Ukraine sacks all traffic police

[Eugene]

Ukraine sacks all traffic police

Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow
Wednesday July 20, 2005
The Guardian

They are the scourge of motorists across the former Soviet Union, known
for accusing drivers of fictitious crimes and demanding a bribe to
clear them.

But now Ukraine has sacked all of its 23,000 traffic police. The
president, Viktor Yushchenko, said they had "discredited themselves"
and would cease to exist.

In the most sweeping anti-corruption gesture of his six-month
presidency, Mr Yushchenko said yesterday that repeated orders to the
traffic police to clean up their act had gone unheeded.

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