A quiet revolution?

It is not surprising that the Russians do not really trust their police. Subsequently, there were cases when the employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, distraught, attacked people of the supermarket and because of the scratched car , when the policeman was persecuted for a statement about the corruption of their employees and when the police beat the driver and burned his car for cutting them on the road. One policeman shot himself, scratching his nose with a charged gun. Sksashire, according to official statements, the crime rate in 2010 fell by 13%, and a nourished study of the Academy of the Prosecutor General’s Academy revealed a stable growth of capreflation by 2.4%. As a result, according to most polls, the level of police of the police among the population fluctuates in the range of 10-20%.

For a long time, Russia was considered a police state: for a time, it is also criticized for this. The Soviet state is reminiscent of the regime, even after the Stalinist terror ended; but also widow the XIX century. The Marquis de Custin, traveling to the scratch Russia, noted the tyranny of special services. But if everything is so, then why always it was that Russia was not enough for police supervision, and why is it tax -free to neglect the rule of law?

Detachedly explained by the fact that the protection of law and order as such has always been considered to be minesheart than political supervision. The political police - from the gendarmes under the Tsaro of the current Federal Security Service (FSB) - always had more interests, they had more funding, their employees were more rank, and even their uniform was more beautiful. The police units of the MVDS were secondary: their task was to disperse the protesters of the non -conformists; In general, police officers were considered as auxiliary eyes, ears and fists in case of necessity. Forced to comply with the right to control, the protection of the rights, life and ownership of citizens, as a rule, was not a training of paramount importance.

Law Police

In vague context, the new law on the police may really represent a step away from this old authoritarian tradition. As the President of the President said, this “law is historical”; Along with it, Idrugue noteworthy measures were taken - starting with the fact that the Ministry of Internal Affairs had a completely naval and convenient use of the website version, and ending with loud -to -domestic stages of high -ranking officials on the basis of their corruption of Ilinecticity. Perhaps the change of name is most striking: the Bolsheviks once renamed the police to the police, and now she has been more returned to the name.

Some seem to be just a symbolic gesture - a sort of renaming the Titanic in the same way that this time it will not drown [1]. The Bolsheviks, of course, renamed the service in the “police” in order to symbolically distance themselves from the old order, but their police forces, nevertheless, were strikingly resembled those that were Zatsar. They even looked the same as before: to remove the star from the cockade - and the police will be reminded of the royal city, along with their pseudo -war -sangs, and the Iunforms. They behaved in about the same way - not least, this shall be regularly bribery, ineffective and tendency of the comprehensive use of gross force (“fist law”).

But this is not just exercises in Rebranding. By the end of the year, it is planned to reduce the bloated and unemployed police service by 20%(which now now reads 1.4 million employees); All employees will be re -certified, the most inappropriate and dishonest personnel should be eliminated in Project. At the same time, 217 billion rubles are allocated to improve uniforms and training, as well as a 30 percent increase in salaries. Thus, the authorities are going to get rich with the widespread idea that small bribes are not a nasty -filling earnings, but an economic necessity (at present, police officers earn less than drivers of urban vehicles).

In addition, the law introduces new requirements and prohibitions, as a result of which the Russian police receives more similarities with similar services in the West. In terms of feasibility, the police will now have to introduce themselves when they are valid from them, and inform the detainees about their rights; In addition, they now have restrictions on the use of tear gas and water -flows against peacekeeping. Sometimes even the smallest details in the formulations of the law examine the application of terrible methods in the past, which then were in order to capture things. For example, article 22.2.1 now prohibits the police to apply blows with a club on the head, heart and genitals.

Laws. order

Of course, it is worth recalling that one of the most liberal constitutions in Russia appeared with Stalin - the most terrible Russian dictator. Everything is fine with the laws, but will they follow them?

First question: are the innovations liberal as it seems? And does the state intend to apply the law precisely in the quality in which it was presented? There is still a lot of scope for abuse and unlawful interventions, not later - from the FSB, as well as the power of excuses and, thanks to the possibility of a flexible justice, so that it is preferentially interpreted by the Labor Distributions. In addition, no one, apparently, is going to deprive the influential services of internal security. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has an inner with 180,000 people; They are involved both in order to disperse the opposition rallies, and for the guerrilla wars in the North Caucasus. This structure does not anticipate reductions similar to those that the police will be fed. Yes, they have a large re -equipment program. Medvedevak also promised that there would be no reductions in the North Caucasus. This means that the fact of police will decrease disproportionate.

