Yesterday’s terrible terrorist attack at Domodedovo has had a variety of outcomes. Some heart-warming, not least the outpouring of official and public sympathy, from governments to the individual Muscovites who drove passengers to and from the airport to save them from opportunistic fares that some taxi drivers were demanding in the aftermath. Others knee-jerk, such as the new security measures which will ensure that for the immediate future Moscow’s airports will become bottlenecked nightmares, probably with no increase in security. And others predictable but no less depressing, such as the blame game between various security agencies.
All posts in category MVD
The Domodedovo blame game
Posted by Mark Galeotti on January 25, 2011
https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2011/01/25/the-domodedovo-blame-game/
Bad news: official Russian crime data are under-reports; good news: Russian academics are digging out the real data
There is a long and inglorious tradition of under-reported crime rates in Russia. In part, this sometimes reflects the state’s unwillingness to admit the scale of the problem; in part, the police themselves choosing to ignore crimes or report them as being less serious than they really are; and in part, ‘latent crime’ resulting from public unwillingness to turn to the authorities, whether out of mistrust or simply because they don’t think there is any point. Together, these can lead to all kinds of anomalies in the apparent crime rate.
Posted by Mark Galeotti on January 17, 2011
https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2011/01/17/bad-news-official-russian-crime-data-are-under-reports-good-news-russian-academics-are-digging-out-the-real-data/
Wikileaks (3): Moscow – Luzhkov and the ‘other’ mafia
From the New York Times comes a wikileaked cable on since-deposed Moscow Mayor Luzhkov and his alleged (OK, rather credibly alleged) corruption and criminal connections:
Posted by Mark Galeotti on December 3, 2010
https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2010/12/03/wikileaks-3-moscow-luzhkov-and-the-other-mafia/
The Investigations Committee – not so much Russia’s FBI, more a Kremlin watchdog
On 23 September, President Medvedev announced that the existing Investigations Committee of the Prosecutor-General’s Office (SKP), responsible for all preliminary criminal investigations, would become a standalone body reporting directly to him, simply known as the Investigations Committee (SK: Sledstvenny komitet). Four days later, he submitted a new draft federal law On the Investigations Committee of the Russian Federation to the State Duma.
Posted by Mark Galeotti on October 5, 2010
https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2010/10/05/the-investigations-committee-not-so-much-russias-fbi-more-a-kremlin-watchdog/
What’s in a name: Russian militia to be called police again
The draft of the new Law ‘On the Police’ has been released for public comment, and bears some more detailed consideration, to follow. [Edit: though do take a look at this excellent and detailed study in A Good Treaty.] In the mean time, though, one element which Dmitry Medvedev has proposed is that the militsiya regain their old, pre-revolutionary name, the politsiya, police. On the one hand, this might sound a little like rechristening the Titanic in the hope that this will make it float again, but it is in fact not quite as tokenistic a move as it may at first glance appear.
Posted by Mark Galeotti on August 9, 2010
https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2010/08/09/whats-in-a-name-russian-militia-to-be-called-police-again/
Mixed messages from Moscow’s 2009 crime figures
Moscow police chief Major General Vladimir Kolokoltsev managed a populist one-two punch on 20 January. While congratulating himself on a decline in overall crime rates in the city in a press conference, he also got to single out the city’s migrant population as especially criminal. Yet the hidden subtext is also the continuing problem with police corruption and criminality.
Posted by Mark Galeotti on January 21, 2010
https://inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com/2010/01/21/mixed-messages-from-moscow%e2%80%99s-2009-crime-figures/
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