Nationalist Vigilantes Are Now Policing Russia's Streets

Some towns and cities across the country are missing as many as half of their patrol and duty officers

- Milan Czerny & Thomas Grove

Vigilante groups are increasingly taking control of Russia's streets and imposing their version of nationalist, pro-Kremlin order as police leave for higher salaries fighting in the war in Ukraine.

Some towns and cities across the country are missing as many as half of their patrol and duty officers—and crime rates are rising.

One of the largest groups to step into the void, Russkaya Obshchina, or Russian Community, has 150 chapters across Russia's 11 time zones. The group's ranks have swelled as veterans join after returning from the front.

Russkaya Obshchina has boosted its presence on Russia's biggest social-media platforms such as Telegram and VK, the country's version of Facebook. It offers a mobile app for anyone to download, with a panic button for emergencies.

Videos on Russian social media show members intervening in everything from alcohol-fueled disputes between neighbors to cases of violence and harassment on the frozen streets of Siberia. Group members sometimes detain people they accuse of petty crimes until the police arrive. But they often go beyond the scope of typical police work, raiding the homes and workplaces of migrants, breaking up private gay parties and forcibly registering people for the military.

The war has sapped manpower from the Russian hinterlands as men are lured to the military by signing bonuses of sometimes more than a year's salary. No void has undermined law and order quite like the one left by police officers for the front.

Authorities, particularly in far-flung places, need help. Russia's domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service, is largely focused on acts of sabotage by Ukraine and antiwar sentiment. The Interior Ministry said local police forces had lost some 33,000 police officers in the past year and were currently short some 172,000 new officers.