Moscow - A group of car owners said on Tuesday they would take legal action against Moscow traffic police they said used them as a roadblock to try to stop armed criminals.
The case may become yet another high profile row involving Russian police, whose falling authority in society has prompted President Dmitry Medvedev to announce a police reforms and promise tough punishment for police who break the law.
Stanislav Sutyagin said he was stopped by traffic police on March 5 as he drove along the Moscow Ring Road and told to form a barrier along with 10 other car owners.
"Police gave us no reason," he told Reuters.
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Several minutes later, a car chased by police rammed through the cars at full speed and disappeared. Sutyagin said that at least three cars, including his Mercedes, were badly damaged.
"I was livid. They even didn't tell us to leave our cars. Maybe, they simply did not think about threats to our lives. And what if we had stopped the armed criminals? What would they have done to us in this case?" he told Reuters.
Sutyagin said he and several other car owners would take legal action against Moscow traffic police. "I now need to restore my car. And, anyway, one has to stop this police lawlessness," he said.
Vesti-24 channel showed Sutyagin's badly damaged Mercedes.
"We view this incident as some kind of deviation from the existing rules," Igor Isayev, deputy head of Moscow's traffic police, told Vesti-24. He said one police officer had been reprimanded for the incident and an investigation was under way.
Last month Medvedev fired a slew of police generals and told the remaining ones to clean up corruption within police ranks and do a better job fighting crime.
Many in Russia now see police as a threat rather than protection, and Medvedev has pledged that guilty policemen will be handed out tougher punishments than civilians.
Sutyagin said he was trembling with shock when he got out of his car after the clash with the criminals. "I went to a nearby police post and demanded explanations," he said. "The immediate answer was: 'Get lost'." - Reuters
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