All posts in category MVD

The Security Forces, Moscow, March 4

"Russia. Putin. Victory."

The presidential election weekend (and the following Monday, given the decision of activists to gather at Pushkin Square) saw Moscow in the grip of a massive security operation that saw especially the heart of the city swamped with police and security forces of every kind. A reported extra 6,500 personnel were drafted in (although I suspect this is a conservative figure), over and above the extensive array of forces already present in the capital, which I have detailed elsewhere, in my post Moscow’s Praetorians. Being a rather obsessive cop-spotter, I made a point of trying to identify as many of the elements I could see. Obviously there may well have been a number I missed, but the tally I came up with included:

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by Mark Galeotti on March 9, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Interior Troops (VV), MVD, Police, Russian Politics, Security

Posted by Mark Galeotti on March 9, 2012

https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2012/03/09/the-security-forces-moscow-march-4/

The Chechens Under The Bed

As a little light relief from the presidential election and the subsequent punditry, I was contemplating the place of Chechens as a Russian folk devils. For once, this was not so much about terrorists and criminals but the recurring alarum of Chechen police being sent to Moscow for the election.

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by Mark Galeotti on March 5, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in Chechnya, Interior Troops (VV), MVD, North Caucasus, Organized Crime - Transnational, Police, Russian Politics

Posted by Mark Galeotti on March 5, 2012

https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2012/03/05/the-chechens-under-the-bed/

Sukhodolsky’s ouster from the St Petersburg police: Nurgaliev’s revenge, brutal MVD politics and a suggestion of a breakdown in silovik etiquette

The outgoing Mikhail Sukhodolsky

On Friday 10 February, OMON riot police surrounded the St Petersburg police headquarters on Suvorovsky Prospekt and evicted Colonel General (Police) Mikhail Igorevich Sukhodolsky. Earlier that day, President Medvedev had signed a terse order relieving him of his duties as head of the St Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast Main Internal Affairs Directorate (GUVD) on unspecified grounds. Sukhodolsky himself subsequently held a press conference in which he enumerated the successes of his force in the time since he was appointed last year. (Interestingly enough, there’s no mention on the force’s webpage.)

Why has Russia’s second most senior field police commander, a man specially moved into this position in June 2011 from the position of first deputy interior minister, been sacked just eight months later, and so publicly at that?

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by Mark Galeotti on February 13, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in MVD, Police, Police Reform, Russian Politics

Posted by Mark Galeotti on February 13, 2012

https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/sukhodolskys-ouster-from-the-st-petersburg-police-nurgalievs-revenge-brutal-mvd-politics-and-a-suggestion-of-a-breakdown-in-silovik-etiquette/

Tracing the Faultlines within the Russian Security Community

This week I’m speaking on ‘The Security Services and Russia’s Perceptions of Security Challenges and Threats’ at What Future for Russia?, which promises to be a very interesting event put on by NUPI. Apart from castigating myself for the bad planning of agreeing to go to Scandinavia in what seems to be the midst of Fimbulwinter, and flying there via Iceland, at that, this also got me thinking about the very notion of lumping ‘the security services’ together into one camp.

Of course, there are some broad traits which unite them, from a commitment to Russian national security to a common interest in talking up the challenges to it, in order to guarantee continued budgetary priority and political privilege. However, especially now that more and more the prospect of a post-Putin era is being contemplated — not that he’s likely to be going any day now, but people are no longer blithely regarding another twelve years as inevitable — then a variety of internal faultlines become increasingly significant.

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by Mark Galeotti on February 6, 2012  •  Permalink
Posted in FSB, GRU, Intelligence, Military - Russia, MVD, Police, Prosecutor General, Russian Politics, Security, SVR

Posted by Mark Galeotti on February 6, 2012

https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/tracing-the-faultlines-within-the-russian-security-community/

Moscow’s Praetorians: the Kremlin’s security forces

Given the protests in Moscow and the deployment of riot police and security troops, I thought this was a good time to provide a quick update as to the security forces available in the capital, not least as a counter to some of the more fanciful suggestions about the imminent victory of people power. (more…)

by Mark Galeotti on December 6, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in FSB, GRU, Interior Troops (VV), MVD, North Caucasus, Police, Security

Posted by Mark Galeotti on December 6, 2011

https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/moscows-praetorians-the-kremlins-security-forces/

New Badges for the Russian Police

According to the Marker business weekly, the MVD is spending over 20 million rubles ($650,000) on half a million new police arm badges, to be delivered by December 15. Generally, these will be black with a symbol and a colored edging showing the specific service and rank. They look a little tackily plastic, but that may just be the pictures. We’ll see.

These are presumably intended to go with their new(ish) uniforms.

The standard sleeve badge is reproduced here (the glossier new badge is on the right), with the new metal ‘shield’ badge below, but are you a true cop-wonk eager to see the full range of new badges? Then…

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by Mark Galeotti on October 16, 2011  •  Permalink
Posted in MVD, Police

Posted by Mark Galeotti on October 16, 2011

https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2011/10/16/new-badges-for-the-russian-police/

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