MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian police officer who decried corruption among colleagues in his video blog has been fired and threatened with a lawsuit, Interior Ministry officials said Monday.
The allegations laid out on the Internet by Alexey Dymovsky, who served in the Black Sea port of Novorossiisk, have attracted attention amid persistent public concern about police corruption and abuses.
In a video he addressed to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Dymovsky said he was promoted for promising to frame an innocent person — a promise he said he never fulfilled. He claimed that his superiors have routinely ordered officers to fabricate criminal cases against innocent people to cover up the police’s inability to track down real criminals.
"I am addressing you with a request — let’s have an independent investigation across Russia," Dymovsky said in the video. "And I will reveal everything about the copper’s life in Russia to you — as it is, with all the corruption, ignorance, boorishness and recklessness."
Dymovsky has been dismissed for misconduct and slandering his colleagues, Interior Ministry spokesman Oleg Yelnikov said. The federal Investigative Committee said Dymovsky could face slander charges over his remarks, which have attracted some 700, 000 viewers on YouTube since the video’s release Thursday.
Dymovsky said he was forced to work overtime "30 days out of 31" and has divorced twice because his wives could not cope with his unpredictable schedule and pay of the equivalent of less than $500 a month. He said his bosses would force officers to work long hours and on weekends for failing to solve enough crimes.
Human rights groups say that Russian police routinely use trumped-up charges, abuse, blackmail and torture. Critics accuse the Interior Ministry of creating a system under which financial rewards and promotions for police are often based on crime-fighting results that can be easily faked and manipulated.
In addition to corruption and rights abuses, Russians are concerned about instances of deadly police misconduct. In April, a Moscow police precinct chief killed three people and wounded seven others in a shooting spree in a supermarket and on the street outside, according to authorities.
