Putin: Russian Interior Ministry not using its potential to full extent

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the Russian Interior Ministry is not using its potential to solve crimes to the full extent. 

"Nearly half of all crimes remain unsolved, as before. The ministry’s potential is not used to the full extent," he told a meeting of the Interior Ministry board.

Putin noted that the issue at hand is such sensitive areas as combating corruption, protecting citizens, their property and businesses from criminal offenses.

At the same time, Putin noted that the number of grave and extremely serious crimes declined in Russia last year, TASS reported.

"Focusing on the results, I will mark that in 2016 a tendency towards a decline in the number of grave and especially serious crimes persisted, and the number of road accident also dropped," he said, also noting a positive trend in preventive work with minors.

Addressing a session of the Interior Ministry Board, Putin said these figures were achieved owing to the activity of neighborhood police inspectors, officers of the criminal investigation department, road police and other units, as well as through more efficient coordinated work of the Interior Ministry with other agencies.