Kudrin’s proposals to reform law enforcement structures to meet serious resistance – political expert

MOSCOW. Nov 11 (Interfax) – The concept to reform the law enforcement authorities drafted with the participation of the Committee of Civil Initiatives, headed by former Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, is interesting but will meet serious resistance, the Center for Political Technologies First Vice President Alexei Makarkin said.

“I think that the concept itself is quite adequate. I suppose that if it is implemented, the work efficiency of the law enforcement authorities would be increased. But this idea will meet very serious resistance because the authors of the idea virtually propose merging a number of federal structures. And this, in its turn, affects very serious administrative interests,” Makarkin told Interfax on Monday.

“If all powers are concentrated at the federal level, then they are not interested there to give them. Besides, it is possible to list many reasons in favor of such state in order to give grounds for the refusal of such reforms,” Makarkin said.

It has been reported that the Committee of Civil Initiatives jointly with the Institute for Law Enforcement Administration had drafted the concept to reform the law enforcement authorities, proposing to abolish the Investigative Committee, the Federal Drug Control Service and the Interior Ministry and to establish three-level police on their basis.

It has been suggested in particular to divide police on municipal, regional and federal and to establish federal service to investigate crimes committed by officials and criminal statistics agency.

“The part of functions existing at the all-Russian level should be transferred to regional and local levels. This would be most efficient and most close to citizens. The concentration of all powers on top and in the center leads to very weak control for the implementation of decisions,” Makarkin said.