I had a good laugh. A comical reply came from the St. Petersburg Main Directorate of Internal Affairs regarding the case of the "Pearl Ensign" (a widely discussed police brutality case in Russia).
So now cursing at civilians and then, for absolutely no reason, smashing them in the face with a baton is called "tactless treatment." I always thought "tactless" meant rustling a chocolate wrapper in a theater. Or making a stupid joke. But hitting someone in the face is a "crime." The St. Petersburg police seem to have come up with some new interpretation of both the law and basic standards of behavior. Especially priceless is the point about the mysterious "causes and conditions that contributed...." One assumes Ensign Boyko must have been in a state of intense emotional agitation, preoccupied with thoughts about the pace of modernization in Russian society and the state. Which is why he was unable to restrain his impulse to help speed that process along. We are waiting for a response from the prosecutor's office. As for the police, they can send letters like that to their grandmother. What we need is either a ruling to open a criminal case, or a ruling refusing to open one (which can then be challenged in court).