Notebook

To Serve and Protect

Statistics recently released by the St. Petersburg police department attest that there were 17%  fewer crime complaints filed in 1996 than in 1995, while the number of solved crimes was 1.4% higher. Police records show that homicides fell by 11.1%, to 833, last year, of which 371 were solved. But no matter how rosy the statistics may appear on paper (for example, police records indicate that of the 57,883 crimes committed in 1996, 52,544 were solved), the police have been questioning their accuracy and are heeding calls for greater vigilance.

Mother Russia

According to a poll conducted by the Public Opinion Fund, Russians’ desire to emigrate appears to be waning. In comparison to 1992, when 11% of Russians desired to emigrate to another country, the pollsters found that, in 1996, only 6% of Russian polled wanted to leave the Motherland. Russians are also less enthusiastic about temporary trips abroad to earn money, the Fund reported. It said that 11% percent of respondents in 1996 expressed a wish to do this, as compared to 17% in 1992. The Public Opinion Fund offered no explanation for their findings.

Tsar-Free Zone

Russians got rid of the tsar 81 years ago and a recent public opinion poll suggests the country wants things to stay that way. When questioned by the Russian Institute of Public Opinion, 91% of the 2,406 people asked rejected the idea of a constitutional monarchy. Some 8% were for the idea, while 1% remained undecided. The poll was conducted at the end of January 1997, when media reports confirmed that the idea of a constitutional monarchy was one of several circulating among Russia’s political elite.

Midnight Express?

Human rights activists have condemned a change in the Russian criminal procedure code allowing people suspected of crimes to spend up to two-and-a-half years in remand prison before coming to trial. The previous limit was 18 months. The bill responsible for the change was signed by President Yeltsin last December. Human rights activists say that the law gives the prosecution an even greater advantage than it had before, by weakening defendants through long and dehabilitating imprisonment. The 169 remand prisons in Russia, where an estimated 282,000 suspects are held to await trial, are notorious for their overcrowded and appalling conditions. Tuberculosis and hepatitis abound, while food is scarce.