Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation Rashid Nurgaliyev

During the times of economic disasters, criminal activity becomes more noticeable. One only needs to remember the soaring crime rates in the U.S. during the Great Depression or the Russian criminal revolution of the 1990s. The situation today is no less troubling with the rise of murders, robberies, fraud, and street crime in Russia. How serious is the new criminal threat, and are the law enforcement officials ready to counter it? Minister of Internal Affairs of Russia Rashid Nurgaliyev shares his thoughts on these issues.

– Minister Nurgaliyev, the world entered this year with an expectation of significant economic problems. It is evident that the worsening of economic conditions will lead to higher crime rates. Is the Ministry of Internal Affairs ready to respond?

– We are ready. It is significant for us to be able to show others that we do have a clear analysis of the situation and that our law-enforcement system is fully prepared to fight crime. The figures and the facts speak for themselves. The Ministry of Internal Affairs is effective at countering criminal activity and quickly adapts to new challenges. The new direction we have set for ourselves – expressed in a three-word motto “Law, people, technology” – justifies itself fully. During all this time we have been actively engaged in preventative measures to stop violations. We perfected the methods of our work and can now make assurances that the proliferation of crime will not happen. We have found support from the government of Russia with regards to our efforts at modernizing the equipment of the Russian police. In 2005, the share of our budget devoted to the acquisition of new equipment and weapons was only 7 percent. In 2008, more than a third of the budget was used for those purposes. The crisis will not stop the technological modernization of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The implementation of the Unified Informational Telecommunication System has granted our officers instant access to federal and regional databases. Over 688 thousand criminal cases were solved in 2008. We also have now a more qualified workforce with greater professional and technological training. The fight against crime today is based on technological superiority. Our mobility, responsiveness, and the level of technological preparation have never been the same. We have created regional situation centers that monitor and analyze the criminal situation in each part of the country. This helps us measure our own pulse. It is important for me that the citizens know this.

– Still, you surely would agree that the situation is alarming: there are murders taking place in the Caucuses, the killings of mayors, prosecutors, attorneys and journalists in the middle of Moscow… Are the fears that Russia may be thrown back into the turbulent era of the 1990s justified?

– There will not be a new criminal revolution. Modern Russia has a completely different socio-political environment, and a different kind of societal and legal awareness. The general trend is that crime rates are going down. Compared to 2007, murders went down 9.8 percent; crimes involving intentional infliction of physical injuries have decreased by 4 percent; rapes decreased by 11.8 percent; thefts by 19.7 percent; and robberies by 22 percent. Thefts from houses went down by 18 percent, and crimes involving fraudulent activities decreased by 10.4 percent. Violent crimes have gone down by 11.4 percent. On the whole, it is safe to say that the times of criminal wars have passed.

At the same time, the murders of journalists and attorneys have always attracted a great deal of public attention. The criticism is always directed at us as the law-enforcement agency. I am nevertheless sure that these crimes will be solved, just as we solved the murders of the prosecutor of Saratov region and Chanel 1 reporter Ilya Shurpaev.

– What about the personages of the 1990s crime proliferation? It is just about time for a whole generation of criminals to be released from prisons. These people have gotten 10– and 15-year sentences, and now their terms are about to finish…

– The solution of this issue is hampered by the absence of an adequate legal framework. In particular, I am talking about the lack of federal legislation to deal with employment quotas. There is no system on the federal level that would give incentives to employers for hiring people with prior convictions. Last year, only one in four people on probation could get employment. Only one in five people released from correctional institutions could find work.

There are positive examples of how regional governments fill the gaps in federal legislation. In the republics of Dagestan, Hakasiya, in the Hantu-Mansiysk autonomous district, as well in Leningrad, Nizhegorodsk, and Chelyabinsk regions there are special hostels and shelters for temporary residence that are available to people returning from correctional facilities. As a result, the number of crimes committed by ex-convicts is substantially down.

– What crimes will tend to be more widespread during the times of economic instability?

– The so-called offenses of general criminality, which include street crime, usually go up. To counter these crimes, we have implemented a preventative system with the use of modern technologies. More than 73 thousand cameras are watching the streets of our cities. We have more than 12 thousand emergency contact posts on the streets that provide instant communication with law-enforcement personnel. The Safe City program that is in effect in 53 regions of Russia allowed us to solve 11.1 thousand crimes last year and to indentify 125 thousand administrative violations.

– Street crime is very often drug-related. The drug mafia is constantly enlarging its distribution network and its membership base. What has been the Ministry’s experience of fighting drug trafficking in Russia in the recent years?

– Up to 90 percent of all violations of general criminality are tied to drugs in one way or another. Last year, the employees of the police solved 136.6 thousand of these crimes. Their number went up 5.6 percent. There are close to 900 organized criminal groups operating in Russia, some of which have international connections. The total number of people involved in these criminal societies is near 5 000.

Together with our colleagues from law-enforcement agencies in other countries we have targeted most of our efforts at closing the channels for illegal importation of drugs from abroad. We have discovered more than 560 incidents of drug trafficking across the border and seized 12.1 tons of contraband.

– Are economic crimes expected to come to the forefront as well?

– This would happen because the money that has been unlawfully-acquired would need to be laundered somehow. By investing in a legal sector of the economy, criminals infiltrate the most lucrative fields of commercial activity: the fuel and energy sector, the lumber business, metallurgy, as well as car manufacturing.

