The FMS has merged with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, what next? New police concerns: what will the transition of the FMS and Federal Tax Service under the Ministry of Internal Affairs lead to?

Rumors about the merger of the Federal Migration Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs arose a long time ago, but now they have become a reality. In accordance with Decree No. 156 of April 5, 2016 (presidential decree on the merger of the FMS with the Ministry of Internal Affairs) this service ceased to exist as a separate department, and migration issues were delegated to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Transfer of the Federal Drug Control Service and the Federal Migration Service to the Ministry of Internal Affairs

Let’s take a closer look at the situation to suggest what will happen to the FMS after the reassignment of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

It is difficult to understand from the text of the decree what the further fate this service. Let's look at the part of the decree affecting the FMS:

1. Liquidate the Federal Service of the Russian Federation for Control of Drug Trafficking and the Federal Migration Service.

2. Delegate the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation:

3. Determine what the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation is:

A) federal body executive branch, which specializes in the development and implementation of state policy and legal regulation in the field of internal affairs, control over the circulation of psychotropic drugs, drugs, in the migration sphere, as well as law enforcement functions in the field of federal supervision in the mentioned areas;
b) the legal successor of the liquidated Federal Migration Service and the Federal Service of the Russian Federation in the field of control over the circulation of narcotic drugs, including responsibilities that arose as a result of the execution of court decisions. …..

5. Complete the implementation of organizational and staffing measures related to the implementation of this decree by June 1, 2016.

Thus, the liquidated FSKN simply changed its sign, which cannot be said about the FMS.

FMS employees after joining the Ministry of Internal Affairs

It turns out that the reduction in the staff of this service will affect thirty percent of its employees (not bad if ordinary workers who work directly with citizens are not laid off), and FMS employees will continue to perform their duties until the end of the measures that this decree on the transfer of the FMS to Ministry of Internal Affairs.

What “news” and “surprises” will foreigners have to face in our country?

Functions of the Federal Migration Service in the Ministry of Internal Affairs: what awaits the former Federal Migration Service in 2016?

There are two key options here:

1. Few will remember that previously the FMS was part of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and only in 2004 it was separated into an independent structure that united the departments of the passport and visa service and the departments dealing with migration issues of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.

Therefore, it is possible that this service will retain its previous form, but now it will be part of the department under the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, which deals with migration issues.

If we talk about the regulatory framework, then earlier, when the Ministry of Internal Affairs dealt with migration issues, the instructions of this ministry were applied, including issues of residence permit, citizenship and temporary residence permit.

It is likely that a complete revision of the regulatory documents of the FMS is planned, after which its acts will be replaced with new ones approved by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

In addition, there is a possibility that after the merger of the FMS and the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Internal Affairs will tighten the requirements given in its instructions and orders in the field of migration policy, which will require more more documents, except those provided by law.

Despite this, I would like to be optimistic and believe that the measures will be more humane, and not vice versa.

2. The Ministry of Internal Affairs will retain its “permitting” functions, i.e. will deal with issues of registration, migration registration, compliance with visa and passport regimes.

In addition, ministry employees will monitor the stay of foreign citizens. The Ministry of Internal Affairs will again begin to issue residence permits, citizenship and temporary residence permits, and issues of work permits and patents will be transferred to local authorities.

What will be the fate of Konstantin Romodanovsky? Will he take the place of Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, will he become the head of the main department dealing with migration issues of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation after the transfer of the FMS to the Ministry of Internal Affairs?

On this question there is no answer and a decision will have to be made to the Russian President, as reported by his press secretary Dmitry Peskov.

Reasons for the liquidation of the Federal Migration Service in 2016

Another question remains relevant: what is the reason for the abolition of the FMS?

Dmitry Peskov was able to answer it. The meaning of the press secretary's answer - the formation of a separate structure that deals with migration issues, was initially supported by the Russian authorities.

However, everything turned out completely differently than predicted. Russian government– The FMS failed to cope with the flow of migrants, partly because it did not have the authority to search for and detain illegal migrants.

As a result, the service was forced to turn to colleagues from the Ministry of Internal Affairs for help, and the police were not interested in helping the FMS, since the police were already busy with their own affairs.

In this regard, officials from the FMS regularly said that the FMS should be allowed to conduct operational investigative activities. There was also talk about allowing inspectors to carry weapons. Subsequently, the government decided that the creation of a special “migration police” was too “expensive”, and decided to simply do it as it was before. In fact, the authorities admitted their failure to create a separate migration structure.

Principles of work of the FMS during the transition period

The press service of the abolished organization answered questions about working with citizens after the FMS was transferred to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The letter stated that today each branch of the Federal Migration Service of the Russian Federation operates as usual, continuing to provide government services residents according to the reception schedule, despite the fact that the FMS is now part of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

04.05.2016

WHO IS BEHIND THE PROPOSAL TO LIQUIDATE THE FMS AND FSKN

Talk about the imminent liquidation of the independent security forces of the Federal Migration Service (FMS) and the Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN) has been circulating in senior political circles for several months now, but they have never been so close to real reorganization. The Ministry of Internal Affairs also falls into the orbit of forced reforms. Against the backdrop of widespread budget cuts and wholesale layoffs of employees, discussions of the proposed resignation of the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the subsequent merger of three or more law enforcement agencies into a single one came to the fore in the ranks of the special services.