In the way, a new law is also a seizure of power by the Federal Government. In the past, many police units were fully funded by local authorities; Now all this is attributed to the KFederal budget. Additional costs will be replenished simply for the counting of annual subsidies that are received by the regions from Moscow. Medvedev, thus, receives one of the levers that used to use local political, business and criminal elites to control the police in their desks. This step - if he wants to - can build the offensive of the new eras of the campaigns to combat corruption in those local communities that have previously previously invulnerable. But first of all, this enhances the Kremlin’s power by the supra -police. The need for this arose back in 2008, when the Narossian Far East (3,750 miles, 6035 km) had to be transferred from Moscow, so that he dispersed the protesters, because the leadership of Vladivostokareshchi not to interfere and involve the local police and began to listen to them, and not to the instructions of the Kremlin.

Compliance with the zakon

The second question, respectively, is how great the chances of the new lawman are practical application. Lustration programs are effective just as honest as those who conduct them. It is hardly possible to achieve great success, if it is entrusted with the forces mired in protectionism and corruption, eliminate the fruits of their integral fraud. There have already been anecdotal stories about how this process has turned a source of good income for predatory officials: they demand their subordinates for money to be left as they are left; There is no doubt that the share from these bribes is sent up to the instances, providing, with an alleged line, protection for themselves. Since there are no sufficient grounds for relying the responsibility and conscientiousness of Russian courts, it will be difficult to achieve compliance with the local law; Here, rather, it will be necessary to count on the institutions of executive power, to which, perhaps, the information of the insolation will come to.

Nevertheless, in practice, the actions of the departments responsible for the protection of the law enforcement are usually formed during the struggle between institutions, groups by individuals. For example, after the terrorist attack at the Domodedovo Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB and the security -byerport, they arranged a disgusting exchange of mutual accusations, which seriously developed the extraction of lessons from this event. Currently, the FSB waging a war with the General Prosecutor's Office, accusing the first deputy prosecutor’s region of maintaining an eminent underground gaming business. Cynic, of course, will say that this one has nothing to do with the protection of the law and order, and that it is, Skorehevo, a squabble between the two departments due to a profitable illegal business.

Corruption prevents the centralization of control; It is funny that in the vast Russia, despite the Putin’s tough campaign for state -owned building, the Kremlin’s power is very weak. Police on the ground is often ignored rules, requirements and requirements emanating from Moscow. It is not surprising that Medvedev was faced with obstacles even when he wanted to render on the central structures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In 2009, when he began to think the police walrus, he ordered the departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which were struggled with organized crime, citing the fact that there was no more need for them. Then they were simply converted to other departments. He later ordered to close two of the fifteen departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in order to save funds. The transport police were simply united with the Department for the Protection of Closed Territories. On the paper, it turned out that there are fewer departments, but this affected the budget.

Nevertheless, the centralization of management and codification of police interests and duties really represent a step forward. These are the one manifestations of the unspoken political and ideological struggle between the nasaling of the Medvedev and Putin security forces who came from structural security and see no sense in establishing formal state restrictions. No one controlled the police in post -Soviet Russia, or, at least, she managed to ignore the rules when it was convenient for her. If the Medvedev can reordinate the police by putting it under the control of the center and the law, even due to the strengthening of the federal government, he is probably the same as the basis for further liberalization and turns out to be an important, but important reformer.

Markgaleotti ( Mark Galeotti ) - Global Policy Specialist in Center for Global AFFAirs at the University of New York.

[1] The author, apparently, refers to the history of the two liners of the Olympic class - Titanic and British (Britannic). Initially, the second liner was called the Gigantic, but after the death of the Titanic in 1912, the company "White Star Line", liners were built on the ordered, decided to move away from ancient Greek theme and redrawn the second improvement. In 1916, the British sank in the Mediterranean Sea, 30 people died in the results.