Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev announced that he is ready to continue serving in the government if the new prime minister asks him to.
His remarks come after a series of custody-death scandals have been exposed in the Russian media.
“I am an officer," Nurgaliyev told journalists. "I know my place and never played with these issues: not in politics, not in anything else. If it is necessary, then it is necessary. If they believe in me then ‘yes,’ if no then ‘no.’"
The current prime minister, Vladimir Putin, will step down in order to be inaugurated president in May.
Last month, a local police department in the city of Kazan was disbanded and several officers arrested following the death of a man in custody who had been assaulted with a bottle by officers.
The Interior Ministry has recently conducted a reform of the police, formerly known as the militsiya. Opinion polls in Russia consistently show widespread levels of public mistrust of the police.
