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Yessentuki | March 24, 2004
Speech by President Vladimir Putin at a meeting concerning the situation and measures taken for ensuring law and order, public security, and also concerning the war on crime and opposing terrorism and extremism

President Vladimir Putin:

Good Day, dear colleagues,

Today we will analyse the work of Internal Ministry bodies in key areas of their activity. I was not at the last board meeting, but I agreed with Minister Rashid Nurgaliev, who was the acting minister at that time, that we would hold a nationwide meeting which I would take part in.

Today we will discuss key areas of Internal Ministry activity, which as I have said several times before should be directed to protecting the rights and safety of citizens, and protecting them from infringement of their lawful interests, their property, and their lives.

I will begin with the situation in the Southern Federal District, above all in the North Caucasus. It is no coincidence that we are meeting in the south of Russia to discuss the tasks which the Internal Ministry faces. Here, along with common tendencies that are characteristic for the entire country, there are also specific features. And these specific features directly affect the situation in Russia as a whole, and the country itself.

It is clear that in the 1990s, in a situation of unstable economic conditions and weakening of the state in the North Caucasus, a criminal environment was formed.

It is important to remember that the growth of crime was helped a great deal by wide-scale unemployment, poverty, socio-economic instability and uncontrolled migration. I just talked about this with Alexander Chernogorov and Vladimir Yakovlev. This is undoubtedly a breeding ground for crime and the necessary conditions for its existence. At the same time, we need to understand that the criminal threat and instability of social order are a serious hindrance for the normal development of the North Caucasus, the district and the country as a whole. This was already been discussed a great deal, and the leaders of the southern regions of Russia constantly point this out.

People do not feel that their lives, their safety or their property are reliably protected by the state. And without this it is impossible to attract investment, to organize normal, effective economic life. It is impossible to develop the economy, to solve social tasks, or to make use of the rich natural potential of the area. As an end result, ordinary citizens suffer.

So I consider the main task is for Internal Ministry bodies to effectively assist the general recovery of the situation in the region. We are simply obliged to protect the economy from criminal pressure and bureaucratic rackets, and to help the establishment and development of small and middle business.

Finally, we need to bring the migration processes here within civilized limits. This is a very important and painful topic. Furthermore, we need to root out attempts to cause interethnic conflicts. We need to put an end to the slave trade and weapons markets. I would ask to give particular attention to neutralizing crimes against individuals, above all in such serious crimes as murder, robbery, kidnapping and terrorism.

Recently, thanks to the law-enforcement bodies and special services, many organizers and perpetrators of terrorist acts have been discovered. Even more terrorist acts have been prevented. Employees of the law-enforcement sphere, of law-enforcement bodies, work selflessly, protecting people at the expense of their health or sometimes even their lives. The state mechanism for fighting the most serious and socially dangerous acts, while it is not without flaws and not always effective, has nevertheless started working properly.

However, it must not be forgotten that even isolated cases of terror represent a threat to public safety and people’s lives. The fact that they take place is a clear sign of errors in work. New methods of fighting terrorism need to be found, and the effectiveness of operational and investigative actions need to be increased. This result can also be attained by strengthening interdepartmental cooperation of all law-enforcement bodies, including the according structures of CIS countries. I would particularly like to emphasise the role of the Internal Ministry in establishing peaceful life in the Chechen Republic. The most important tasks today are supporting law and order, in reliable protection from criminal groups, which quite often continue to combine with the remains of bandit formations.

This work is primarily the responsibility of national and local bodies of law and order, and they now have the necessary resources, both of personnel and equipment. However, federal bodies and district personnel must provide them with the maximum assistance. This is a nationwide matter, and here the efforts of all power bodies, all Internal Ministry structures, must be concentrated.

The leaders of all seven federal Internal Ministry departments are present here today. I will not dwell on the nature of the general criminal situation in the country. I will note the most important aspects.

Firstly, it has not yet been possible to curb the growth of crime. And the percentage of crimes against individuals is high, including serious, heinous and particularly heinous crimes.

Secondly, despite the number of successful actions directed to fighting violations in the economic sphere, criminal and corrupt pressure on the economy is not weakening. This is primarily felt in small and middle business. I want to make it clear that with the transfer of the functions for fighting tax crimes to the Internal Ministry, your resources for detecting and preventing these crimes have increased significantly. At the same time, the police should not be dragged into corporate conflicts and disputes among economic subjects. This interference demoralizes personnel, and reduces the effectiveness of the department’s work.

Thirdly, there are still many questions about the quality and reliability of department statistics. Not only latent, but also obvious crime still remains outside the scope of registration. Old methods are still used, such as avoiding opening criminal cases, and direct falsification of statistical reports. The number of unsolved crimes remains high, including heinous crimes. At the same time, breaking the principle of the inevitability of punishment helps crime and has a negatively effect on public morale. You know this full well; it is a common and long-standing problem.

Fourthly, the quality of operative and investigative work still needs to be seriously increased. People must learn to work properly with new procedural norms. Clearly, these new requirements should be expected from professional training of personnel.

Last of all, there is another important aspect. The growth of crimes committed by teenagers and children needs to be noted. This is a very difficult topic, quite frankly, one that is unpleasant for everyone. And this growth has been registered in all federal districts. The number of homeless, neglected children is shamefully large for Russia. You must change this situation, in cooperation with social ministries and regional bodies of power. We have talked about this many times, but neither the prevention of youth crime or fighting it has fundamentally changed.

In conclusion, I would like to say a few more words about administrational reform. Of course, this should also concern internal affairs bodies. Together with the Prime Minister and the Presidential Administration, the Ministry should think about how to remove any parallelism in their work. There should not be any parallel work at all. Material and financial resources need to be concentrated in the main areas, and this should be done effectively. I do not want to make any decisions ahead of time, or predict what these decisions will be. They will not be and should not be decisions that violate the normal functioning of departments.

The Internal Ministry is one of the key ministries. There should not be any drastic changes here, but you should think for yourselves and make suggestions on how to improve your work.

I very much hope that the re-appointed minister Rashid Nurgaliev, who is experienced and knows a great deal about operative work, will do everything he can to ensure that the Ministry leadership is on top of the tasks that stand before you, and which are put before you by the country – I don’t want to say by the President, or the Government, but rather by the country, by the citizens of Russia.

The issue of security is one of the key issues in our country today. A great deal in our country will depend on how you work: in both the economic sphere and in the sphere of social development, because without solving issues of security, many other issues will either be impossible to solve, or they will be solved ineffectively and not within the framework of the tasks which currently lie before the Russian Federation. A great deal depends on you, on your effective work. I ask you to make suggestions which would without any doubt improve your operative, preventive and investigative work, so that the Internal Ministry is on the level of the tasks, on the level of society’s expectations which currently exist. The Internal Ministry possesses the personnel and necessary resources for solving these tasks.

They simply need to be made use of properly.

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