Major of the Ministry of Internal Affairs: Commanders Run Out of Desire to Do Dirty Work

It becomes unpopular to wear shoulder straps under this power.

Yury is a resident of a small town in the Brest region. For more than 18 years, he served in the internal troops and recently resigned from the authorities.

- Now it is becoming unpopular to wear shoulder straps, - he tells Salidarnasts.

- Yury, can you list the units that are directly involved in dispersing protest actions?

- Yes, basically, these are AMAP, internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. From time to time, as a rule, in Minsk, they are assisted by officers of the Alfa KGB special unit and the Almaz anti-terrorist unit. Although sometimes employees of the Department of Execution of Punishments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, investigators, interrogators, and district police officers are involved in dispersing demonstrations.

- Do they all really think that the protesters are "paid mercenaries, bandits, drug addicts"?

- No, rather, not everyone thinks so. Many do not think about it at all. But here you need to understand one thing: the ideology department, which is in every division of each department, is working on the worldview of the military.

Plus state propaganda. Plus - the closed community: the fighters mostly communicate with each other. But the main thing is not even that. The main is a material bonus. The guys are very afraid of being fired because many of them do not know how to do anything but wave a stick.

You see, 80, even 90 percent of these people are built that way. And the system knows it. The huge fear of being left outside of the system pushes them to fulfill absolutely any order.

- And what does the system give to an employee of any of the law enforcement agencies that their fear of losing all this is so great? Huge salaries? Any benefits?

- Well, judge for yourself. The average salary of an ordinary AMAP officer and other units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs is $ 600-700. The middle-ranking officer - about $ 1,000. For comparison: the average salary in civilian life is about $ 350. In addition, security officials are actually guaranteed a solution to the housing problem. Moreover, wherever they serve.

Any young employee who comes even to an ordinary position is immediately provided with service housing. Even though the state owns it, but the person no longer has a headache, where to live.

Security officials are also provided with a soft loan for housing construction - at 5% per annum for 20 years. If housing is purchased in a rural area (which starts already 5 kilometers from Minsk), the loan is issued at 3% per annum for 40 years.

- But you nevertheless decided to leave.

- Yes, I took off my militia major's shoulder straps, which I had worn in recent years. And I don't regret it. In 2002, as an 18-year-old boy, I came to the Ministry of Internal Affairs's Academy with a clear thought that I had chosen a profession that would benefit people. But in these difficult times, I feel that this, alas, is not so.

- Do you believe that the government will soon change?

- Yes, it seems to me that this will happen for one simple reason: the authorities will run out of bonuses, and our commanders will run out of the desire to do dirty work.