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The main subjects on the agenda at the meeting were the law On the Police Force, which will come into effect on March 1, 2011, increasing effectiveness of maintaining law and order and combating extremism.

The President stressed that the new law should start working as soon as it is enacted, its provisions must be effectively implemented and not remain on paper only. Mr Medvedev also noted that the law enforcement agencies must become more transparent and their officers more responsible towards society. The President also said that stricter selection criteria and a better control system should be applied to those seeking to join the police force. Russia needs a new generation of people ensuring law and order in the country, Mr Medvedev declared, and pointed out too that the state authorities have a duty to offer police officers reliable social protection guarantees.

The situation in Moscow and other major cities following the mass protests on December 11, 2010 was also examined at the meeting. The President requested that unauthorised meetings, especially those that could incite interethnic tension, must be firmly suppressed, and emphasised that any individuals responsible for committing crimes must answer for them, regardless of where they were committed or the place of residence of the alleged perpetrators. Dmitry Medvedev demanded that instigators of the events on Manezh Square in Moscow be found and bear the penalty for their acts, along with the murderers of Yegor Sviridov and the investigators, who let the murder suspects go free.

The President gave the regional governors a month to draw up action plans for ensuring law and order, with the main focus on preventing extremism, corruption, drugs-related crime, and juvenile offences. In accordance with the Executive Order On Additional Measures to Maintain Law and Order, signed on December 11, 2010, the regional governors will oversee consultations intended to analyse information on the situation in the regions. This will improve coordination between the regional authorities and the law enforcement agencies in preventing unlawful acts. Dmitry Medvedev also instructed the Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoys to the Federal Districts and the regional governors to present quarterly reports on these consultations’ results.

Mr Medvedev earlier had a working meeting with Ryazan Region Governor Oleg Kovalev, who briefed him on the socioeconomic situation in the region.

The President also visited the Ryazan branch of the Moscow University of the Interior Ministry, and the Ryazan city police control room.

At the university Mr Medvedev toured lecture theatres and was briefed on the study programme. The President also met Dmitry Korolkov, who was by presidential executive order awarded the Medal for Saving Those in Peril for saving in November a woman from a car that had plunged into a pond.

At the Ryazan police control room Dmitry Medvedev examined special vehicles and arms exhibited there, and got a general look at the control room operation. Among the technology the Ryazan police force employs, the President noted in particular the Safe City hardware and software system, which uses a network of special purpose video cameras installed in public places to visually identify people and check them in police data base. Mr Medvedev instructed Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev, who accompanied him on the visit, to accelerate setting up this system in all of Russia’s regions.