NEW OUTCRY OVER MOSCOW POLICE TACTICS

March 11, 2010
By Anna Malpas


BULLY-BOY COPS in Moscow get public to do their jobs.

Moscow's police chief has apologised after drivers were ordered to move their vehicles into the path of a high-speed car chase in a case that sparked a new outcry over police tactics.

Moscow police chief Vladimir Kolokoltsev gave a "stern reprimand" to traffic police chief Sergei Kazantsev and apologised to drivers whose cars were damaged.

Prosecutors are investigating the bizarre incident on the Moscow ring road that provoked a furious public reaction after one driver posted an internet video detailing the case.

The video, showing how drivers were ordered to create an impromptu "human shield" road block, has already been viewed more than 154 000 times as the latest example of the use of the internet in Russia to highlight police abuses.

Stanislav Sutyagin said in the video that he was pulled over by traffic cops and ordered to park his car partly across the next lane.

He wasn't told why but a few seconds later a car drove through at high speed, damaging Sutyagin's car and several other vehicles.

Sutyagin complained that police told drivers they would not receive any compensation because the armed criminal escaped and said drivers were used as a "human shield".

Moscow police said the criminal in the car chase had stolen a woman's handbag.

In a similar case, a probe has been ordered into a deadly crash involving a top oil executive's chauffeur-driven car following protests including a rap video on YouTube.

Two female medical staff were killed on a Moscow highway on February 25 when their Citroen was involved in a crash with a Mercedes carrying Anatoly Barkov, vice-president of Russia's largest private oil company Lukoil.

Popular Russian rapper Noize MC publicised the case in a song and video that has been watched by more than 88 000 people on YouTube.

The lyrics include the lines "If you get in the way of my Mercedes, whatever happens/ You'll be the guilty party in a traffic pile-up".

Traffic police initially said the Citroen's driver lost control of her vehicle but several people told Russian media they witnessed the crash and saw the Mercedes driving into oncoming traffic. - AFP