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Traffic police chief Sergei Kazantsev
Moscow's traffic police chief was called into the State Duma on Thursday to field questions on how his agency was handling a series of major scandals, most recently the use of civilians' vehicles as a "human shield" in a car chase.
In that incident, traffic police are facing a criminal investigation for abuse of authority after they forced drivers to park their cars along one of Moscow's busiest roads to slow the escape of suspected thieves. Deputies were also interested in the handling of a fatal crash involving vice president Anatoly Barkov, after bloggers and public figures suggested that police tried to cover up for the executive.
Traffic police chief Sergei Kazantsev told lawmakers that the officer whose subordinates are accused of the roadblock has been fired. Kazantsev said he reprimanded the officer who initially blamed a middle-aged woman for the accident that left her and her elderly mother-in-law dead. Barkov and his driver survived the two-car crash with minor injuries.
On Wednesday, Kazantsev was reprimanded by Moscow's chief of police, Vladimir Kolokoltsev, for the handling of the "human shield" incident.
President Dmitry Medvedev has made a reform of the Interior Ministry, including its notorious traffic police, a key goal of his administration, and on Wednesday he ordered Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev to investigate the LUKoil crash and report back to him personally.
Kazantsev told deputies that he had warned the commander of a traffic police unit, identified only by his last name, Koreshkov, that he would be fired if his officers committed another violation, even a small one, after stopping cars to form a road block on the Moscow Ring Road.
The incident happened Friday but only came to light earlier this week after one of the drivers, Stanislav Sutyagin, posted a video on YouTube with his allegations that he was used as a "human shield."
Sutyagin, who was in his Mercedes, and the driver of a Volga were told to remain in their vehicles, which were damaged when a silver Audi slammed between them and sped off.
Sutyagin said in the video that police told him that he would not be compensated because the police were not able to detain the driver of the Audi.
Kazantsev told lawmakers that the drivers would be paid for the damages.
The Duma's Transportation Committee has requested information from the Prosecutor General's Office and the Interior Ministry on their probe into the case, Itar-Tass reported. Investigators opened a criminal investigation into the officers involved Wednesday.
Security Committee chief Vladimir Vasilyev told Interfax that deputies were not allowed to see the results of the internal check into the "human shield" case.
Meanwhile, a number of other violations committed by police in Moscow and the surrounding region were reported Thursday.
A Moscow policeman is accused of damaging three cars while driving through the city without a license Wednesday night, Interfax reported. Also Wednesday, a traffic policeman injured an 11-year-old boy as he drove into him near a pedestrian crossing in the Moscow region town of Sergiyev Posad.
The police chief of the Moscow region town of Skhodnya and his deputy were detained Wednesday as they accepted a large-scale bribe from suppliers of illegal sexual services in exchange for covering-up their business.
