RUSSIA

Russia’s top-cops have their St. Petersburg colleagues in their sights after a fatal beating of a teenager by a police officer, as a thorough check has been ordered by the Internal Affairs Ministry.

The probe is due to the fact that no “adequate measures” have been taken after the notorious incident, according to the Interior Affairs Ministry’s document, published by Novaya Gazeta.

The local police branch has openly opposed the decision claiming it could become a “destabilising factor” during the intense pre-election period, according to a statement published on its official website on Monday.

Beaten with a mop handle

The death of Nikita Leontyev, 15, in an ambulance on the way from a police station where he was previously detained on suspicion of robbery in January, was followed by several sackings within the St. Petersburg police force.

Criminal charges, however, have been laid only on the most junior officer, Denis Ivanov, 25, who confessed to beating the boy with his hands and a mop handle.

One of his ex-bosses, Alexei Malykh, who was also fired after the case, died of a heart attack on Monday, shortly after the check was ordered, Fontanka.ru reported.

The acting deputy head of the police station No.75 in the Nevsky district, Malykh was at work on the night Leontyev was detained, together with senior local policeman Oleg Prokhorenko, who was also sacked, RIA Novosti reported.

Harshest evaluation

The police department for St. Petersburg and the surrounding region seems to be baffled by the way their Moscow bosses phrased their claims.

“It’s hard to evaluate the adequacy or inadequacy of the measures taken by the chief directorate. This is very subjective,” the regional police chief Mikhail Sukhodolsky told Fontanka.ru from work on Sunday.

The criteria according to which the check is to be carried out is also unclear since no official standards has been released, according to the statement on the website.

 “It’s probably the harshest evaluation some of the staff has got in the history of St. Petersburg’s police,” Sukhodolsky said.