22:50, 16 December 2010

Putin: local authorities and power agents are responsible for events in Kuschevskaya

When answering the questions of the hotline dialogue with the population, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin treated the crime in the village of Kuschevskaya as a "failure of the whole law enforcement system." In his opinion, not only law enforcers but also the local authorities in general shall be made responsible for the crime revelry in the Kuschevskiy District of the Krasnodar Territory, as well as in other criminalized areas of Russia.

The Premier's on-line dialogue lasted today for almost four and a half hours and was put live on air by the "Rossiya" TV Channel.

Mr Putin has stressed that the blame for the rampant crime in Kuschevskaya is not only on the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA): "Is that the militia's only failure? And where were the prosecutor's office, the FSB (Federal Security Bureau), the FDCS (Federal Drug Control Service), and where were the courts?" Having noted also the guilt of local authorities for what had happened, Vladimir Putin said that the events in Kuschevskaya were "a very serious signal, another signal to shake the society."