Such a mass purge really hasn’t happened for a long time. And according to some data, this is really connected with the difficult economic situation in the country. Otherwise, the authorities would not have attempted to assassinate the security forces, considering them their faithful support. According to other sources, financial problems in the country have become a good reason for changes in the most powerful clan of security forces, accompanied by another “war of incriminating evidence.” In any case, massive cuts will lead to the fact that about 100 thousand people trained to handle weapons may end up on the street. Correspondents of “Top Secret” decided to understand the true background of the upcoming changes.

A high-ranking source in the Federal Drug Control Service, on condition of anonymity, told Top Secret that at the end of December 2014, two letters were sent to President Vladimir Putin’s desk proposing the liquidation of the Federal Drug Control Service and the FMS and the transfer of their powers to the structures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

“The author of the first letter was the head of the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation, Anton Siluanov, the second was signed by Vladimir Kolokoltsev, the Minister of Internal Affairs, says our interlocutor. - The justification for such proposals was the reduction, the so-called optimization of budget funds. Between January 20 and 25 of this year, a quick one-hour meeting with the president was held, but no decision was made. In my opinion, both of these letters could have been initiated by someone, both characters are “forced people”; Kolokoltsev could have been promised something, some new position, maybe even a place in the Security Council of the Russian Federation.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Finance could be guided by the decree of the president himself dated July 10, 2014 on “optimizing financial support, increasing the efficiency of spending budget funds,” but the budget for this year has already been approved. Economic benefits may only come in 2017. And the Ministry of Internal Affairs could be guided by the fact that if drug control and the Federal Migration Service are reduced, then their ministry will not be touched, the money saved will help them avoid the reduction. In general, there is a lot that is unclear in this story.

Take, for example, recent publications in the media that databases of drug addicts from the Federal Drug Control Service appeared on the open market - operatives then went to points of sale and found nothing, and even if such databases are collected, then only the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Federal Drug Control Service are busy collecting data on The Ministry of Internal Affairs deals with drug trafficking, large drug cartels, organized crime groups and drug dens, individual street drug addicts and dealers. Then there were publications about suicides of cancer patients, also with reference to the Federal Drug Control Service, although drugs containing drugs were not their business - it became clear that the publications were also initiated by someone... Everything was arranged so that negative reviews at the Federal Drug Control Service took place before the meeting.”

Our source’s statement about the “subjugation” of the Minister of Internal Affairs is confirmed by other facts. According to some reports, Kolokoltsev’s report with his resignation was written shortly after the arrest of his subordinate, the head of the Department for Combating Economic Crimes and Anti-Corruption, General Denis Sugrobov, and lies in the bowels of the Presidential Administration, waiting in the wings.

According to our sources, without waiting for real help from his leader, Sugrobov revealed to FSB representatives the entire mechanism of the shadow activities of his unit and the minister’s attitude towards this. It's about about large-scale banking offers related to the legalization and laundering of large amounts of money. The answer to the question why the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs advocated the liquidation of the FMS may lie in the long-standing and well-known dislike of the Internal Security Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for its former colleagues who went to work for the Migration Service. However, first things first.

FSKN VS FSB

The activities of the Federal Drug Control Service, it should be noted, for many are “a secret sealed with seven seals.” Formed in 2003 on the basis of the disbanded Tax Police, the service was officially supposed to fight drug crime. The main task of the State Drug Control Service, as the Federal Drug Control Service is also called, was to block large drug supply channels to Russia and combat the laundering of criminal proceeds.

According to an unspoken order, the purpose of the FSKN is to duplicate some of the functions of the FSB, and in certain cases, to act as a deterrent for the “chekists” who have received broad powers.

The ideologist of the creation of the service was Vladimir Putin’s closest ally at that time, a career security officer, deputy director of the FSB and confidant at presidential elections 2000, Victor Cherkesov. Knowing Vladimir Putin from the Leningrad KGB department, Cherkesov enjoyed his serious trust. However, four years after the creation of the Federal Drug Control Service, as observers close to the special services say, the head of the State Drug Control Service did not notice how he professional tasks shifted exclusively towards fighting their own former colleagues, high-ranking employees from Lubyanka.

The fatal role in Cherkesov’s fate was played not so much by the operational support of a high-profile criminal case on the smuggling of furniture from Europe to Russia, better known as “Three Whales”. And not even the fact that FSB generals were involved in the case, but the fact that Viktor Cherkesov violated the main commandment of the “office” - under no circumstances “do not wash dirty linen in public.”

After the arrest of his subordinate General Alexander Bulbov, who led the operational support of the “Three Whales” case, Viktor Cherkesov spoke on the pages of the federal media criticizing the FSB and for the first time publicly announced a war between the clans of Russian security forces. In this whirlpool of events, both conflicting parties suffered. Together with Cherkesov, the then director of the FSB, Nikolai Patrushev, and the Prosecutor General of Russia, Vladimir Ustinov, lost their posts.

