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Cossacks similar to these officers, pictured in Novocherkassk, are increasingly assuming low-level security functions previously reserved for police.
Apair ofmodern-day Cossacks begins their patrol at8 p.m. ona cool September evening. They're onthe lookout forlawbreakers: drunks, drug addicts, youths out after curfew — anybody disturbing thepeace inLyublino, aquiet residential district insoutheast Moscow.
Andrei Pichugin andNikolai Vladimirtsev, self-styled descendants ofthe tsar's fearsome horsemen, wear snappy blue uniforms andpolished black shoes. Pichugin periodically doffs apeaked service cap during thethree-hour foot patrol, revealing aglistening crown ofsweat.
Vladimirtsev, 22, is baby-faced andsoft-spoken. His day job is photographer atlocal sports events. Pichugin, 23, short andsquat, is inlaw school. Thetwo met as undergraduates.
"People like toask us, 'Where's your horse? Where's your sword?'" Pichugin says, passing agroup ofteenagers drinking beer onthe hood ofa parked car inan otherwise empty courtyard. One teenager, oblivious toor undeterred bythe Cossacks' red andsilver shoulder patches, ...
