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The Russian President is unhappy about the state of affairs in the field of crime control. He believes that crime still poses a real threat to the country and that there are no signs of a dramatic change in the sphere of law enforcement. He described the situation as very serious. More than 750,000 crimes have been registered in the country in the first quarter of this year.

Vladimir Putin’s special worry is that the structure of crime is still dominated by serious and very serious crimes. Besides, the rate of assaults has risen considerably, and in the Pskov Region and in Moscow a record growth of street crime (by more than 90%) has been recorded in the first quarter of this year.

The President said that the dramatic rise of the crime rate may partly be due to more accurate statistics because the registration of offences has been improved. But the matter concerns not only statistics, but also the persisting atmosphere in the country when people are not sure of their safety, he said.

The President described crime prevention as one of the main measures of crime control. Another important area of effort is making the work of law enforcement bodies more effective. Vladimir Putin called for further work to improve the law enforcement system. He said the system should not hesitate to get rid of the employees who had turned their service into a form of business.

The President has also proposed introducing a system of rotation of the executives of law enforcement bodies. He believes such a system would help to retain professionals and at the same time pluck them out of the network of connections and obligations that have been shaped over the years and often hinder them in their work.

Taking part in the meeting were representatives of the President’s Executive Office, the Security Council, the law enforcement bodies and the President’s Envoys to the Federal Districts.