There’s not much free press in Russia. The English language service, Russia Today, is broadcast in Europe and America, and serves as a mouth piece of the Kremlin. It has a hired commentator who must be embarrassed by his own anti-Western rhetoric.
All the Russian Television stations are under the tight grip of the Presidential Press Service of Russian leader, Dmitri Medvedev, and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.
So it’s not insignificant that there is a wave of Russian police taking to the Web to speak out. Recently, Russia has seen a string of officers appearing on the internet — claiming they’ve seen the dirt on the inside of the police force. According to them, it’s about as filthy as it gets.
One was a police Major who appealed directly to Putin to clean up the police, admitting he got his rank by promising to convict an innocent person.
Another policeman came clean about wrongfully convicting people on arson charges.
The police say they take bribes on the street because their commanders demand a percentage and if their not collecting rubles curbside — for things like minor traffic infractions — they will be fired. I have been stopped in Moscow, and it’s routine for police to ask for cash.
Pavel Felgenhaur, a long time security affairs reporter, tells me the corruption is complete, from top to bottom. All police are involved or turn a blind eye to it, Felgenhaur said. It’s how they supplement their meager incomes.
The police confessions which are all over Youtube have received a remarkable number of hits from Russians who, according to recent polls, have little or no faith in their police and justice system. A recent poll indicates more than two-thirds of Russians don’t trust their police. When we talk to people here about corruption everyone has a story to tell about how they were shaken down by some traffic cop — or worse.
People hesitate to call the police even for crimes because they fear they will be victimized a second time, by the people who were hired to uphold the law.
So when Medvedev announced sweeping changes to the Interior Ministry this past week including firing top Generals and Deputy Ministers, why didn’t anyone here take him seriously?
The head of the Moscow Police Union in Moscow says Medvedev would have to fire all the police and start over to clean up the force.
What this is really about says the Union, is the Kremlin’s fear of growing civil unrest over the economy and limited political freedoms. The real changes Medvedev has in mind are not getting rid of the bad cops, says the Union. He will soon pass laws to ensure that police who speak out or refuse orders will get an automatic ticket to jail. So it will become even more difficult to uncover the dirt.
So why did the Kremlin bother? The new laws will allow them to better control protests, and jail political opposition.
As Felgenhaur notes, the entire system, including the Kremlin, is corrupt. So no one will feel disappointed that the corruption ‘clean up effort’ that fails on take off.
But those angry and frustrated cops on the internet did get the word out, and that may have long term consequences for the thirst for real reform in Russia by people here who are increasingly unwilling to accept the dirty status quo.