Those who replaced them, Alexander Bortnikov in the FSB, Viktor Ivanov in the Federal Drug Control Service, and Yuri Chaika in the General Prosecutor's Office, were supposed to soften inter-clan disagreements. The new director of the State Drug Control Service almost succeeded in doing this.

HU FROM MISTER IVANOV?

A native of the KGB of the USSR, who went through the war in Afghanistan and rose to the rank of deputy head of the Russian FSB for economic security, Viktor Ivanov for a long time remained the Kremlin's chief personnel officer (he held the position of assistant to the president for personnel policy).

In the photo: VIKTOR IVANOV, DIRECTOR OF FSKN

At the beginning of the 2000s, everyone was firmly convinced that Ivanov was Putin’s man; he often spoke on his behalf at various public events. There was an unconfirmed, but also unrefuted legend that it was Viktor Petrovich who recruited young Vladimir Vladimirovich into the KGB. A person of an analytical mind, tenacious, able to collect information, often even too meticulously, and select the right personnel.

After Putin was appointed head of the FSB, he first headed the Internal Security Directorate there as deputy director. Since 2000, Deputy Head of the Presidential Administration, responsible for personnel. In 2002, he headed the board of directors of the newly created Almaz-Antey Air Defense Concern, which produces S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems, and also oversees the Main Directorate for CIS Affairs of the presidential administration.

It was on Ivanov’s initiative that the active Pardon Commission under the President of the Russian Federation was liquidated, after which the number of convicts pardoned by the President decreased significantly. Some political scientists believe that “in his views, Viktor Ivanov is a statist of the Latin American type.” Viktor Ivanov is considered the actual author of the law “On Citizenship of the Russian Federation”.

According to the director of the Institute of Political Studies, Sergei Markov, the law is not liberal enough and contains numerous opportunities for abuse by officials and security forces. They say that he opposed the Surkov-Voloshin group in business and did not emerge victorious.

His appearance in the building on Maroseyka, 12 (the central building of the Federal Drug Control Service of Russia. - Editor's note) was initially regarded by many observers as a decrease in status. His capabilities became incomparable to those he possessed while working in the Kremlin. And the area of responsibility is much more modest and specialized. However, over the past years, the structure of the Federal Drug Control Service under Ivanov has undergone serious qualitative and quantitative changes.

Nowadays, not everyone will remember how, at the dawn of its activities, the Federal Drug Control Service managed to make enough enemies in a short period of time, not only in other “security” and civil government agencies, but also among human rights activists. Already in the first year of its work, drug control found itself at the center of a scandal due to attempts to criminally prosecute veterinarians who were accused of drug trafficking (by which the drug police understood injections of anesthetics into cats and dogs).

Then the Federal Drug Control Service came under fire due to attempts to “expose” doctors (surgeons, gynecologists), representatives chemical industry. With the arrival of Viktor Ivanov, such stories have become significantly less numerous. The number of service employees reached 34.5 thousand people. This included combat anti-terrorist units and an analytical service, which also works on the Internet, to search for drug dealers using electronic transfers of funds. So-called electronic wallets. And the average time it takes for criminal groups to initiate a criminal case was three to five months.

Yes, locally, either in Moscow or in the regions, employees of the State Drug Control Service continue to find themselves in scandalous situations with suspicious consistency. Just look at the story: in the summer of 2009, in the office of the FSKN department in the Western District of Moscow, two bodies of employees were discovered who, according to some sources, died from a drug overdose. And in the fall of 2013, again in Moscow, in the north of the capital, two more employees of the State Drug Control Service were found unconscious in a car with a 100-kilogram bag of hydroponics, the same bag of Afghan hashish and a bag of amphetamines.

This seriously damaged the reputation and image of the entire service, but Ivanov’s strong position made it possible to maintain balance for a while.

Everything changed with the appointment to the Ministry of Internal Affairs former boss Security Service of President Viktor Zolotov, now First Deputy Minister - Commander of the Internal Troops. As our anonymous interlocutor noted, the media presented facts that Zolotov had a hand in closing the State Drug Control Service - “active” (in the language of the special services - special events aimed at exerting a beneficial influence on the policies of executive and legislative authorities to solve the problems facing an economic entity ) and is intended to shape public opinion.

Let us recall that this version was voiced by one of the leading Russian news agencies- “the transfer of powers to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Federal Drug Control Service and the Federal Migration Service is being discussed in the Kremlin on the initiative of Viktor Zolotov.” In the 1990s, Viktor Zolotov was the bodyguard of the mayor of St. Petersburg Anatoly Sobchak. Vladimir Putin at that time served as deputy mayor of the city. From 2000 to 2013, he headed the Presidential Security Service and was also deputy head of the FSO. In 2013, Zolotov was transferred to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

It is believed that Zolotov is part of Vladimir Putin’s narrow trusted circle and is vying for the post of head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He wants to head a strengthened ministry that would take over the functions of two federal services.

