Except when Ordered to Do Otherwise, Russia’s Police Seek to Avoid Getting Actively Involved in Society, Titayev Says

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Jan. 31 – Russia is sometimes thought to be a police state, Kirill Titayev says; but in fact, it is so in part. When the powers that be give orders to crack down on this or that group, the police react; but otherwise, they try to feather their nests by improving their statistics and their incomes and avoiding getting actively involved with society.

            The Russian sociologist of law who is currently a visiting scholar at Cornell’s Law School says that the average Russian comes into contact with the police only once every twelve years, that about half of all crimes the police solve are crimes without victims, and that the number of crimes reported to the police is far lower than in other countries.

            Instead of enforcing the law, Titayev says, the police enforce whatever orders they receive from above and in ways that impose the least burden on themselves and allow them to enrich themselves and continue to act as they currently do (reforum.io/blog/2023/01/27/pojmat-signal-zapolnit-bumagi-kak-ustroena-rossijskaya-policziya/).

            He points out that most repressive actions in Russia have been transferred from the police to special forces of various kinds and that the police system in Russia is not well-prepared to engage in mass repressions. It will respond, of course, but only with simulacra of actually doing something and lustrations to try to show those above that it is following orders.

            If this system is to be changed, Titayev says, then the police will have to be fundamentally restructured. Just engaging in lustration when the police violate norms won’t be enough because the police which have continued to act as they did earlier will only continue to do so in the future.