Police Unit Suspended In a Corruption Probe.

(From The Moscow Times)

The entire staff of the Moscow police force's elite criminal investigations directorate was suspended Monday as federal investigators continued to look into allegations that officers from the unit ran an extortion ring.

As many as 700 officers from the unit, known as MUR, were suspended while city police inspectors review their personal files to determine whether or not they are qualified for their jobs. The process could take anywhere from one to several weeks and may result in the ouster of some of the senior officers who head MUR's subdepartments, city police spokesman Dmitry Filimonov said in a phone interview Monday.

The spokesman said the timing of the evaluation had nothing to do with the ongoing investigation into the alleged abuses by six senior MUR officers and Sergei Ganeyev, a lieutenant general at the Emergency Situations Ministry, who were arrested last week. They are suspected of conspiring to extort protection fees from Moscow businesses and planting drugs and pistols on those who refused to pay.

Filimonov said such evaluations are done periodically and this one should have come as no surprise to MUR personnel since it had been planned since December. He insisted the "psychological atmosphere remains stable" at the city police force, despite the suspensions and widely ...