Distrust of Police in Moscow

Recently, the police in Russia have been under intense scrutiny. President Dmitri A. Medvedev has been dealing with what Muscovites are calling “The Human Shield Scandal.” The scandal started when Stanislav Sutyagin was driving with a friend on Moscow’s busy ring highway last week when the traffic police stopped him and several other drivers and ordered them to block the road with their cars. A short time later, another car speeding along the highway plowed into them. It was a not very calculated move by the police to slow a dangerous criminal. The criminal eventually got away. But Sutyagin made a video of the ordeal and him pleading with the police to not put him and his friend in danger.

The episode highlights the recent distrust of Russian police, it seems that the only way to get justice is to make an Internet video or appeal directly to the Kremlin. Russians report daily harassment by police, including unnecessary document checks, solicitation of bribes and unchecked wielding of power. The “Human Shield” case has been getting nation-wide coverage, even on State-controlled television. “What if the car hit us differently and my friend and I died?” Mr. Sutyagin said. “Do our lives mean nothing to the Russian government?”

Medvedev has been forced to handle a few similar scandals dealing with police criminality or, as in the case of Sutyagin, incompetence.