Russian Interior Ministry vows crackdown on police corruption
MOSCOW. Oct 11 (Interfax) - Russia's Interior Ministry has approved a draft road map for further reforms to the police system, which would include strong measures against corruption.
"The further reform [of the system] implies stronger measures against corruption in the internal affairs services, both at the 'trivial' level (extortions [by traffic police] on the roads, bribes for the issue of a license etc.) and at 'systemic' level (liaison with organized crime, corrupt collusions with figures in other state services or commercial structures)," the draft, a copy of which was obtained by Interfax, reads in part.
The draft was approved at a meeting of the Interior Ministry's police reform working group on Thursday. Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev chaired the meeting.
Raising the professional standards of police and a crackdown on corruption within the system are the priority tasks set out in the draft.
As regards "systemic" corruption, this "form of corruption needs extremely active measures to seek out traitors through joint investigative activities with the Federal Security Service," the draft says.
Special attention would be paid to situations where police officers' "large expenditures are much higher that their official incomes," it says.
It also says police would closely collaborate with the Federal Financial Monitoring Service (Rosfinmonitoring), an anti-money laundering agency, in trying to find out the origins of the foreign properties and financial assets of officers who had aroused suspicion on the part of the police system's internal security service.
