Russia’s police officers to be tasked with ‘preserving and strengthening traditional values’

Russia’s Internal Affairs Ministry has prepared an executive directive requiring the nation’s police to preserve and strengthen “traditional Russian spiritual and moral values.” The agency’s initiative implements a “Fundamentals of State Policy” plan the federal government cabinet adopted in July.

The ministry has not provided details on how police departments are meant to “preserve and strengthen” traditional values, which also remain undefined.

In November 2022, Vladimir Putin ordered the “preservation and strengthening” of “traditional values” in education, youth outreach, culture, science, and interethnic and interfaith relations, among other areas. In August 2024, Putin signed a decree granting temporary residency permits to foreigners fleeing countries that “impose destructive neoliberal ideological views contrary to traditional Russian spiritual and moral values.”