The chief doctor of one of the capital's anti-drug clinics, Dmitry Vashkin, believes that last years The Federal Drug Control Service confirmed its right to exist: “The Federal Drug Control Service is a structure that has been operating for 12 years and performs a very important function. This is 30 thousand people who fight every day against the illicit trafficking of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors. And it does this both locally and internationally. This is precisely why the Federal Drug Control Service was created. Even if a new unit is formed on the basis of any other power structure, it will take time. And while the bureaucratic delays are resolved, people begin to take office, the mechanism starts working, a huge number of drugs will enter the market, which will lead to an increase in the incidence of diseases. Why break something that already works quite well?

Not long ago, the Federal Drug Control Service expanded its powers and took control over the rehabilitation of drug addicts. When the Federal Drug Control Service began to develop rules and regulations, they asked for help from practitioners - narcologists and rehabilitation specialists. For example, our clinic was invited to the expert council of the Federal Drug Control Service for the Moscow Region. It’s not just us who go there, but a number of managers of rehabilitation centers and doctors of several clinics. This is the right approach - asking the opinion of experts!”

State Duma deputy, communist Valery Rashkin, in an interview with “Top Secret,” on the contrary, advocates the liquidation of the Federal Drug Control Service: “When back in 2003 the issue of a new structure that would take effective measures against drug addiction and drug trafficking was considered, I was only in favor.” But every year the statistics of drug crimes did not decrease, but increased. Over the past years, drug trafficking has increased approximately 2.3 times, and there has been an increase in drug users. At the same time, parallel responsibilities arose between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Federal Drug Control Service, the Prosecutor's Office and the Federal Drug Control Service, the Investigative Committee and the Federal Drug Control Service - it turns out that the Federal Drug Control Service is not coping?

Interstructural showdowns began. And then in September I wrote a letter to the president with a request to consider a situation in which the Federal Drug Control Service did not live up to its responsibilities, and there are many officials in it, these are the personnel who could not ensure the proper functioning of the structure, and we regularly pay them salaries and allocate a budget. FSKN employees discredit the state and intelligence services with endless scandals related to corruption, drug use and racketeering.”

ON THE SAME RAKE?

Viktor Ivanov does not agree with this formulation of the question, but, without noticing it, he may repeat the fate of his predecessor Viktor Cherkesov. He openly calls the idea of the possible merger of the State Drug Control Service into the Ministry of Internal Affairs “wrong”, the activities of his structure - “underestimated”, work methods - “exclusive”, cases - “complicated”, confirming with facts and figures that his department since its creation “has achieved considerable success in the fight against large drug gangs, including transnational ones.” Ivanov believes that his department is changing structurally, successfully testing new methods of work along with the growing “synthetic tsunami” that threatened to further increase the number of drug addicts, crime and terrorism in the country.

Suppliers went online, and his employees began to catch them there. New chemical formulas for drugs are constantly emerging - his specialists are tracking them, and on January 30, 2015, the upper house Federal Assembly Russian Federation accepted the federal law, which gives the Federal Drug Control Service of Russia the right to ban new psychoactive substances. There are already 700 new types of synthetics. The law came into force on February 14.

And in February, three large joint operations of the State Drug Control Service and foreign colleagues were carried out - “Shanghai Web”, “Carpathians” and “Black Banker”. During the latter, an online store and a warehouse of ready-to-sell spices, supervised by Ukrainian citizens, who, in their own words, were recruited during the Maidan, were destroyed, and they kept the proceeds from criminal activities in the bank of Ukrainian businessman and official Igor Kolomoisky. And these are not just drug matters, but also political matters.

In addition to Kolomoisky’s Privatbank, the operational materials include the American bank Wachovia, American Express Bank and HSBC bank. A curious detail, as soon as these financial structures appeared in the information space in the context of money laundering from the drug trade; according to our data, the Federal Drug Control Service received parliamentary requests from about 30 Russian people's representatives asking them to stop the investigation. As they say, draw your own conclusions.

GOLDEN GASTARBETTER

In the spring of 2011, a serious scandal broke out in the Federal Migration Service of Russia. FMS press secretary Konstantin Poltoranin made a revolutionary statement in an interview with the English BBC: “The future of the white race is under threat. Its survival is at stake, and this issue is palpable in Russia.” Just a few minutes after these words, Poltoranin’s long-time boss, Konstantin Romodanovsky, signed an order to fire the subordinate who was inaccurate in his statements.

And a year later, Romodanovsky’s long-time press secretary revealed “Top Secret” many secret threads that control migration flows in Russia. Let's say right away: four years after these revelations, the situation has changed only in details, but not in essence. Here are some of the most highlights from a story by Konstantin Poltoranin.

In the photo: KONSTANTIN ROMODANOVSKY, HEAD OF THE FMS

“In my opinion, the main and hidden task of the FMS was to create certain conditions for collecting shadow funds. Only about 5 thousand employees are directly involved in migration control in Russia. And in Moscow and the Moscow region, through which a third of the total migration flow passes, less than a thousand people serve!

