24.05.09

According to the Interior Ministry Internal Affairs Department, police officers committed 18,000 offences in the first quarter of 2009 (18% more than the year before). They committed 4,600 crimes in all of 2008... Experts know what the problem is: people never join the police force in order to defend society or promote its interests. Whoever joins it is either hungry for power or seeks financial prosperity.

"I'm not going to go down all alone," Major Denis Yevsyukov said after arrest (Yevsyukov had massacred 9 late-night shoppers in a Moscow supermarket). All media outlets quoted Yevsyukov, formerly chief of the Tsaritsyno district police. Neither was he wrong, by the way. Chief of the Souther Administrative District Victor Ageyev and Moscow top cop Vladimir Pronin were fired not long after. One Aleksei Safonov, formerly of the Tsaritsyno district police i.e. Yevsyukov's subordinate, was bagged selling lethal weapons. It was finally established that Yevsyukov owed his career to contacts rather than professionalism. As it turned out, his father had served together with Pronin in Kursk years ago.

It does not take a genius to guess that a Moscow posting is what people in uniforms all over the country dream about. Unfortunately, these dreams are not exactly altruistic.

"There are two ways of making a district police chief in Moscow," a police officer told The New Times. "Either you are pals with your superiors and you have a common business venture with them, or there is some business structure that promotes you. The position may cost from $100,000 (minimum) to $1 million. Promotion to chief of a district such as Tsaritsyno costs at least $500,000..." Insiders say that the price depends on lots of factors: existence of marketplaces, factories (with their warehouses), malls, railroad stations, hostels, hard currency exchange offices, and sites frequented by out-of-towners.

Men close to business circles who know what they are talking about maintain that a smart police chief in a district like Tsaritsyno will easily collect $100-200 million a year. The Central Administrative District is even better from the standpoint of easy money - collection here amounts to $1.5-2 billion. Insiders point out, however, that the police are not the only collector. "Do not forget the Federal Security Service, prosecutors, veterinary service, firefighters, the government of Moscow, and tax structures," one of them said. "Monthly revenues in a "good" district may easily amount to $200,000-250,000."

This is why people whose judgment could be trusted refuse to buy the hypothesis that Yevsyukov and his subordinates were involved in illegal arms deals. (Yevsyukov himself was carrying a firearm missing since 2000.) "Why would a man stick his neck out to earn $10,000 (this is how much a Makarov firearm costs in the black market - The New Times) when he collects $4,000-5,000 a month from every stall in his area?"

It is said meanwhile that it is ordinary operatives that are usually involved in illegal arms deals. Preventing the situation from getting out of hand and averting criminal proceedings is another business venture of police personnel at this level. A businessman told The New Times that the current tariffs were as follows: $1,000-10,000 to get off the hook without being dragged to the police station (unless something is really wrong, of course); $25,000-30,000 to get off the hook once a man was brought to the police station; and finally $100,000-150,000 whenever wheels of bureaucracy have been already set in motion.

"But that only goes for ordinary situations, of course," a source said. "If it is politics, or if your enemies have earmarked you specifically, then the prices literally soars."

Police officers themselves and experts say that there is nothing to be done about the existing system short of its actual dismantlement. That there are decent men and true professionals on the police force goes without saying. Unfortunately, the system itself draws the overwhelming majority of police officers into shadowy business ventures. Vertical of bribes leaves them without choice: man has to pay his superiors (and therefore milk his charges whatever they are) or seek another job.

Translated by Aleksei Ignatkin

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Source: The New Times