About the Lecture:
This presentation examines the reforms, structural evolution, and contemporary challenges of the Russian police. In the early 2010s, a significant reform rebranded the “militsiia” as “politsiia,” introducing public accountability measures and increasing centralization. Despite improvements in police salaries and a more favorable public image, the reforms failed to dismiss the key performance indicators focused on clearance rates, exacerbating bureaucratic inefficiencies. The 2016 creation of the National Guard redirected resources away from the police, intensifying staffing shortages. By 2024, the Ministry of Interior reported a deficit of 174,000 officers, with low pay and poor working conditions fueling high turnover. Feminization trends emerged as women increasingly filled positions traditionally held by men. The war in Ukraine has further strained policing capacity, with rising incidents of violence involving returning soldiers and combatants. The presentation highlights how excessive centralization, bureaucratization, and inadequate staffing undermine effective policing, leaving the Russian police badly equipped to address evolving challenges.
About the Speaker:
Born in 1976 in Kazan, Ekaterina Khodzhaeva graduated from the sociological faculty of Kazan State University in 1998, where she then defended her PhD on the cultural policy of Tatarstan’s media in 2003. As part of her research agenda at the time, Khodzhaeva also studied ethnic and religious identities in Tatarstan. It was also in Kazan that she began focusing on the empirical legal research in 2007 as part of a research project on police-migration encounters in the city.
In 2009-2010, as a fellow of Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, she was a visiting Scholar at the Research Center for East European Studies at the University of Bremen. In 2013, Khodzhaeva was a Fulbright Fellow and won a visiting scholarship at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University.
In September 2013, Khodzhaeva joined the Institute of Rule of Law at the European University of St. Petersburg as a researcher, and in 2023 she got a senior researcher position. She participated in the institute’s research project on the professional routines of the Russian police forces and developed an independent research agenda on the role of defense lawyers in the Russian criminal justice system. From 2018 to 2023, she conducted research on newly launched jury reforms, which relied on extensive field work in small towns and rural areas in Russia. She also participated in Russian Crime Victimization Surveys (2018, 2021, 2024), which independently estimates the dynamic of the criminal situation and police effectiveness in Russia. The central area of her scientific interests includes the legal profession, law enforcement and police, and the criminal justice and court system.