No Officers? No Problem: Russia Stations Cardboard Police Beside ATMs to Fight Phone Scams

Russian regions have begun installing life-size cardboard and plastic figures of police officers beside ATMs to deter fraudsters, a stopgap driven by the country's deepening shortage of police personnel.

This was reported by Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service (SZRU) on its official website on July 31.

The service described the mockups as an absurdly demonstrative fix for a personnel crisis that the Russian Interior Ministry can no longer resolve through recruitment.

The two-meter figures are meant to frighten off scammers and warn residents against wiring money to criminals. According to the service, the props are intended to bridge the gap until a new generation of "state children" grows up to fill the ranks.

The Russian investigative outlet Baza, which reviewed the procurement records, drew a sharper picture of the scale and cost. Over the past two years, dozens of tenders for plastic or cardboard police officers have surfaced on the state procurement system, Baza found.

Each life-size figure runs about $250, and agencies purchase them in "patrols" of several units at a time. Baza estimated total spending on the mock officers at roughly $12,000 across the regions.

A procurement notice from Russia’s Republic of Dagestan shows that authorities awarded a contract worth approximately $6,400 for the production and installation of life-size police figures with anti-fraud warning signs under a regional crime-prevention program. The tender was published in June 2026 and covers the use of the cutouts through 2030.

The reliance on improvised substitutes follows earlier attempts to paper over the same shortfall. Weeks earlier, the Russian Interior Ministry had moved to reassign civilian employees and administrative staff to patrol and district officer duties after brief training.

That measure sought to cover a deficit of some 212,000 positions, roughly 186,000 of them certified law enforcement roles, driven largely by resignations the ministry tied to low pay.

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