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Putin signs law giving police wider powers

Under the newly-introduced amendments, while detaining suspects police will be able to enter homes and other buildings, plots of land and territories and also cordon off buildings, homes and territories

MOSCOW, December 21. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law expanding the powers of police officers. The law was uploaded to the official legal information portal.

Under the newly-introduced amendments, while detaining suspects police will be able to enter homes and other buildings, plots of land and territories and also cordon off buildings, homes and territories. Police officers are allowed to introduce themselves to detainees after the termination of unlawful actions.

Motor vehicles can be forced open and entered when this is necessary for saving a person’s life, or for maintaining people’s safety or public security during massive unrest and in emergencies. Police will be allowed to open cars, if there is a threat of a terrorist attack or for detaining persons whom victims of an attack or witnesses pointed at as wrongdoers, or for preventing a crime.

Police will be allowed to use these powers to enforce legal procedures in case of an administrative abuse, if there are sufficient reasons to believe that the wrongdoer is drunk. Motor vehicles can be forced open and searched, if there is a suspicion that they contain items banned from civilian circulation. If absent at the moment the vehicle has to be forced open, the owner must be notified within 24 hours and access of third persons to the vehicle prevented.