Russian Police

The Russian Police are out of control.  This report is simply scary with the following statistic quite telling: 


"Out of the 5,000 crimes committed by police in 2009 (up 11 percent on 2008), more than 3,000 were linked to corruption and abuse of power, according to official statistics."


As I said in a previous post, "The fish rots from the head down."  Regardless of whether or not the top Russians themselves are actually corrupt (...), they sure seem to express little concern for their underlings' actions.  They are secure in their power and wealth, and this article implies a situation where top officials simply not concerning themselves with a system rife with corruption.  In this case, it looks like the only hope of tackling these problems are an extremely active and courageous media, as well as outside pressure:


"The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg regularly condemns Russia for police torture and draws attention to the slow investigations, the tardy opening of criminal cases and the mild sentences handed out to offenders, leading to a feeling of impunity among police officers."


We can hope.