A quarter of a century of professional mastery: the best DPS employees gathered in Mogilevshchina

A quarter‑century of professional mastery: the best employees of the Road Patrol Service gathered in the Mogilev region

Ksenia Vorobyeva, Roman Rutskiy, 08.09.2026
In the Mogilev region, on September 8, the XXV Republican inspection‑competition of professional mastery of the road patrol service employees of the State Automobile Inspection was solemnly opened. The anniversary competition began at a site significant for the interior ministries — near the memorial complex “Police Battalion under the command of K.G. Vladimirov” in the village of Gai, Mogilev district.

Before the ceremony, participants and honorary guests laid flowers at the memorial, paying tribute to the police officers who fought there during the Great Patriotic War.

The solemn event was attended by the head of the Mogilev Oblast Internal Affairs Department, Major General of Police Igor Shcherbachenya, the head of the Main Directorate of the State Automobile Inspection of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Viktor Rotchenkov, the leadership and staff of the State Automobile Inspection, service veterans, competition participants, and honorary guests. The competition’s geography this year extended beyond Belarus: alongside teams from the country’s regions and the special unit of the Road Patrol Service “Strela,” representatives from the Russian Federation and Azerbaijan also demonstrated their professional mastery.

Greeting the participants, Igor Shcherbachenya emphasized: behind every element of the competition program lie the skills that Road Patrol Service employees apply daily on duty. The safety of roads, accident prevention, and, above all, human lives depend directly on the competence of their actions, restraint, and professionalism. According to him, the inspection‑competition has long become not only a way to identify the best but also a platform for exchanging practical experience among employees.

— Ahead lie four days of intense competition, where you will have to demonstrate your

He thanked the veterans who were at the origins of the service and emphasized that the competition has for many years allowed the improvement of staff training and the honing of skills necessary in real traffic conditions.

— We have been holding this inspection‑competition for a quarter of a century, and year by year we raise our professional skill. It is especially pleasing that it takes place in the year of the 90th anniversary of the establishment of the State Automobile Inspection of the Republic of Belarus, — noted Viktor Rotchenkov.

According to the head of the State Automobile Inspection, the requirements for a modern road patrol officer are far broader than simply working directly on the road. An inspector must have a high level of physical fitness, know the legislation in depth, and be ready to act promptly in a wide range of situations—from interacting with an ordinary driver to detaining a violator.

фото — Employees of the State Automobile Inspection must possess a high level of professionalism, sports training, knowledge of normative legal acts, and all those skills they encounter daily while serving, — emphasized Viktor Rotchenkov.

Immediately after the opening for contestants, the practical part began. The first test was manual traffic regulation at the intersection of Kosmonavtov and Lazarenko streets in Mogilev. Here, the correctness and clarity of the traffic controller's gestures, the sequence of actions, and the ability to manage traffic flows in real traffic conditions were evaluated.

Regarding how challenging this stage can be even for an active traffic police officer, Russian team representative Lieutenant Police Alexander Prokin—an inspector of the traffic police of a special traffic police battalion of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Tambov region—shared his experience. He had come to Belarus for the first time. At 23, Alexander is the youngest member of the team. In April of this

The Russian participant has been serving in the unit for about a year. Prior to that, he studied for five years at the Ministry of Internal Affairs institute. At the regional competition in Russia, Prokin had already managed to deliver a strong result, and now he has the opportunity to test himself in an international‑level contest.

He is not a newcomer to such competitions, and the representative from Azerbaijan is the chief inspector of the State Road Police Department of the Baku City Police Main Directorate, Police Captain Emil Ibrahimov. In July 2026, at a professional skills contest in Moscow, he took first place among invited road patrol officers from CIS countries. For him, the