya Novostey correspondent, Vladimir Lukin explained that as part of interaction with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, employees of the Office of the Commissioner for Human Rights have already checked, for example, the conditions of citizens placed in temporary detention centers. “My idea is to conduct a joint inspection in this case as well,” said the ombudsman. For now, however, he refused to disclose the technical details and timing of the checks, but promised to make their results public.

In addition, Vladimir Lukin’s immediate plans include completing work on a report on problems associated with the imperfections of Russian citizenship legislation. “The issue of obtaining citizenship and obtaining Russian passports remains very pressing,” explained Mr. Lukin, adding that the report will be made public in about a month. Let us recall that back in 2004, under the expert council of the Commissioner for Human Rights, a working group was created on “immigration amnesty” - we are talking about a simplified procedure for the legalization of migrants who have lived in the country for a long time and have not committed any offenses. And on August 10 of this year, during a visit to temporary accommodation centers for “illegal immigrants” at the Moscow Main Internal Affairs Directorate, the Ombudsman, calling the current norms of migration legislation unjustifiably cruel, again raised the issue of a “nationwide amnesty” for former Soviet citizens located in Russia.

Since October 10 is World Day against the Death Penalty, Mr. Lukin could not ignore this topic. The Ombudsman, like Patriarch Alexy II, advocates the complete renunciation of the state’s right to take the lives of its citizens . “I don’t know of a single country in the world where crime has sharply decreased due to the existence of the death penalty,” the ombudsman said. Moreover, countries where the death penalty is still used - the USA, China, African states - cannot boast of a low crime rate. “In Russia, after the introduction of a moratorium on the death penalty, the number of crimes did not decrease, but did not increase either,” stated Mr. Lukin. In a conversation with a Vremya Novostey correspondent, the ombudsman emphasized that non-governmental organizations and authoritative figures of science and culture included in the Public Chamber could prepare public opinion for the fact that the moratorium on the “tower” should be replaced by its final abolition.

Mikhail MOSHKIN