Cutting the number of policemen under the police reform in Russia will not affect the Caucasus, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said during a meeting of the National Counterterrorist Committee on Tuesday.
The draft federal law on Russia's police reform will come into effect from March 1, 2011. It includes changing the name of Russian law enforcers from "militsia" to the internationally accepted word "police," and will cut the number of policemen by 20% while increasing salaries to those remaining on board.
According to Medvedev, the number of police officers in the Caucasus will be increased in some cases.
"The protection of judges is effected... But this is only the beginning, the job should continue," the president said.
"Here in the Caucasus our citizens are confronted with terrorism almost daily, [terrorism] also exists in other parts of the country but in the Caucasus it is almost everywhere and terrorist attacks happen quite often," Medvedev said.
Medvedev admitted that radical improvements have not yet occurred. "Terrorist attacks in the past and this year indicate that our country has many problems with security," he said.
Medvedev said there "should be no relaxation and there are no universal recipes" in the fight against terrorism.
VLADIKAVKAZ, February 22 (RIA Novosti)
