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Russian police crime remains high, despite reform

02 September 2011 20:44 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A much heralded reform of Russiaâ€™s police force has failed to produce immediate results, with officers committing almost 70 crimes in the last ten days, according to figures released by the countryâ€™s Investigation Committee, APA reports quoting RIA Novosti.

Russiaâ€™s militsiya (militia) were renamed politsiya (police) on August 1. The renaming was part of a massive shake-up of the countryâ€™s often-criticized force. Officers have been charged or convicted in the last few years of numerous crimes, including a shooting spree in a Moscow supermarket, the beheading of a suspect, burning a suspect alive, child sex abuse and rape.

Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev â€“ who once advised Russians to give as good as they get if attacked for no reason by an officer â€“ boasted last week, however, that the reforms had stamped out for good police crime.

â€œBribe-taking, abuse of office, corruption and all the negatives have been left in the pastâ€¦only the best of the best remain!â€ he said.

President Dmitry Medvedev said earlier this week that he was â€œon the whole, satisfied with the how the reform of the law enforcement system had gone.â€

He also suggested the reform would lead to a force made up of â€œnormal, respectable people.â€

Among the 67 crimes included in the figures released by the Investigation Committee for August 21-September 1 was the beating to death of 41-year-old Oleg Bichkov by police officers in the Urals city of Perm.

Bichkov â€“ who was scalped and attacked with baseball bats and truncheons â€“ was so badly disfigured that his mother was unable to identify him. A group of ten officers attacked his family home after his wife was involved in a quarrel with an officerâ€™s wife in bar.

Of the seven officers involved in the attack, only three will face charges.

Other police crimes listed for the period concerned by the Investigation Committee â€“ an organization separate from the police force - included torture and an attempt to steal a bag containing almost some $50,000 from a man who had just sold his apartment.