MOSCOW, April 13 (Itar-Tass) —— The Liberal Democratic faction in the Russian State Duma lower parliament house on Friday will initiate a no-confidence vote to Russia’s Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev, Maxim Rokhmistrov, a faction member, told Itar-Tass.
“We will express our no-confidence to the minister,” he said.
The lawmaker cited Minister Nurgaliyev as saying that a recent police reform, “which cost the state a considerable sum,” solved all problems. “But we see quite the opposite,” Rokhmistrov said. “People are afraid of the police, while the police are unable to cope with their duties.”
The Liberal Democratic party, in his words, believes that responsibility for crimes committed by police officers must be placed both on those commit such crime and on their superiors, including the interior minister.
Nurgaliyev is expected to appear at the State Duma on Friday. He was invited to speak to lawmakers because of a recent incident in a Kazan police station, where police officers tortured an arrested man to death.
Meanwhile earlier, the A Just Russia faction submitted a draft resolution demanding Nurgaliyev’s resignation. The draft however will not be considered at today’s Duma plenary meeting because it was submitted in violation of the house’s regulations. “Initiators must work via a relevant committee. Any resolution is to be initiated by a relevant committee. It was not done in this case,” Duma’s first deputy speaker Ivan Melnikov of the Communist Party said. On Thursday, the Duma Council recommended the A Just Russia faction to execute the resolution in the form of a statement and distribute it by themselves.
The Communist Party faction does not plan to raise the issue of Nurgaliyev’s resignation at today’s meeting, since it sees no point in minor reshuffles ahead of the formation of a new government.
As concerns the parliament majority, or the United Russia party faction, it intends to suggest “a whole range of actual measures.” These measures include tougher prosecution oversight and public control, the chairwoman of the Duma security committee, Irina Yarovaya, said. “We will propose additional measures that would aim technical re-equipment of the police, so that they prove the guilt of persons accused of committing crimes by evidence but not through tortures.”
“We are absolutely sure that neither our citizens nor our country need political lynching of the interior minister. We need professional, well-balanced and responsible efforts to further strengthen law and order and to protect citizens’ interests,” she said.