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Nurgaliyev Misses Police Reform Deadline

President Dmitry Medvedev can add Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev to his list of people who have trouble meeting deadlines.

Nurgaliyev missed a self-imposed deadline Thursday to publish draft legislation on the Interior Ministry's web site to replace a 1991 law on the police.

An Interior Ministry spokesman said he did not know the reason for the delay or when the bill would be published.

He noted that Nurgaliyev accompanied Medvedev on a surprise, five-hour trip to Dagestan on Thursday.

Medvedev — who complained last month that ministers were failing to obey his orders —? told Nurgaliyev in December that he had until the end of March to submit proposals to the Kremlin on how to reform the country's police force, whose reputation has been ravaged by a series of scandals involving corruption and violence.

As an apparent part of that reform, Nurgaliyev announced last week that his ministry would draft new police legislation and publish it on his ministry's web site on April 1 so the public would have a chance to weigh in. The new legislation will "carry a new spirit" and its "main principle will be to protect the rights and freedoms of our citizens," Nurgaliyev said.

It was unclear Thursday whether Nurgaliyev had submitted the Medvedev-ordered police reforms by the end of March or whether twin suicide bombings in the Moscow metro on Monday might have disrupted his work on the reforms.

Medvedev said Thursday in Dagestan that the police reform should take into account the specific needs of the North Caucasus.

Medvedev warned federal and regional officials last month that they could find themselves out on the street for not fulfilling his orders in a timely manner.

"Orders from the head of state … just have to be fulfilled. Whoever doesn't fulfill them can take a hike," Medvedev said March 16.

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