Police Reindeer

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Service reindeer being considered for police in Russia’s Arctic

Trude Pettersen, Barents Observer

November 24, 2014


Russian authorities are considering establishing a "reindeer police force" to help combat crime in one Arctic tundra region.

Police in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug have complained that most of the crimes in the region are being committed by people who hide from the police on the tundra and other out-of-the-way places by using reindeer sledges. In order to pursue and transport criminals and quickly respond to crime, the police want to have reindeer in their own “garage.”

The issue of service reindeer came up a few days ago, after the last crime data from the region were published. Most cases are domestic crimes executed in condition of alcoholic inebriation such as hooliganism, fights and thefts.

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“Of course, we have snowmobiles in service, but one should understand that machinery is machinery. A snowmobile can break down or get stuck in the tundra while reindeer will run all the time,” a police representative told Izvestia. “The reindeer could be useful for district police officers to get around in remote areas.”

Local police also provide different assistance to citizens and transport sick persons from the tundra.

The possibility to purchase service reindeers was included in police legislation in 2012. According to a ministerial order, service reindeer must daily be provided with 2.2 pounds of bread made of rye and wheat and about 13 pounds of reindeer moss or lichen.

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Kremlin moves Arctic closer to Moscow
Atle Staalesen, Barents Observer
November 24, 2014


Governors’ elections will be abolished and the governance of Arctic territories is likely to be transferred to a new Ministry of the Arctic.

Following the establishment of a Ministry of the Crimea, the Ministry of the North Caucasus and the Ministry of the Far East, the turn appears to have come to the North.

A representative of the Russian presidential administration confirms that the establishment of the ministry now is on the agenda. "This is a strategically important region for the country, [and] a structure which can centralize all operations is absolutely needed,” the representative told the newspaper Kommersant.



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A list of leader candidates for the new structure is being made and the issue will soon be handed over to the government, the newspaper writes. Among the possible candidates for the job is Dmitry Kobylkin, current head of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, as well as presidential adviser Artur Chilingarov.

The latter during the ongoing Murmansk Business Week announced that he himself is ready to head the new structure, RBCTV reports.



The discussions over the new structure come as the regional parliaments of four Arctic regions decide to abolish direct governor elections. The regions, all of them so-called autonomous okrugs, will from now on be governed by leaders indirectly appointed by Moscow.

The Kremlin has over recent years established several territorial-dedicated ministries, the latest of them on the development of the Crimea in May this year. However, unlike the other new ministries, a ministry on the Arctic would include far bigger territories and far less people. If established, it would be responsible for developments stretching from the Barents Sea in the west to the Bering Strait in the east.