Helping Russian police to solve crimes could now pay up to $150,000
Russians who help police to solve crimes or catch suspects could receive rewards of up to $150,000, according to a Justice Ministry document. Previously, awards and bounties were offered only as a private initiative.
According to the document, signed by Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev and registered with the Justice Ministry earlier this week, monetary rewards for help in solving crimes and locating wanted persons can now be paid from the Interior Ministry’s budget funds to citizens as well as foreigners and people without citizenship.
Investigators or operatives who think that offering a reward or a bounty would aid their work must make a request to the Interior Ministry’s Department for Financial and Economic Policy which would license the move and post a notice on the ministry’s official web-site detailing the task for the police’s voluntary aides and the size of the reward they could receive.
Official offer of a reward up to 500,000 roubles (about $7,500) must be approved by the head of a regional directorate of the Interior Ministry. Sums up to 3 million roubles ($44,780) need a license from the first deputy interior minister and when an investigation requires an even larger offer – up to 10 million roubles ($150,000) - it must be approved by the Interior Minister.
The actual handing out of the reward also requires a separate order from the police and payment should be conducted within two weeks after it – either in cash or by a transfer to the aide’s bank account.
Life.ru news site quoted unnamed police investigators as saying that they have been awaiting the new decree for a long time because previously awards could be offered only as a private initiative – by victims and their families as well as by various NGOs and regional authorities.
According to Life.ru’s sources, the overall amount of such payments in Russia is about 100 million roubles or just under $1.5 million.
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