Naturally, they cannot and do not control this flow of migrants. But this number of FMS employees is quite enough to collect shadow funds, which this structure copes well with. According to some experts, at least about 10 billion dollars are spent annually. The shadow funds of the migration market consist of fees for obtaining a visa, for obtaining foreign passports and citizenship, for work and temporary residence permits, residence permits and, of course, fines for illegally working migrants - all this is a lot of money that is extracted from the “necks” » in the FMS paper circulation.

The collapse of this bureaucratic machine would be inevitable with so many employees and zero infrastructure development. The system will break down if you try to properly “register” even a million migrants. Therefore, there is only a certain appearance of activity, but in fact the FMS serves large syndicates in the gas sector, oil industry, trade, and so on. The workers of these syndicates work more or less legally, but medium business does not have the opportunity to legalize its workers.

I think from Moscow alone they had about 15-20 million dollars in cash every month. This is how the hierarchy of extortions is built. It is clear that officials from the Migration Service cannot create a system similar in scale to Russian Post or Sberbank and install a document collection point on every corner. Small intermediary firms are contacting a large operator directly connected with the Federal Migration Service. They do all the grunt work, receiving less than a tenth of the cost of the “service.” Without intermediaries, the FMS can work with large construction companies, which employ tens of thousands of migrant workers. Diasporas are also the main intermediary operators.

The management of the FMS has created a system that allows representatives of Tajik, Uzbek and Kyrgyz migrant workers to be directly identified. There are no firm rules in the migration services market. Another order from the director about “tightening” was issued - the price of a passport or work permit has doubled. Another general is building a dacha - we still need to chip in.”

Meanwhile, according to our sources, the FMS, headed by Konstantin Romodanovsky, unlike the FSKN Viktor Ivanov, is threatened with disbandment with a low degree of probability. But even if this happens, the losses will not be painful.

Having come to the KGB from the 1st Medical Institute, having graduated from the highest security courses in Minsk, Romodanovsky first worked in the 5th Directorate of the KGB of the USSR, and since 1992 - in the FSB Internal Security Directorate. According to some reports, in the late 1990s, the danger of dismissal loomed over Romodanovsky, but the St. Petersburg team that came to the FSB came to the rescue. Interesting fact, at this very time, it was Viktor Ivanov who made a bet on Romodanovsky, appointing Konstantin Olegovich as the first deputy head of the FSB Internal Affairs Directorate. His real career takeoff will occur after meeting the head of the Presidential Security Service, Viktor Zolotov, already familiar to us.

It was then, in May 2001, that Romodanovsky was assigned to head the Internal Security Service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. According to operational data, Romodanovsky was disfavored by his business connections, in particular with the notorious owner of the Cherkizovsky market Telman Ismailov. The creation of the FMS in 2005 and the appointment of Romodanovsky as its head was actually a lifeline for the general. Our sources say that a good relationship Romodanovsky retained his relationship with Zolotov, and even if his service is transferred back to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, he has every chance of remaining at the helm of migration flows.

Romodanovsky’s former deputy at the FMS, Vyacheslav Postavnin, in a conversation with Sovershenno Sekretno, supported the idea of liquidating the service and transferring its powers back to the Ministry of Internal Affairs: “According to statistics, illegal migration is only increasing. Corruption among FMS officials is rampant. The FMS failed to cope with the functions assigned to it. Not created normal system management of migration processes, for which this service was created. Moscow has now taken over the new law “On Patents for Foreign Workers”, since at the regional level the distribution of patents would be based solely on financial considerations, and not on the basis of necessity and necessity. Instead of specialists, there are now police officers, traffic cops, and security officers. But they do not know how and do not want to deal with social problems.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs can easily handle passports and visas instead. People in the Federal Migration Service have ceased to understand the subject of their service. It is a pity that migration as a phenomenon, as a process, will remain ownerless when the Federal Migration Service is liquidated, but it is now ownerless. And migration is a massive phenomenon, socially dangerous and unpredictable if it is not controlled.”

After 13 years, the Ministry of Internal Affairs regained its anti-drug and passport and visa divisions: the Federal Drug Control Service and the Federal Migration Service were merged into the structure of the department. As a result of the merger, the services themselves receive additional powers, which have been asked for a long time.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, April 5, announced the subordination of the Federal Service for Drug Control (FSKN) and the Federal Migration Service (FMS) to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD). Both liquidated departments, after joining the Ministry of Internal Affairs, are implementing their long-standing plans to increase their powers.

FSKN

The issue of merging the Federal Drug Control Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs has been discussed for more than a year. As a source close to the presidential administration told RBC, the head of the department, Viktor Ivanov, was against the liquidation of the Federal Drug Control Service. Ivanov was appointed to the position of head of the Federal Drug Control Service in May 2008; before that, he worked for a long time in the administration of President Vladimir Putin, in particular, from 2004 to 2008 he served as assistant to the president for personnel matters.

