Is Police Reform Taking Place in Russia?

A View from the Regions

Author(s): Sergei Poduzov
Editor(s): Stephen Aris, Matthias Neumann, Robert Orttung, Jeronim Perovic, Heiko Pleines, Hans-Henning Schröder
Series: Russian Analytical Digest (RAD)
Issue: 84
Pages: 7-9
Publisher(s): Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich; Research Centre for East European Studies, University of Bremen; Institute of History, University of Basel
Publication Year: 2010

At the end of 2009, President Dmitry Medvedev initiated a process of police reform in Russia. His concept largely calls on the police to design and implement the reform themselves. At the federal level, however, the authorities do not have a clear conception of what the police force should look like once the reform is complete. At the regional level, the police have refused to engage in a discussion with citizen groups on how to proceed. Changes in Russian law now make it harder for rank-and-file police officers to criticize their superiors. Police reform can only take place if the president displays political will at the top and civil society exerts pressure from below.

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