FBIS3-15586
"drsov045_b_94001"
FBIS-SOV-94-045
Document Type:Daily Report
8 Mar 1994
RUSSIA NATIONAL AFFAIRS
Political Issues
Security Council Aide on Anticrime Program
PM0803093394 Moscow ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA in Russian 5 Mar 94
First Edition pp 1,2
PM0803093394
Moscow ROSSIYSKAYA GAZETA
Language: Russian
Article Type:BFN
[V. Klimov report on interview with Vladimir Rubanov, deputy
secretary of the Security Council; place and date not given:
"How Much Does Law and Order Cost? The Security Council Has
Examined the Federal Program for Intensifying the Fight Against
Crime"]
[Text] Something which has been discussed many times in
the mass media, and has always -- especially recently --
provoked heightened interest, has come to pass. Yesterday the
Russian Federation Federal Program for Intensifying the Fight
Against Crime for 1994-1995 was examined in the country's
Security Council and, after criticisms had been taken into
account, was recommended to be sent for ratification by the
Russian Federation president.
The draft program is a Morocco-bound book comprising 84
pages. Not many, one might think, but it is the quintessence of
the colossal labor of many people. The book is divided into two
parts. The first part examines today's requirements, the second
examines long-term prospects. Everything is terse and
absolutely clear: Urgent measures for intensifying the fight
against crime are denoted, and the specific officials charged
with implementing them are defined.
What is the essence of the federal program? What does it
promise for Russians in the future? How did work on it proceed?
Our observer Vladimir Klimov turned to Vladimir Arsentyevich
Rubanov, deputy secretary of the Security Council, for answers
to these questions.
[Rubanov] The program enables efforts to be concentrated in
terms of time, place, and purpose. The legislator works in
harness with law-enforcement organs, and they in turn work with
social security organs, and so forth. The concentration of
efforts presupposes a programmatic conception of the problem and
the coordination of the actions of all elements of state power
in the name of common goals.
The cornerstone of the federal program is the formulation of
priority normative acts and guidelines for law-giving activity
aimed at lowering the level of crime and increasing the
protection of the individual in general. But it is not enough
to prepare the necessary legislative acts; it is also necessary
to define clear mechanisms for their implementation and
interaction. The first section of both parts of the program
deals with this.
The second part deals with crime prevention. It is important
not only to detect crime and punish the culprits, but also to
prevent it in good time.
The priority measures projected in the federal program will
enable us to increase society's protection against criminal
infringements and to protect the individual from crime.
Later in the program are two sections formulated for the
sphere of specific actions. These include the fight against
crimes against the individual, economic crime, and organized and
gangland crime. It is necessary to dwell on the latter forms of
crime in particular. For a considerable number of citizens
crime has now become their major profession, and the level of
organization among criminal formations is increasing. Whole
criminal structures are being formed which are capable of
1nfluencing political and economic life in individual regions of
Russia and in the country as a whole. Crime has become
international. It is already spreading from Russia to remote
foreign parts.
But the nearby foreign parts are a separate question. We
have too many links with the CIS countries. Apart from anything
else, we still, unfortunately, have in effect a single criminal
area. But now state mechanisms have been delineated. In this
connection questions of interstate organizational collaboration
between the CIS countries in this sphere are a priority. Common
organizational and legal principles and specific interstate
treaties are essential.
In point of fact, this is why the program has appeared,
because new problems cannot be resolved in the framework of the
old relations and the mechanisms through which they were
conducted.
Many people worked on the compilation of the program. But
above all I would like to note the work of the Security
Council's Interdepartmental Commission for Combating Crime and
Corruption, which is headed by Minister of Justice Yuriy
Khamzatovich Kalmykov. This commission will in fact most likely
become the coordinating organ for the implementation of the
program. Representatives of about 20 departments sit on this
commission.
The federal program was directly prepared and written by a
group of 36 people. They are well-known academics, lawyers,
executives, and economists. The program went through three
stages of coordination with ministries and departments. It was
subjected to expert study by eminent specialists. One of these
was lawyer and academician Vladimir Nikolayevich Kurdryavtsev.
Following the expert studies many criticisms were, as a
rule,
submitted to us. In all somewhere in the order of 1,500 were
examined. The criticisms were taken into account in the final
version of the draft program. As a result the document was not
only professionally prepared, as was noted at the last session
chaired by the secretary of the Security Council, but was also
highly politically coordinated.
The program was six months in preparation. Activity on the
work was stepped up in late 1993. The contribution made by
specialists of the sector for supporting the activity of the
Security Council's Interdepartmental Commission was especially
great. This sector is headed by Anatoliy Pavlovich Korotkov.
All three versions of the program were precisely costed;
after all, a program without resource backing is simply a
slogan. The initial version was a wish list. It cost 16
trillion rubles [R], which was clearly unrealistic. It was
necessary to lower our sights. The second version cost
somewhere in the order of R10 trillion. This sum also proved to
be out of the reach of the budget. In connection with this a
dispute arose in the Interdepartmental Commission between the
leaders of the law-enforcement departments and the financiers.
Law-enforcement officials stated that they did not want to
deceive society by projecting goals which were unattainable
without resource backing. If we want to change the situation,
the corresponding impact can be achieved only with additional
investments.
However, even in these disputes everyone understood that,
given the rigid economy drive, it was necessary to decrease
expenditure. The final version of the program was also
thoroughly costed. It was reduced by almost half. However, it
was decided at the Security Council session to carry out a
further estimate in order finally to determine the level of
funding.
These funds have been distributed to the structures which
are
directly engaged in fighting crime. More than one-third is
going to increase the cadres of the law-enforcement organs. We
are a long way behind in information support, and a considerable
proportion of the funds allocated will be spent on this. The
rest will be spent on supplying weapons and special equipment,
building premises for law and order organs, and other basic
necessities.
An unreasonable desire to economize in the fight against
crime would mean us losing more than we gain. After all, in the
law-enforcement spheres we count only the cost, disregarding the
economic and social benefit. I will not go into all the finer
details; I will say only that, according to the methods which
are accepted in world practice and recommended by the United
Nations, the benefit of law-enforcement measures is bound to
exceed the cost by roughly twofold.
That is talking money. But what figures do you use to assess
the following fact: According to the forecasts of a Ministry of
Internal Affairs scientific research institute, intensifying the
fight against crimes against the individual will enable the
lives of 20,000 Russian citizens to be saved.
The Federal Program for Intensifying the Fight Against Crime
has been examined on a working basis several times already.
Almost all questions have been removed. The Security Council
has expressed an on the whole positive attitude to the program
and ordered it to be finalized within one week, taking account
of the criticisms made in the Security Council, and then to be
submitted for the president's approval. The government has been
instructed to provide the funding for the program.