Russian President Vladimir Putin took part in an expanded meeting of the Interior Ministry Board on March 15. As Kremlin reports the meeting reviewed the Ministry’s performance in 2015 and set targets for 2016.
Russian President Vladimir Putin took part in an expanded meeting of the Interior Ministry Board on March 15. As Kremlin reports the meeting reviewed the Ministry’s performance in 2015 and set targets for 2016.
Putin noted: «In the previous year Russia preserved a positive tendency in the reduction in the number of severe and extremely severe crimes, there were fewer registered cases of murder, rape, robbery and armed assault, and the crime-solving rate has gone up. A significant scope of work has been done to protect budget and state funding from all sorts of criminal infringement. More crimes from previous years have been solved, with every fourth of these being severe and extremely severe. Over the past year, the number of road crimes went down by 9 percent. These are clearly positive results of the agency’s work and they need to be enhanced».
He also called problems: «The Ministry has so far failed to resolve the basic task we spoke about at last year’s Board meeting, namely achieving a qualitatively new level in the functioning of the entire Interior Ministry system and ensuring a cardinal reversal of the criminal situation. This is exactly what the country’s citizens expect of you. In 2015, we registered an almost 90 percent growth in the number of crimes. This may be a result of objective statistics, which is good. However, the fact that the crime rate is growing is bad. As before, practically half of all the crimes remain unsolved».
He said: «In 2015, the number of crimes committed in the streets grew by 9 percent. You need to regroup, improve the work of the duty details and make broader use of technical equipment. You have to make full use of public assistance as well. We have already created a legislative basis for this and some 200,000 people’s guards and Cossacks are helping the police to patrol the streets. I believe it would be of great importance if the regional authorities took a more active part in ensuring public safety. The second thing is that greater attention should be paid to crime prevention, specifically among the younger generation. Meanwhile, the number of crimes committed by minors or with their participation in 2015 has grown by almost 4 percent – by 3.8 percent. Incidentally, over the past five years the number of crimes committed by people under the influence of alcohol has gone up by 50 percent. The people who are subject to criminal influence should be under constant supervision by the police and appropriate Interior Ministry agencies. We all know, of course, that it is the neighborhood police inspector who bears the brunt of this work. We have to admit that they are doing a big and very intense job. However, without resolving the entire range of crime prevention issues we cannot expect any qualitative improvement in the crime situation in the country. We need to clearly establish the authority of all the agencies engaged in preventive work – the police, the regional and local authorities – and do everything necessary to speed up the adoption of Federal Law On the Basis for the Crime Prevention System in the Russian Federation».
Putin added that the investigation of economic crimes and corporate raiding requires additional effort. «Your job is to provide reliable protection from criminals for the interests of the state, the law, and the interests and property of citizens, particularly those who are honestly doing business. As you may know, a decision was made to set up a Working Group to monitor and analyse law enforcement practices in the sphere of entrepreneurship. It is to meet for the first time in March. I expect Interior Ministry representatives and experts to take an active part in its work. We have discussed this with the Minister and I hope this will be the case. A lot will depend on our joint work, in this case with the Presidential Executive Office. This will require an improvement of the normative base and the work of the law enforcement agencies, to minimise and rule out the possibility of pressuring businesspeople, of using all sorts of ‘contract cases’ designed to divide property and the like. This is of principal importance for improving the business and investment climate as well, and for improving the law enforcement agencies themselves and raising public trust in their activities», president stressed.
The past two years have also seen a reduction in the number of corruption crimes identified by the Interior Ministry. «We need to carefully look at the realities and analyse the situation. If there has truly been a smaller number of corruption cases, this is good – we are achieving some positive results. However, if this is as result of our, I mean the Interior Ministry’s reduced activity in this area, this may not be exactly the goal we have been working for. On the contrary, work here needs to be enhanced, and not for reporting sake, but to makes the situation in the economy better and to raise trust in law enforcement agencies in general», Putin said.
He resumed:«Number four. Your responsibility includes combatting extremism and terrorism. The Interior Ministry and all law enforcement agencies and special services need to upscale their work to prevent and disrupt the activities of radicals who are trying to use nationalistic or extremist slogans, as well as of criminal groups that, as we all know, tend to merge with terrorists and provide them with funding. We should also improve our cooperation with our foreign partners within international organisations, primarily the United Nations, the CSTO and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. The situation with illegal migration requires special attention. This is a complex task that all bodies of state power should be working on within their respective authority. We can see what is happening on the borders of the European Union. Fortunately, we do not have this problem, in part thanks to your efforts. However, we cannot let anything like that happen here. We do understand, however, that the situation here is acute. We have millions of migrants, primarily, of course, from the former Soviet republics. We need to ensure they live in normal conditions and work where they are employed, that they adhere to Russian Federation law and the traditions of the peoples among whom they live, so they do not create problems on the local labour market here in Russia so as not to cause irritation among the citizens of the Russian Federation. This is a very delicate job, and a very important one. It is important both for the economy and for social stability. I would like you to ensure close cooperation of all the appropriate agencies and a prompt solution to matters pertaining to the detection and preclusion of crime in this sphere».
