Medvedev Fires 18 Cops over Corruption

It’s been a pretty bad couple of months in corruption for the government of Dmitry Medvedev.  They beat to death the journalist Popov, fake investigations were opened against the YouTube whistleblower Dymovsky, and Jamison Firestone is still being persecuted despite the spotlight case following the death of Sergei Magnitsky.  From the Financial Times:

Dmitry Medvedev launched a purge of Russia’s interior ministry on Thursday, firing 18 senior police officers as part of a drive to root out rampant corruption plaguing the country’s law enforcement system.

The Russian president sacked two deputy interior ministers – Nikolai Ovchinnikov and Arkady Edelev – and replaced them with allies from his administration. He also fired 16 interior ministry bosses, mostly from the regions.

The overhaul marks the start of Mr Medvedev’s long-promised drive to tackle corruption in the ranks of Russia’s law enforcers, where an entrenched bureaucracy has fostered bribery, violence – including torture – and extortion.