In 2008, we solved 448.8 thousand cases of these crimes. 40 percent of them had especially aggravated circumstances. A major part of our efforts is directed at stopping unlawful company takeovers and fraudulent bankruptcies. Last year, 89 commercial entities were taken back from the hands of organized criminal groups. The total economic harm from the activities of these criminals was RUR 142.5 billion.

– How would it be possible to take out the foundation from under organized crime networks? How can their financial backing be restrained?

– It is essential to create conditions for undermining all activities that are conducted in the shadows of our economy. This is a complex task. Working in the field by itself is not enough. There must also be legislative measures adopted. An adequate system for punishing offenders should provide for requiring the criminals to compensate for the harm they caused. We need to make crime economically unprofitable. The way to do it is to impose economic liability on the offenders who have done damage to the state and society. What I am talking about here is that there needs to be a system of stiff fines and sanctions not only for damages, but also for lost opportunities that are engendered as a consequence of criminal activity.  

– How can one make economically unprofitable the use of slave labor by migrant workers at construction sites in Moscow? They have now all lost work and, as some say, are poised to join the army of offenders marching the streets of the Russian capital…

– These worries are real. In spite of the sharp decrease in the number of available employment opportunities, the number of migrants does not go down. The Ministry constantly updates its central database that keeps track of foreign citizens and people without citizenship. The database now has 80 million entries of personal data. In 2008, 9.2 million foreign citizens have been registered by the immigration service, a number that is 16.7 percent higher than the figure for 2007. It is true that illegal immigrants are the first to lose their jobs. As statistics show, however, less than half of them return home. Of those that do, the majority do so with funds from the state budget. Our main task is to find employers hiring illegal workers and make them finance the deportation of those people.

It is important to solve such fundamental questions as the geographic distribution of migrant workers, as well as employment quotas. Employers should hire workers on the basis of their professional training. The physical health of immigrant workers also needs to be attended to.

Still, the number one goal is to have employment available for our own citizens. At the same time, we cannot allow for immigrants to become completely disenfranchised second-class people. We need to change the people’s attitudes and debunk the myth that every immigrant is a criminal. Such beliefs lead to extremism.

– Are economic troubles connected to the rise of extremist activities?

– They are directly related. The country is witnessing the rise of crimes related to extremist activities. The membership base of fundamentalist groups – nationalistic organizations and other fanatical groups – has swelled. Their ranks now number over 200 thousand people. More than 10 thousand people have been registered as offenders that committed crimes related to extremist activities. The threat emanating from extremism is great. There are more than 80 international extremist organization that advance the cause of radical Islam in Russia. Organized crime groups intentionally inject the element of ethnic hatred into otherwise ordinary crimes. We remember the confrontations in Kondopoga, Salsk, Benev, Khanty-Mansiysk, and other cities. Countering extremism is also one of the priorities for the Ministry of Internal Affairs. We set up a special Department for Countering Extremism to handle the problem.

– Russia’s opposition forces have already accused the Ministry that this new department will be charged with suppressing political resistance…

– This is not true. The Ministry has already demonstrated its openness towards the Russian society. Our main task is to guard the rights and safety of our citizens. There is a Public Council that we set up. We actively work with the advocates of civil rights and other non-profit and faith-based organizations.

The Department for Countering Extremism is in charge solely of conducting work in the field with the assistance of special agents. The Department monitors and tries to prevent crimes perpetrated by members of extremist groups.

– President of Russia Dmitriy Medvedev has made the fight against corruption a chief priority. What have been the results of this initiative?

– The task set out by the President is a key direction for the Ministry’s long-term work. During the past year, our law-enforcement departments have identified 40.5 thousand instances of corruption. A third of the cases involved bribes. 9.8 thousand cases have already been sent to courts. More than 6 thousand people have been convicted. These numbers do not reflect the real size of corruption in Russia. Corruption is a latent crime. Citizens rarely report that they have given a bribe to someone.

In order to improve the situation, we need to concentrate our attention on the causes that give rise to corruption. We need to implement prophylactic measures aimed at preventing unlawful activities by state officials. We need to formulate anti-corruption standards. We need to create in our society an atmosphere of intolerance towards corruption in all of its forms.

– The Ministry of Internal Affairs is currently forming a database of persons who have been barred from holding a public office or a occupying a leading position in an enterprise by court sentence. How many people are on the list?

– Since April of 2008, we have been forming such a database in compliance with the directive from the President. The list contains information of former members of government and entrepreneurs who cannot hold decision-making positions. The list has more than 5 thousand names now – all people have been convicted of corruption-related crimes.

– The most significant causes generating corruption are the low salaries, the degeneration of the standards of living, as well as the worsening social conditions. These all can come as a result of the financial crisis. Will the crisis affect the wages of Ministry personnel? Is the Ministry planning to cut its workforce? Can one find employment with the Ministry today?

– The Ministry of Internal Affairs is always ready to take worthy individuals. There will not be any employment cuts. We will not allow the social conditions of our employees to worsen. On the contrary, during the economic crisis, issues pertaining to the social well-being of our personnel have become even more important than they were before. In 2009, the wages of our staff and officers will be indexed. We also have a new system of bonuses that went into effect this year. We will do everything so that our personnel can serve the motherland with dignity.