Russia Facing an Increasingly Serious Shortage of Policemen, Interior Ministry Officials Say

Paul Goble
    Staunton, Nov. 29 – Putin’s Russia may be a police state; but it is now facing what may be for some an unexpected problem: an ever-larger shortage of policemen. Three years ago, it had 90,000 unfilled slots; now, that number has almost doubled to 152,000, nearly one in five of all officers on the force.
    The reasons for this shortfall are not far to seek. Many men who might have become policemen have joined the army and are fighting in Putin’s war in Ukraine; and others are put off by the low pay police in Russia receive and are taking jobs elsewhere in the economy (rosbalt.ru/news/2024-11-29/peterburgu-ne-hvataet-lyudey-v-pogonah-5263030).
    Low pay is a particular source of problems because now “even migrants,” interior ministry officials say, are paid less than the police; and unless the government increases the salaries it pays its police, the regime may have no one to serve as its first line of defense against crime and the threat of mass protests.