Soviet Crime Jumps 40%; Shortages Cited

The Soviet crime rate, fueled by consumer shortages, has jumped by nearly 40% in the last six months, and the nation’s police departments need more money if they are to fight back, Interior Minister Vadim V. Bakatin said Monday.

Bakatin made his comments to the Supreme Soviet, the new national legislature, which confirmed him to his Cabinet seat in part, according to the Tass news agency, because of the honesty he displayed in discussing the spiraling crime rate.

Bakatin revealed that incidents of serious crime rose 39.9% during the first six months of this year, compared to the same period last year. He also said that the juvenile delinquency rate rose 22% during the same period.

He said that murders, mostly the result of domestic violence or drunken brawls in the past, today were caused in 60% of the cases by “selfish motives.”

“Unbalanced development in the economy, politics, social and moral spheres is inevitable in the transitional period through which Soviet society is going, which, in turn, provokes tension, shortages, social injustice and thus stimulates crime,” said Bakatin, 51, who has been interior minister for six months.

Bakatin said low wages paid to police officers and the low quality of their equipment leaves them unprepared to stop criminals.

“Per capita spending on police in the United States amounts to $100, and in the (Soviet Union), eight rubles. Even under the official rate, which does not reflect the ruble’s real purchasing power, this is a glaring discrepancy,” Tass said in reporting Bakatin’s comments. Eight rubles, at the official exchange rate, is about $17.

Low-Powered Cars

Lt. Gen. Peter Bogdanov, deputy interior minister, said in this week’s Moscow News that Soviet police officers are equipped with “outdated communications equipment and low-powered cars that are no match against . . . the foreign-made cars used by criminals.”

In addition, Moscow News said, officers are paid no more than 250 rubles a month.

In Moscow alone, the weekly said, there were 62 crimes involving firearms reported in the first five months of the year, compared to 19 in the same period last year.

President Mikhail S. Gorbachev, presiding over Monday’s session, interrupted Bakatin to note that he had been impressed by the number of police officers he saw during an official visit to West Germany last month.

“I looked around and there were police, police, police,” Gorbachev said. “Where did they come from, armed and with equipment?”

Gorbachev said he was told there is one police officer for every 400 West Germans. Bakatin responded that in the Soviet Union, there is one officer for every 588 people.

“The honesty with which Bakatin spoke about the fast rise in the crime rate in the country appealed to the deputies,” Tass reported, noting that only seven deputies out of 414 present voted against Bakatin for the Interior Ministry portfolio.

Also Monday, the Supreme Soviet for the third time rejected a Cabinet nominee. Mikhail I. Busygin, 58, in charge of the Lumber Ministry since 1982, was rejected for the Cabinet post after deputies criticized him for depleting forests and neglecting ecological problems.