Over the past few years, the Federal Drug Control Service has been trying to expand the range of its interests; in particular, the agency wanted to monopolize the sphere of rehabilitation and socialization of drug addicts. FSKN even developed state program, which involves uniting under the auspices of the Federal Drug Control Service about 500 existing rehabilitation centers in Russia. They were planned to be able to receive grants from the state to help drug addicts. Initially, the Federal Drug Control Service requested more than 150 billion rubles from the state for these purposes. Subsequently, the estimated cost of the program was reduced to 1.5 billion.

The department received the authority to provide financial and organizational support to rehabilitation NGOs in August 2014 by Putin’s decree. But Ivanov never succeeded in implementing the program, since the Ministry of Finance refused to allocate money for it. The Federal Drug Control Service also failed to approve the relevant law on service, which was developed back in 2013. This law significantly expanded the powers of the service: the department wanted to conduct medical examinations, issue orders to companies and individual entrepreneurs, so that they “take measures to prevent drug trafficking,” and even through the courts, suspend the work of companies if they do not comply with the service’s instructions.

But for its main work - countering drug trafficking - the Federal Drug Control Service was criticized by experts who compared the service’s indicators with those of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Police officers are dedicated to solving low-level or moderate drug crimes. Experts from the St. Petersburg Institute for Law Enforcement Problems, in a report on the effectiveness of the work of the two departments, stated that the Ministry of Internal Affairs is ahead of the Federal Drug Control Service in number solved crimes, and the Federal Drug Control Service is ahead of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the volume of drugs seized.

In the spring of 2015, Ivanov, commenting on rumors about a possible reorganization of his department, said that the Ministry of Internal Affairs has higher rates of arrests of ordinary drug users, but the Federal Drug Control Service is focusing on large suppliers and distributors of drugs. “90% of all wholesale drug shipments are seized by the Federal Drug Control Service,” Ivanov emphasized.

It is still unclear what will happen to the more than 30 thousand FSKN employees who are on the department’s staff. About layoffs in FSKN Putin did not inform at the meeting with representatives of departments, he only stated that “this entire structure will work self-sufficiently, independently, but within the framework of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.” The Federal Drug Control Service itself announced in mid-January that it was optimizing its structure and staff.

Which structural subdivision will be created in the Ministry of Internal Affairs in connection with joining the Federal Drug Control Service, has not yet been announced. Before the creation of the Federal Drug Control Service, the fight against drugs in the Ministry of Internal Affairs was carried out by the Main Directorate for Combating Illicit Drug Trafficking (GUBNON). After disbandment, an anti-drug department was created within the structure of the Main Directorate of Criminal Investigation and special departments in the regions. As Kommersant wrote, after the liquidation of the Federal Drug Control Service, it is planned to transfer the drug police to the criminal investigation departments. In addition, according to the newspaper, the possibility of recreating GUBNON is also being discussed.

The FMS became an independent unit in 2004, when the agency left the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In recent years, the FMS has complained that the service is not among law enforcement and does not have the functions necessary to work with migrants, explains RBC’s interlocutor at the FMS. Last week about the lack of authority to round table Nadezhda Voronina, deputy head of the monitoring department of the department for organizing work with foreign citizens of the FMS, spoke at the Public Chamber.

In the spring of 2014, the FMS developed a bill “On Immigration Control”, which significantly expanded the powers of the department and turned it into a full-fledged power structure. If this law were approved by the State Duma and signed by the president, service employees could conduct inspections legal entities, revoke licenses and confiscate permits from employers. In addition, department employees would have the right to initiate and investigate criminal cases for organizing illegal migration, check citizens’ documents and use weapons.

Before its liquidation, the competence of the FMS included issues of granting citizenship, issuing visas to enter Russia, issuing and issuing passports to citizens of the Russian Federation, deportation and entry bans for violators of migration legislation. The leadership of the department consists of representatives of law enforcement agencies. Three of the eight deputy heads of the FMS Konstantin Romodanovsky come from state security agencies, like himself, and three more come from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

After staff reductions in the summer of 2015, the Federal Migration Service employed 36 thousand people. It is already known that the Federal Migration Service will reduce another 30%: this is stated in Putin’s decree on the merger of structures. The very fact of the return of the FMS to the Ministry of Internal Affairs does not mean that “the independent state was considered unsuccessful,” presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “It’s just that as a result of interdepartmental study we came to the conclusion that at this stage such a structure is more appropriate,” Peskov explained.

The fate of the current head of the FMS Romodanovsky will be decided by Putin, deputy head of the FMS Ekaterina Egorova told RBC on Tuesday.

President of the Migration 21st Century Foundation, former deputy director of the Federal Migration Service Vyacheslav Postavnin, in a conversation with RBC, noted that the decision to merge departments had been asking for a long time, since Lately The Ministry of Internal Affairs received part of the functions of the migration service. According to him, there are two options for subordinating the FMS to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The first option assumes that the FMS remains a service, but within the framework of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the head of the migration department becomes the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs.

“The second option is that the FMS will essentially turn into a passport and visa center under the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which it was before. The functions of monitoring migrants and regulating migration will then need to be given to someone, since the Ministry of Internal Affairs was not involved in this,” adds Postavnin. According to him, the function of issuing labor patents to migrants can be given either to the regions, as is happening in Moscow, or to the Ministry of Labor.

