Russia police officer breaks ranks on corruption

Alexei Dymovsky accused his superiors of treating officers "like cattle" and preordaining the results of investigations.

Russia's interior minister ordered an report to be drawn up for Prime Minister Vladimir Putin Sunday after a senior provincial police officer posted a video alleging chronic corruption in his force.

In a highly unusual move for a member of the security forces, Alexei Dymovsky accused his superiors in the southern Russian city of Novorossiisk of treating officers "like cattle" and preordaining the results of investigations.

Alexei Dymovsky has said what almost all employees of the police force in Russia think, the same thing is happening in Moscow.

Mikhail Pashkin

"I am tired of being made to uncover crimes that do not exist. I am tired of being told that these are the people who we need go to jail," Dymovsky said in an Internet video which has been reported throughout the Russian media.

Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev has ordered an investigation and a commission of inquiry will start its work in Novorossiisk on Monday, Russian police spokesman Valery Gribakin told the RIA Novosti news agency.

"A report will be drawn up which Nurgaliyev will present to President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin," he added.

Dressed in his police uniform, Dymovsky also asked powerful prime minister Putin in the video for a "face-to-face" meeting to discuss the problems in the police force.

"Vladimir Vladimirovich, you talk about reducing corruption and that corruption should not simply be a crime but also improper. But this is not the case," said Dymovsky.

He also issued a litany of complaints about the conditions of work, asking how it was possible to perform such a job with a pay of just 14,000 rubles (500 US dollars) each month.

I am tired of being made to uncover crimes that do not exist. I am tired of being told that these are the people who we need go to jail.

Alexei Dymovsky

The authorities have admitted that corruption is a problem in the police force. Moscow's police remain in shock after a police major this year opened fire on customers and staff in a supermarket, killing two.

"Alexei Dymovsky has said what almost all employees of the police force in Russia think," the head of the Russian police officers union, Mikhail Pashkin, told the Moscow Echo radio. "The same thing is happening in Moscow."

But the Novorossiisk police force, in an open letter to the city, said that they were "insulted to the depths of the soul" by Dymovsky's comments, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.

The head of the Novorossiisk force, Vladimir Grebenyuk, told Moscow Echo "that there cannot be confirmation of a single fact that he gives".

Major Dymovsky, 32, is senior investigator with the Novorossiisk police in the department of drug-trafficking crimes. According to Russian media, he had been on sick leave for the last months with an arm injury.