Russia’s police, unreformed

The appointment, after five months’ haggling and searching, of Major General Vladimir Kolokoltsev to be Moscow’s new police chief after the dismissal of General Pronin, provides the hook for another RFE/RL commentary: Three Reasons Why Russia’s Police Remain Unreformed. The three reasons? Politicization, corruption and a lack of resources. Of course, the fundamental meta-reason behind all three is that the Kremlin isn’t interested in meaningful police reform that would create an effective, independent law enforcement structure such that could underpin a genuine rule-of-law state. Alas.

General Shamanov and corruption within the High Command

Just as a little cross-post, I would mention that I have just had a short commentary published on the RFE/RL website on the Shamanov case and what it may say about corruption within the High Command and the prospects for change. My downbeat conclusions are that “Whatever happens to Shamanov, the likelihood is that Russia’s dirty generals will continue to enjoy business as usual – so long as they keep a low profile.” After all, the present military reform programme represents a major bonanza for these crooks in braid, and the last thing they want to do is to see Defence Minister Serdyukov forced and able to do something serious about the numerous scams they have running.

In the belly of the beast: what the hit on ‘Yaponchik’ says about Russian organised crime

On the evening of Tuesday 28 July, the Russian vor v zakone (‘thief within the code’) Vyacheslav Ivankov, better known as ‘Yaponchik’ or ‘Little Jap’, had just finished a working dinner at the Thai Elephant restaurant on the Khoroshevskoye Shosse in northern Moscow. Although accompanied by a bodyguard, as he came onto the street, a sniper using a Dragunov SVD sniper rifle put from one to three bullets into his stomach (reports vary), leaving him seriously injured, albeit not dead.

On one level, this might seem of little real significance. Most of Russia’s still-common assassinations and contract killings are not of innocent civilians and investigative journalists but mobsters and their clients and associates. However, there are reasons to read rather more into this hit and to see the shootings as, if not a ‘shot heard around the world’, at least one heard around the Russian underworld.

Korabelnikov leaves Russian military intelligence

On 24 April 2009, General Valentin Korabelnikov was replaced by his deputy, Lt. General Alexander Shlyakhturov, as head of the GRU, Russian military intelligence (technically, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff).

Financial crisis puts new pressure on Russian police, but means boom time for security forces

Although Putin made a great play of his commitment to law and order, the emphasis always seemed to be on order more than law. Resources were devoted more to defence and public order, but nonetheless the bonanza of oil and gas revenues did mean that spending on the police picked up, making good some of the deficits created in the 1990s, when successive budget crises left them in a disastrous state. At the same time, a trickle-down of prosperity did help control (if not really reverse) the rise in street crime, while organized crime matured, with real power in the underworld moving from ‘street mafiya’ to ‘suit mafiya’, the age of the overt gangsters known as ‘bandits’ giving way to the behind-the-scenes ‘authorities’ who blended crime, business and politics. This did not mean that organized crime disappeared, but at least it did mean an end to the more violent, indiscriminate days of the 1990s turf wars.

However, the global financial crisis is making its mark in Russia, too.

(Temporarily) Lost in Transition!

Apologies for the lack of activity on this blog. I am currently in the process of my move from the UK to the USA, winding up my affairs here and generally busy with logistics of every kind. Normal service will resume in the New Year, once I am settled.

Who is Yunus-Bek Yevkurov?

No one is likely to mourn the departure of Murat Zyazikov from the position of president of the volatile North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia. But the Kremlin’s choice of a successor has come as something of a surprise: Colonel Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, a gung-ho paratroop officer with no political experience or profile, no power base in the republic and – seemingly – no great enthusiasm for the job.

New guns for Russia’s cops – so what?

A piece of news which might seem of interest only to the gun-nut and the real obsessive actually has rather greater significance: the Russian police are phasing out their old Makarov pistols and Kalashnikov rifles with new weapons.

So what?

‘Contract killing is a continuation of business by other means’

It goes against the grain, but sometimes – rarely – I feel Putin and the Russian security apparatus deserve to be given the benefit of the doubt. On 6 October, the interesting but often-sensationalist Russian newspaper Novaya gazeta ran an article ‘Registered Speciality – the Killer’ which claimed that the Russian spetsluzhby, the security agencies, now routinely murder enemies of the Kremlin. The author, Novaya gazeta’s military affairs editor Vyacheslav Izmailov, pulls together a varied collection of killings and kidnappings and asserts that the same sinister hand is behind them all.

Russia Ready For Meaningful Military Reform. Again. Really.

On Friday 26 September, President Medvedev used a meeting in Orenburg with military district commanders during the Centre-2008 exercises to make his latest statements about defence modernisation. The headlines were made by his pledge to revamp Russia’s strategic arsenal: “A guaranteed nuclear deterrent system for various military and political circumstances must be provided by 2020.” However, he promised modernisation across the board: “We must ensure air superiority, precision strikes on land and sea targets, the timely deployment of troops. We are planning to launch large-scale production of warships, primarily, nuclear submarines with cruise missiles and multi-purpose attack submarines… We will also build an air and space defence network.”

On the face of it, this all sounds like news.