After joining the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FMS to some extent realized its desire to expand its powers, Postavnin clarifies. But these powers - inquiry, interrogation, operational work - will most likely not be needed by the service employees, Postavnin is sure. In his opinion, direct work with migrants will be carried out by police officers - district police officers, guards, etc., since the FMS will concentrate on passport and visa work.

Russian President Vladimir Putin subordinated the Federal Migration Service and the Federal Service for Drug Control to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Previously, the media reported on the possible liquidation of the Federal Migration Service and the Federal Drug Control Service

President's decision

Russian President Vladimir Putin subordinated the Federal Service for Drug Control (FSKN) and the Federal Migration Service (FMS) to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. He stated this at a meeting with the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Viktor Kolokoltsev, the head of the Federal Drug Control Service Viktor Ivanov, the commander of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Viktor Zolotov and the deputy head of the Federal Migration Service Ekaterina Egorova, RIA Novosti reports.

“As for the fight against organized crime in the sphere of drug trafficking, as we said, we are implementing one of the proposals: we are transferring the Federal Drug Control Service to the system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs,” the agency quotes him. “The same applies to the migration service,” Putin added.

At the same meeting, the president announced the creation of the National Guard on the basis of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Information that the Ministry of Internal Affairs may transfer powers to the Federal Drug Control Service and the Federal Migration Service appeared at the beginning of last year. On January 30, 2015, two State Duma deputies and an interlocutor close to the Kremlin and the Russian Security Council told RBC about this. At the same time, a project on the liquidation of the Federal Drug Control Service had already been prepared, but in the end Ivanov said that this issue was removed from the agenda.

The fate of the FMS

An RBC source close to the leadership of the FMS previously emphasized that the head of the FMS, Konstantin Romodanovsky, would also object. RBC's interlocutor in the Kremlin noted that no decisions have been made.

Later, the Kremlin abandoned the idea of merging the FMS and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. One of RBC’s interlocutors in the security forces clarified that Putin instructed the Security Council to further develop the proposal to abolish the FMS. At the same time, the source said, in the Security Council Romodanovsky can count on the support of his colleague in managing the FSB’s own security - the current director of the Federal Drug Control Service Viktor Ivanov, as well as permanent member of the Security Council Boris Gryzlov.

On March 31, 2016, the Vedomosti newspaper reported that Putin and the Security Council would discuss the issue of abolishing the FMS. The publication’s interlocutors said that the issue of liquidating the agency was submitted for further consideration to the Security Council in February 2016, and its decision could be announced at the meeting. A source close to the leadership of the FMS reported that the main functions of the department could be transferred to the FSB or the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He also said that it is proposed to establish a three-year transition period for these transformations. The interlocutor noted that main reason The reform being undertaken is the need to save budget funds.

The FMS became an independent unit in 2004, when the agency left the Ministry of Internal Affairs. In recent years, the FMS has complained that the service is not a law enforcement agency and does not have the functions necessary to work with migrants, explains RBC’s interlocutor at the FMS. Last week, Nadezhda Voronina, deputy head of the monitoring department of the department for organizing work with foreign citizens of the FMS, spoke about the lack of authority at a round table in the Public Chamber.

The competence of the FMS included issues of granting citizenship, issuing visas to enter Russia, issuing and issuing passports to citizens of the Russian Federation, deportation and entry bans for violators of migration legislation. The leadership of the department consists of representatives of law enforcement agencies. Three of Romodanovsky’s eight deputies come from the state security agencies, like himself, and three more come from the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

President of the Migration 21st Century Foundation, former deputy director of the Federal Migration Service Vyacheslav Postavnin, in a conversation with RBC, noted that the decision to merge departments was long overdue, since recently the Ministry of Internal Affairs has received some of the functions of the migration service. “The FMS has exhausted itself and fallen, like a ripe apple, into the arms of the Ministry of Internal Affairs,” Postavnin said.

State Secretary, First Deputy Head of the Federal Migration Service Ekaterina Egorova, in a conversation with RBC, clarified that the decision to merge departments was predictable, since the issue had been discussed for some time. Egorova noted that it will be possible to discuss the technical details of the merger after the publication of a presidential decree, which will become “the starting point for organizing work.”

Then it will be possible to talk about whether there will be reductions in FMS employees, Egorova emphasized. The main direction of the merger, according to her, will be set by the Minister of Internal Affairs Vladimir Kolokoltsev, and the details will be decided at the working level. The fate of the current head of the Federal Migration Service, Konstantin Romodanovsky, will be decided by Vladimir Putin, Egorova is sure.

The fate of the Federal Drug Control Service

The issue of merging the Federal Drug Control Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs has also been discussed for more than a year. As RBC wrote, citing a source close to the presidential administration, the head of the department, Viktor Ivanov, was against the liquidation of the Federal Drug Control Service. A former deputy head of the presidential administration, Ivanov for a long time tried to defend the right to exist of the service, trying to expand the department’s sphere of influence and expand the specifics of its work.

