All posts in category MVD

New head of the MVD’s anti-‘extremism’ “special branch” – GUPE

Col. Timur Valiulin

No sooner do I write on the panoply of political police agencies in Russia, including the so-called ‘E Centers’ of GUPE, the Interior Ministry’s Glavnoe upravlenie po protivodeistviyu ekstremizmy, Main Directorate for Combating Extremism, that GUPE gets a new boss. Today a presidential decree appointed Colonel Timur Samirovich Valiulin to the position, replacing Yuri Kokov, who has become head of the MVD’s All-Russian Institute for Advanced Training.

Previously, Valiulin had been head of the Moscow city police anti-extremism staff, so he was in charge of its E Centre and, presumably, would have played some role in such recent decisions as the prosecution of Pussy Riot. Although the E Centers have a pretty bad reputation in general, Moscow’s has seemed especially heavy-handed (Ilya Yashin has called it the “most radical” of all — and not as a compliment), so it is hard to be especially uplifted by this news.

Before then, he was head of Moscow police’s directorate for combating organized crime (UBOP) until that was abolished in line with Medvedev’s decree of September 2008. Previously  to that, he had been head of the economic crime team in Moscow’s central okrug (district) and deputy chief of the 16th Division of the Moscow GUVD’s Directorate for Combating Economic Crime (UBEP)

As another Moscow appointee, Valiulin is presumably if not a protege of new Interior Minister (and former Moscow police chief) Vladimir Kolokoltsev, at least someone with a certain connection to him. This certainly fits a general trend of the rise of ‘Muscovites’ within the MVD. Viktor Golovanov, for example, was Kolokoltsev’s deputy and interim successor at the Moscow GUVD, before becoming head of GUUR, the MVD’s Main Directorate for Criminal Investigations. Likewise, Deputy Interior Minister Arkady Gostev was formerly chief of staff of the Moscow GUVD.

Valiulin also appears to be on the more active, hardline side of the debate as to how to respond. Combine that with his background in economic crime investigations, and it helps explain why individuals like Alexei Navalny and Ksenia Sobchak increasingly seem to be being attacked through their bank accounts and business activities.

Leave a comment
by Mark Galeotti on September 5, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in MVD, Police, Police Reform, Russian Politics, Security

Posted by Mark Galeotti on September 5, 2012

https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2012/09/05/new-head-of-the-mvds-anti-extremism-special-branch-gupe/

Kolokoltsev’s reshuffle of the MVD

New Interior Minister Kolokoltsev is doing what every new incumbent of the office does: reshuffling the upper echelons of the police. After appointing Major General (Police) Anatoly Yakunin as his successor as chief of the Moscow GUVD (police service), and launching a high-profile anti-corruption campaign in the North Caucasus to show he means business, he has turned to the MVD hierarchy. OnJune 16, Putin announced the replacement of four deputy interior ministers, so the new line-up is:

  • Interior Minister: Gen. Vladimir Kolokoltsev
  • First Deputy Interior Minister: Lt. Gen. Alexander Gorovoy
  • Deputy Minister & State Secretary: Igor Zubov [NEW]
  • Deputy Minister: Lt. Gen. Mikhail Vanichkin [NEW]
  • Deputy Minister: State Counselor 2nd class Sergei Gerasimov
  • Deputy Minister: Col. Gen. Viktor Kir’yanov 
  • Deputy Minister: Maj. Gen. Arkady Gostev [NEW]
  • Deputy Minister and Commander, Interior Troops: Army Gen. Nikolai Rogozhkin
  • Deputy Minister and Head of the Investigations Department: Maj. Gen. (Justice) Yuri Alekseev [NEW]

(more…)

1 Comment
by Mark Galeotti on June 16, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Interior Troops (VV), MVD, Police, Police Reform, Russian Politics

Posted by Mark Galeotti on June 16, 2012

https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2012/06/16/kolokoltsevs-reshuffle-of-the-mvd/

Kolokoltsev in his own words, and some cautious optimism on police reform

Kolokoltsev stands for…?

For what does new Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev stand? While we wait to see what he will do in office, here are a few hints from his public statements, which are more encouraging than not:

(more…)

by Mark Galeotti on May 27, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in MVD, Police, Police Reform

Posted by Mark Galeotti on May 27, 2012

https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2012/05/27/kolokoltsev-in-his-own-words-and-some-cautious-optimism-on-police-reform/

Russia’s new Interior Minister: Vladimir Kolokoltsev

RF Interior Minister Lt. Gen. Kolokoltsev

Assessment: Kolokoltsev is a career cop with a reputation for being an effective investigator (of the ‘brute force’ rather than ‘inspired’ variety — by which I mean not a propensity to use violence so much as a dogged use of protocol, time and manpower to work through a problem) and a tough manager. Whether this will convert into real traction on regional police structures and the police force as a whole remains to be seen, but he does seem to have a better reputation amongst the rank and file than Nurgaliev — although this is not exactly the highest bar to vault. He is a savvy bureaucratic operator, but I see no sign that he has bought into the wider reform agenda. I suspect that under him, ‘police reform’ will mean better efficiency and centralization rather than greater transparency and conformity to the laws. But we’ll see — a fuller evaluation will follow in due course.

(more…)

by Mark Galeotti on May 21, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in MVD, Police, Police Reform, Russian Politics

Posted by Mark Galeotti on May 21, 2012

https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2012/05/21/russias-new-interior-minister-vladimir-kolokoltsev/

Before Victory Day comes the war…

RIA Novosti

In due course, I’ll post something that I’ve had the chance to ponder over more, but here are some snap thoughts on today’s bloody brawls in Moscow, as the pre-inauguration ‘March of Millions’ degenerated into violent clashes between police and protesters. This is certainly the most heavy-handed action we’ve seen by the police in Moscow for some time, but likewise has seen the most serious violence by protesters (see this video, for example), with at least 15 OMON riot police already reported wounded, for example, and molotov cocktails being used.

(more…)

by Mark Galeotti on May 6, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Interior Troops (VV), MVD, Police, Russian Politics, Security

Posted by Mark Galeotti on May 6, 2012

https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2012/05/06/before-victory-day-comes-the-war/

Waiting for the Bastrykinshchina?

на русском языке

The “shchina” is one of those splendid and distinctive features of Russian history and language: it literally just turns a name or word into a generic thing, but in effect, it tends to mean the “bad time” associated with someone or something. In the twentieth century, it essentially has connotations of purge and repression: the 1937-8 Yezhovshchina when Yezhov’s NKVD swept through the CPSU, butchering and banishing to the Gulags, the 1946-52 Zhdanovshchina that forced Soviet culture in a Manichean mould; dedovshchina, “grandfatherism,” the seniority-based culture of bullying that still afflicts the armed forces; and so on.

A little tongue-in-cheek, as I certainly don’t anticipate any mass purges or convoys of hapless prisoners heading off for forced labor projects (Skolkolag, anyone?), but I did find myself wondering how long before we start to think of the potential for a bastryshchina?

(more…)

by Mark Galeotti on April 22, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in FSB, MVD, Police, Prosecutor General, Russian Politics, Security, Soviet History, SVR

Posted by Mark Galeotti on April 22, 2012

https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2012/04/22/waiting-for-the-bastryshchina/

« Older Posts
Newer Posts »
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 3,760 other followers

%d bloggers like this: