Both agencies were merely a regional branch of the all-Soviet Ministry of Internal Affairs, and essentially a militsiya force since the late 1950s.

[6] Despite some operational autonomy, all regulations and standards of policing were established by the central Ministry; Moscow was directly co-ordinating important operations in Ukraine (such as anti-corruption investigations regarding statesmen of higher levels or other politics-related issues), including deployment of detective brigades from central offices in case of need.

A fragment of the recorded conversations portrayed MVS Minister Kravchenko promising President Kuchma to "take care" of the oppositional journalist.

According to the recordings, Kravchenko told Kuchma that he controls a special group of high-class detectives "without any morals, and ready to do anything".

[8] In the Melnychen recordings, the hitmen group was called "orly” (Ukrainian: орли, literally "eagles", Russian: орлы) by the Minister.

The final confrontation took place on 9 March 2001 on the central streets of Kyiv, including clashes between protesters and anti-riot units, and mass arrests of youngsters in the city.

During the 2004 election and the Orange Revolution, the MVS did not confront the opposition protests, although media sources claim that respective orders were given to its anti-riot units by senior commanders and leaders of the country.

Minor clashes between protesters and the Berkut happened in the city of Chernihiv, but both sides agreed that they were incidental and provoked by unknown forces.

In February 2005, after the revolution, as part of the post-election democratic changes, President Viktor Yushchenko appointed Yuriy Lutsenko as the new Minister of Internal Affairs.

Unlike his predecessors, Lutsenko was a career politician and had never served in the militsiya or any other law enforcement agency.

After Yanukovich's election, Anatolii Mohyliov was appointed to the minister's position; he is a career militia officer and currently holds the rank of Colonel General of the militsiya.

On 10 October 2008 officers from the Security Service of Ukraine detained deputy platoon commander of the Kharkiv city division patrol and inspection service regiment of the Main Interior Affairs Ministry Directorate in Kharkiv region on suspicion of pushing narcotic drugs.

[2] They were eligible for recruitment as National Police officers if they met the age criteria and went through training again and after "integrity" checks.