Why Do They Lure Belarusian Policemen To Russia?

Police officers are insistently offered to change the place of work.

The website Charter97.org reported the other day that Belarusians were being recruited for the service in the Russian army in Pskov. Later, a reader addressed to the editor’s office of Charter’97:

- You wrote that Belarusians get informed about the recruitment of candidates for the military service in the Russian Federation. I am a police officer, and I have recently received a text message that the Directorate of Internal Affairs in Pskov region, Russian Federation is hiring those who served in the Belarusian police. The phone number was +7 (8112) 661649. What was it? How come they know my work phone number?- the reader is outraged.

The Charter97.org addressed former Chairman of the Supreme Council of the 12th convocation, the very first General-Lieutenant in the independent Belarus Mechyslau Hryb for clarifications:

- I would say, we have no common citizenship with the Russian Federation. We are the citizens of Belarus, while the citizens of Russia live at the territory of the Russian Federation. They of course can live here, the same as Belarusians can live at the territory of Russia, but, I will stress this, only the citizens of Belarus can work in the Belarusian police. Russians do not serve in our police.

I presume that, in Russia, they are also obliged to hire only their own citizens for service. Why have they paid attention to Belarusians now?

You know what – I got it. They lack staff. Russians don’t want to go to the police. Although the conditions there are better than in the Belarusian police. Probably, they are trying to lure Belarusian policemen there first, and then try to obtain the Russian citizenship for them somehow.

- Does this pose any threat for Belarus? As those who served in the internal affairs bodies could possibly, for instance, possess classified information. How can this be assessed from the point of view of the Belarusian state security?

- The point is, any officer of the internal affairs body can resign any moment, whenever they want. It is only necessary to file an application for resignation, work for two weeks and go wherever you want. The other point is that, if they fail to complete the necessary term of service, they will not get any dividends.

As for the classified information, if an officer signs a non-disclosure obligation, and then gives away some information illegally, other laws will be applied with regard to him.

- How do you assess the moral state of the Belarusian police today? Can the officers be lured by the higher wages in the Russian Federation and go to serve those who pay more?

- You know, it’s impossible to judge everyone equally. I cannot say that the whole Belarusian police will run there, but I cannot say no one will do it either. Someone may agree, someone not.

Of course, if someone agrees, they will not advertise the fact, but try to hush it down. They will just resign and leave. In general, I don’t think there will be a mass outflow, but I don’t rule out individual cases either.

- When the notorious events in the East of Ukraine had just started, a very large part of the Donetsk, Luhansk police joined the side of the new Russian administration of the separatist authorities. How do you assess the state of patriotism in the Belarusian police today? Can something similar happen here?

- You know, as they say, God forbids anything like the tragic events in Ukraine happen here. Unfortunately, the same can indeed happen in Belarus, and even worse.

It seems to me that very many officers of the internal affairs bodies have pro-Russian moods, and this says it all.

- How does the stance of Minister of the Interior Shunevich, who opened the monument to the Russian tsarist policeman and wears the NKVD uniform on holidays, affect the officers’ moods?

- No matter what, it’s the people who serve in the police and in the internal affairs bodies, and they have different views and convictions. The majority, of course, is pro-Russian, but there are also real patriots of Belarus there.

Certainly, they have no political organizations there, or trade uniuons, and we cannot say that there is anything oppositional in the police circles today, unfortunately.