In particular, in recent years the Federal Drug Control Service has wanted to monopolize the sphere of rehabilitation and resocialization of drug addicts. The department insisted on allocating funds for the implementation of a program for the rehabilitation and resocialization of drug addicts. The program involves uniting under the auspices of the Federal Drug Control Service about 500 existing rehabilitation centers in Russia, which, as planned, will be able to receive grants from the state to help drug addicts. The department received the authority to provide financial and organizational support to rehabilitation NGOs in August 2014 by decree of Vladimir Putin.

Employees of the Federal Migration Service and the Federal Drug Control Service during a joint raid on nightclubs in Moscow (Photo: RIA Novosti)

FSKN

The issue of merging the Federal Drug Control Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs has been discussed for more than a year. According to RBC, a source close to the presidential administration, the head of the department, Viktor Ivanov, was against the liquidation of the Federal Drug Control Service. Ivanov was appointed to the position of head of the Federal Drug Control Service in May 2008; before that, he worked for a long time in the administration of President Vladimir Putin, in particular, from 2004 to 2008 he served as assistant to the president for personnel matters.

Over the past few years, the Federal Drug Control Service has been trying to expand the range of its interests; in particular, the agency wanted to monopolize the sphere of rehabilitation and socialization of drug addicts. The Federal Drug Control Service has even developed a state program that involves uniting about 500 rehabilitation centers existing in Russia under the auspices of the Federal Drug Control Service. They were planned to be able to receive grants from the state to help drug addicts. Initially, the Federal Drug Control Service requested more than 150 billion rubles from the state for these purposes. Subsequently, the estimated cost of the program was reduced to 1.5 billion.

The department received the authority to provide financial and organizational support to rehabilitation NGOs in August 2014 by Putin’s decree. But Ivanov never succeeded in implementing the program, since the Ministry of Finance refused to allocate money for it. The Federal Drug Control Service also failed to approve the relevant law on service, which was developed back in 2013. This law significantly expanded the powers of the service: the department wanted to conduct medical examinations, issue orders to companies and individual entrepreneurs so that they “take measures to prevent drug trafficking,” and even through the courts, suspend the work of companies if they did not comply with the service’s orders.

But for its main work - countering drug trafficking - the Federal Drug Control Service was criticized by experts who compared the service’s indicators with those of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Police officers are dedicated to solving low-level or moderate drug crimes. Experts from the St. Petersburg Institute of Law Enforcement Problems, dedicated to the effectiveness of the work of the two departments, stated that the Ministry of Internal Affairs is ahead of the Federal Drug Control Service in the number of crimes solved, and the Federal Drug Control Service is ahead of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the volume of drugs seized.

It is still unclear what will happen to the more than 30 thousand FSKN employees who are on the department’s staff. Putin did not inform about layoffs in the Federal Drug Control Service at the meeting with representatives of departments; he only stated that “this entire structure will work self-sufficiently, independently, but within the framework of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.” The Federal Drug Control Service itself announced in mid-January that it was optimizing its structure and staff.

What structural unit will be created in the Ministry of Internal Affairs in connection with joining the Federal Drug Control Service has not yet been announced. Before the creation of the Federal Drug Control Service, the fight against drugs in the Ministry of Internal Affairs was carried out by the Main Directorate for Combating Illicit Drug Trafficking (GUBNON). After disbandment, an anti-drug department was created within the structure of the Main Directorate of Criminal Investigation and special departments in the regions. As Kommersant wrote, after the liquidation of the Federal Drug Control Service, it is planned to transfer the drug police to the criminal investigation departments. In addition, according to the newspaper, the possibility of recreating GUBNON is also being discussed.

In the spring of 2014, the FMS developed a bill “On Immigration Control,” which significantly expanded the powers of the department and turned it into a full-fledged law enforcement agency. If this law were approved by the State Duma and signed by the president, service employees could conduct inspections of legal entities, cancel licenses and confiscate permits from employers. In addition, department employees would have the right to initiate and investigate criminal cases for organizing illegal migration, check citizens’ documents and use weapons.

After staff reductions in the summer of 2015, the Federal Migration Service employed 36 thousand people. It is already known that the Federal Migration Service will reduce another 30%: this is stated in Putin’s decree on the merger of structures. The very fact of the return of the FMS to the Ministry of Internal Affairs does not mean that “the independent state was considered unsuccessful,” presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “It’s just that as a result of interdepartmental study, we came to the conclusion that at this stage such a structure is more appropriate,” Peskov explained.

The fate of the current head of the FMS Romodanovsky will be decided by Putin, deputy head of the FMS Ekaterina Egorova told RBC on Tuesday.

President of the Migration 21st Century Foundation, former deputy director of the Federal Migration Service Vyacheslav Postavnin, in a conversation with RBC, noted that the decision to merge departments was long overdue, since recently the Ministry of Internal Affairs has received some of the functions of the migration service. According to him, there are two options for subordinating the FMS to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The first option assumes that the FMS remains a service, but within the framework of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the head of the migration department becomes the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs.