- By Olesya Gerasimenko
- BBC Russian
54 minutes ago
In the early hours of January 14, 2020, blood-curdling screams could be heard in an apartment block in the Krasnodar region of southern Russia.
Shocked and frightened, a local resident called police and reported what appeared to be an attack on a woman.
The screaming continued, accompanied by loud bangs and cries for help. Six more emergency calls were made, but still no police arrived.
The neighbors, now fearing the worst, decided to take matters into their own hands and broke into the apartment by breaking down the door.
The screaming had stopped. The woman was dead.
The police do not answer calls
Vera Pekhteleva was stabbed multiple times, beaten and strangled with an iron cord by her ex-boyfriend. The attack lasted three and a half hours.
Image source, family handout
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Vera Pekhteleva was tortured before being murdered by her ex-boyfriend – and the police didn’t show up
At that time, police said there were no officers or patrol cars in the area that would have been responsible for the operation. But five officers were later found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 18 months in prison and two years probation.
The court said the sentences, seen by many as lenient, were appropriate because the officer shortage was a problem for “the entire force.”
According to the Russian Interior Ministry, Russia has one of the largest police forces in the world, employing over 900,000 officers to serve a population of 146 million people. There are almost 630 civil servants per 100,000 residents – more than twice as many as in the USA or the UK.
But in August, Interior Ministry chief Vladimir Kolokoltsev declared a “critical” shortage of police officers in the country, which could impact crime rates.
How can this be the case given the sheer number of officers?
Poor wages, stress and corruption
Part of the reason for this is Russia’s extensive geographical location and lack of back-office support staff. But the recent problems come as a result of a massive decline in the police force – and many of those leaving the country are experienced officers.
Many former Russian police officers have told the BBC that they are leaving the force for less stressful and better paid jobs.
“They didn’t adjust the salary at all,” said a former officer from Rostov, southwest Russia. “After inflation and the new prices, it’s not enough.” He quit to become a taxi driver.
His friend, who was also a police officer, is now a courier.
Both earn twice as much as they would as police officers.
“I achieved the rank of major (the equivalent of a sergeant in the UK). But still a person working in a supermarket earns more than me – hardly dangerous work. Only an idiot would go to the police now,” the former Rostov official said.
The BBC has discovered that overstretched police forces are now refusing to open cases, even after a statement has been made.
“Everyone has 10 days to check the statements, whether there are five or 50, so obviously the quality of the work is deteriorating,” argues a detective from Russia’s Siberian region.
“If there is a series of about ten things that you need to do – call neighbors, interview witnesses, visit the crime scene – then you do just one or two and write down that it was ‘not possible.'” Complete the others .
“Then they refuse to press charges – so there will be no investigation,” he says.
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Many former Russian police officers told the BBC that they would quit for less stressful and better paid jobs
As the number of civil servants decreases, the pressure on the remaining civil servants increases.
Former officials told the BBC that this led to corruption.
“Officers extort confessions from people, increase arrest rates, we see that all the time,” said a police major from the Russian city of Tomsk.
“It’s only going to get worse. There will be tampering with evidence and targeted strikes, there will simply be no time to properly investigate anything.”
“You have a lead and need to follow it up? It’s much easier to drag the first suspect back to the station and beat him up so he takes the blame.”
Some officers are jailed for their actions, further weakening the police force.
This happened to Sergei, a former police officer who served six years in prison for beating a drug dealer. Sergei says he felt pressure to arrest the dealer and only hit him when he was about to eat his drugs to conceal the evidence.
He also tells the BBC that police resources were so stretched that he had to pay for essentials for the job himself. “I used my own car, I bought my own paper, my own cartridges and my own printer; my own computer, my desk, my chair, my gas… I laid my own floor tiles.” [in the office]fixed everything.”
A former officer from central Russia says that vacancies have been unfilled for a long time. “There has been a shortage for ages. I started in 2015 and in the last eight years only two people have joined our team while 15 have left.”
And according to multiple BBC sources, including two sergeants and a major, the Interior Ministry conducted a purge of officials linked to opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who has been held in a remote penal colony since 2021.
In this purge, long-time, experienced officers were fired. A source said Moscow’s Federal Security Service had compiled a list of Navalny supporters based on a hacked database of email addresses.
The effects of the war in Ukraine
The number of police officers in Russia was declining before the start of the war in Ukraine.
The war initially convinced some officers to stay in the force. Russian police officers are exempt from military conscription, so some officers who were on the verge of resigning when Russia invaded Ukraine told us they kept their jobs to avoid fighting.
“You either stayed put or you left and got drafted,” explains a Moscow official. “I know that there were managers who made a list of everyone who had threatened to resign and passed it directly to the authority [army] Recruiter. Everyone was pretty scared.”
But as the war rages on, the number of police officers is dwindling. The force cannot fill existing gaps – let alone recruit the 40,000 additional personnel that the Interior Ministry says are needed in Donetsk and Luhansk, the areas of Ukraine that Russia partially occupies.
Putin claimed victory after holding so-called referendums in Russian-controlled regions of Ukraine in September 2022. But the polls were denounced as a fraud by the Ukrainian government and its allies.
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Russian police officers are not allowed to have an opinion about the war
Russia predicts it will need an additional 42,000 officers by 2026 as it occupies more territory.
It is simply not allowed for police officers on duty to have an opinion on the war. You can’t even call it a war.
“Officials have to keep their mouths shut,” says an investigator. “We cannot have a personal opinion on the ‘special military operation’ – otherwise we will be fired.”
The BBC was also told that civil servants were burnt out due to the extra paperwork caused by the war.
Interior Ministry officials from the three Russian cities of Tomsk, Yekaterinburg and Yaroslavl claim they now spend most of their time investigating and revising “endless accusations against people who discredit the army.”
“People are always looking for an excuse to denounce someone,” says a former major from Tomsk.
“There is no one around… Everyone went to check on a grandma who saw a curtain that looked like the Ukrainian flag.
“I see where we’re going,” he says. “There is already a focus on crimes against the state. More cases will fall into this category in the future,” he predicts.
“As far as real issues that affect regular people? Kidnapping, robbery, rape, murder… there will be no time for investigation.”