Russian president begins police reform.

MOSCOW, December 26 (By Itar-Tass World Service writer Lyudmila
Alexandrova) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has initiated a reform
of the Interior Ministry - a reduction of police personnel by 20 percent
and its transition to federal financing. In this way the head of state
reacted to public criticism of the police force for corruption and
ineffectiveness, which grew noticeably stronger in the wake of the latest
high-profile crimes by police officers.

True, the president has made a step in the right direction, but his
proposals are far from enough, experts say.
On Thursday evening the president published a decree entitled On
Measures to Perfect the Activity of Interior Ministry Units of the Russian
Federation. As follows from this document, the police are to be
transferred to federal financing completely (so far the regions have been
responsible for financing them 40 percent), and the overall strength of
police personnel is to be reduced by 20 percent. Under the same decree the
government and the Interior Ministry's top officials were instructed to
draft proposals, including those for higher salaries, improve structures
and tighten measures against corruption.
This foreword looks "revolutionary, indeed," at least from the
political standpoint, analysts say. In it the president said that police
agencies "perform the most important state function of protecting the
life, health and rights and freedoms of citizens," but "of late there were
ever more frequent cases of law and discipline abuse by police, which have
drawn a well-founded negative response from society and harmed the
prestige of the authorities," and "the existing structure of Interior
Ministry agencies, organization of their activity and personnel,
financial, and logistics components failed to match the modern realities
and need modernization."
Medvedev declared his intention to sign a decree to reform the
Interior Ministry quite unexpectedly, during last Thursday's live
interview granted to three federal television channels. He announced the
decision while answering the question about the state of affairs in the
country's police force. He acknowledged that the theme of policing was
"one of the most sensitive and no easy ones." The president agreed that
some of the complaints against the Interior Ministry were well-founded.
"Certainly, there must be changes, rather harsh and fundamental ones,
and they fill surely follow. But at the same time the backbone of the
Interior Ministry must be preserved," he said.
Whatever the case, the news of the decree sounded like a bolt from the
blue for most of those concerned, says the daily Vremya Novostei.
All of the latest high-profile emergencies involving police officers
that brought this sensitive theme into the limelight - indiscriminate
shootout in a supermarket by an off-duty police major, Denis Yevsyukov, a
public video message from another police major, Alexei Dymovsky, of
Novorossisk, to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and many others were
invariably interpreted by the Interior Ministry as "casual incidents" and
"exceptions to the rule."
By 2012 the strength of Interior Ministry personnel is to reduce by 20
percent, which is equivalent to the dismissal of approximately 220,000, a
source at the Interior Ministry told the daily Vedomosti. At present the
Interior Ministry has a total strength of 1.23 million.
NEWSru.com quotes a source at the Interior Ministry as saying the
presidential decree will not entail dismissals and reduction of personnel
and units, whose duty is to fight against crime. He explained that first
and foremost the reduction would concern vacancies that remain unmanned.
By March 1 the government is to draft measures to raise police
salaries. Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev was told to devise within
three months a new system of selecting personnel and new principles of
rating the performance of police units.
The transfer of Interior Ministry's financing to the federal level is
a pressing need, the source at the Interior Ministry said. Regional
Interior Ministry departments are often find themselves in the position of
governors' hostages. The leadership of Bashkortostan this year has reduced
the financing of police in retaliation for criminal cases opened against
senior republican officials.
A deputy chairman of the State Duma's security committee, Gennady
Gudkov, is quoted by the daily as saying that Medvedev has surely made a
step in the right direction, but his proposals are not enough. They are
spontaneous decisions, says the legislator, they are seen as a response to
strong public criticism. What is really bad is that the Interior Ministry
will be reforming itself without proper control by civil society.
As a first step Medvedev's proposals are surely welcome, lawyer Igor
Trunov told the daily Vedomosti - but only on the condition the reform
will be continued.
The Interior Ministry needs a reduction of its bureaucratic staff,
which has nothing to do with the struggle against crime. If nothing
follows this decree, the result will be equal to zero.
Naturally, the chiefs of many of the Interior Ministry's units will do
their utmost to avoid cuts and, apparently, they will form a powerful
lobby against genuine "optimization," says Vremya Novostei. Besides, it is
common knowledge that the Interior Ministry's top brass are not all alike
- most key posts are held not only by close associates of Vladimir Putin
(such as Rashid Nurgaliyev), but also by right-hand men of some other
political heavyweights.
"Relations between them are complicated and, apparently, each of them
will be employing the administrative resources available for the sake of
self-preservation. This will in no way promote a reform of the system. On
the contrary, it may trigger more rifts among the ruling elites."

-0-str