CALL FOR MILITARY POLICE FORCE.

A representative of the Russian General Staff, Lt. Gen. Vladimir Kulakov, said yesterday that the Defense Ministry was proposing the creation of a military police force to serve as the single law-enforcement structure for all of Russia’s military and armed forces. He estimated that some 10,000-12,000 servicemen would have to be recruited into the new branch. The process would take about a year once the enabling legislation was in place, he said, adding that a draft law was being circulated. Nikolai Karpov, a spokesman for the Duma’s Defense Committee, said that the committee and the Defense Ministry agreed that the branch should be placed under control of the General Staff. (Interfax, October 30)

Such subordination has not been well received in the other ministries potentially involved, and has not always been the position of the Duma committee itself. It drafted a bill earlier this year that called for an independent military police force to be "detached from the armed forces" and accountable to the president and the Federal Assembly. (Rabochaya tribuna, July 7)The original Duma bill had also called for a strengthening of the Federal Security Service’s role in the prevention and investigation of crimes in the military. (See Monitor, July 11)

Ukraine to Provide Military Assistance to Turkmenistan.