>>28424136
>militia (I know weird meaning in English, but whatever)
I think they called it the "militsiya" (militia) because of the role of commie militias in keeping order during the time of great suffering that was the early Soviet Russia.
It also sounded more like an organized force of equal civilians compared to the police, which had gotten a very bad reputation during the Czar's attempts to keep the country together and stop all those revolutionary movements.
Funnily enough, they reset the name back to "politsiya" during Medvedev's fake presidency in 2011 because the word "militsiya" itself had gotten a terrible reputation.
They were bad enough during the Soviet times, but in the 1990s, some units basically resorted to robbing people on the road, demanding money or something, or they'd have to take the car's occupants to a police station for an "investigation". Which could take a few days even if they found nothing. Guess they had to pay for rent and heating somehow; their wages weren't worth shit even if they were paid (this wasn't guaranteed).
Savvy travelers in the 1990s always had something valuable they could offer as a gift, e.g. Adidas tracksuits. You could avoid a lot of trouble if you tossed them some Adidas or something.
