"Ownerless land": the police suggested that the head of the East look for a local officer himself.

      The Ghost of the District Officer

      The situation that has long been silent and is now confirmed by an official document (No. 3180 dated March 19, 2026) is absurd for the 21st century. In the village of Vostochny, where hundreds of people live, there is a school, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church operates, yet there is no designated district officer.

      The position assigned to administrative area No. 12 is officially vacant. This means that residents have to knock on the door of the office at 4 Kirova Street, effectively into nowhere, reports the public page of the urban-type settlement "About Everything Vostochny Omutninsky District."

      "Service is combined" — this is how the police refer to the situation when the entire village is overseen by the senior district officer, Olga Sergeevna Luchnikova. The wording "resides permanently in the urban-type settlement Vostochny and is located in the village" (the style and tautology of the document are preserved) raises more questions than answers. If the officer already lives in the village, why is their work reduced to "combining"? The answer is simple: the Omutninsky police department has a catastrophic shortage of staff.

      "Draw us a policeman"

      The most provocative and shocking part of the document is hidden in the last paragraph. Instead of ensuring law and order with state forces, the police chief appeals to the head of the settlement administration, V.V. Snegirev, asking for "assistance in finding a candidate."

      In essence, the law requires the state (the Ministry of Internal Affairs) to provide safety. But the police shift the staffing function onto local self-government bodies, suggesting that officials find someone willing to work for a salary that is apparently not very attractive to fill the "gap" in the staffing schedule. Residents are offered to become recruitment agents so that there is at least some law enforcement in the village.

      The Church Against Demonic Chaos

      The problem of the absence of police is not an abstract bureaucratic complexity. It is a matter of the physical safety of people, which has already escalated into a hot phase.

      A recent incident at the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church revealed the reality. A man in an irrational state burst into the holy place where people seek peace and protection. According to eyewitnesses, he exhibited "demonic possession," behaving aggressively and destructively. Terrified parishioners, including elderly women and children, found themselves alone with the threat.

      Who to call in such a situation? The police's answer is clear: the official reception of the district officer is only 3 hours a week (Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6 to 7 PM and the third Saturday of the month from 3 to 4 PM). And what if trouble strikes on a Sunday morning when the service is ongoing? Should one hope for the "personal cell phone" listed on the sign? But that phone belongs to an officer who is already "combining" the workload for the entire village. Given the understaffing, will the squad even arrive?

      Youth Out of Reach

      Another layer of the problem is juvenile crime. The issue of offenses among teenagers has been raised multiple times in the village. The absence of a permanent district officer who knows the "difficult" teenagers by face, their families, and conducts preventive work nullifies the entire crime prevention system.

      When there is no police officer living nearby and aware of the situation, teenagers feel impunity. Schools and parents find themselves in a vacuum.

      In Conclusion

      The official response from the Ministry of Internal Affairs "Omutninsky" is not a report on work; it is a distress signal. The state, represented by law enforcement agencies, acknowledges that it cannot ensure the safety of residents in the urban-type settlement Vostochny and shifts this task onto the shoulders of the local administration and, in essence, the citizens themselves.

      Deputy Nadezhda Aronson, who raised this issue during a reception, received a formal response, seasoned with a request to "find a candidate." But the question to Lieutenant Colonel Fufachev remains: while the administration searches for a candidate, who will protect the parishioners of the church from rampaging troublemakers, and whose children will add to the crime statistics?

      Residents of Vostochny demand not "combining," but a full-fledged, functioning district officer who will be present on the ground, not just on paper. And this demand must be heard by the higher authorities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Kirov region and the prosecutor's office, for which "understaffing" should not be an excuse for leaving an entire populated area without law and order.