Purged policemen fail to find work

The Interior Minister says more than 11,000 former cops have been unable to find work since being kicked out of the force in August.

Around 37,000 former policemen asked the ministry for help in landing a job. Earlier the head of the body promised that all those who failed the reaccreditation exams mandated by recent police reforms would be found new jobs.

More than 26,000 policemen got the promised positions. They are mostly those who worked hard but either failed to meet the new health requirements or lacked higher education. It was not revealed, though, what kind of jobs the ex-officers had been given.

The Russian police force is currently undergoing a complete transformation, which will see every police officer tested and either fired or reinstated. One-third of the staff was dismissed in the process.

Despite the purge, not all officers who stayed in the job after passing their reaccreditation exams are maintaining the new standards.

In late September, nine police officers were sacked after a high-profile car incident in southeastern Moscow in which two officers crashed into a cyclist.

And in July, a police officer insulted a pregnant woman after she failed to make way for his car.

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