In a move sure to be welcomed by many foreigners and Muscovites themselves, the Moscow Police (GUVD) were ordered last week to cease the practice of indiscriminate document checks on city streets. The order was given by head of the GUVD Vladimir Pronin, and comes as Russia's security services are being consolidated under the Federal Security Services, President Vladimir Putin's formative school.

To date, the sight of policemen stopping passersby - usually of a visibly foreign, darker appearance - has been commonplace on the Moscow street scene.

Ostensibly done out of a desire to cut down on illegal immigration to the capital - all arrivals are required to register their place of residence within three days of coming to the city and carry the relevant documentation with them at all times - it has also served as a profitable supplementary source of income for the police.

In other words, rather than the letter of the law being enforced, it is used to extract money - which goes into the pocket of the police officer, not the state treasury.

A similar situation has held true with the traffic police, who often stop drivers on slight or false pretexts in order to extract "fines." This practice has been ended as well, say police spokesmen.

From now on, government officials say, police officers will only be justified in stopping a pedestrian or driver if they have evidence that the person is or has been committing a crime.

If the police stop someone in a way now deemed inappropriate, the person is encouraged by the GUVD to make a complaint, by calling 02 on the telephone. This is an attempt to bring Moscow's security situation closer to that of many Western countries.

This is certainly a boon for Muscovites and "guests of the capital," especially foreigners. It is also a good thing for Moscow, which will be able to free up its police force to be able to address actual, pressing criminal problems.

But, as usual, the thrust of reform is aimed too low.

The move is part of an attempt to reduce corruption and streamline Russia's notoriously arbitrary law-enforcement bodies. Considering the level of the problem and the situation with crime in contemporary Russia, it is obvious that this is something that needs to be done. Accordingly, both the letter and spirit of the change in legislation are to be applauded.

But the corruption that really plagues Russia is not to be found at the level of the lowly beat cop, trying to supplement his meager income by means fair or foul.

The corruption addressed by this new legislation will make life easier for the man on the street, but the move does not address the main issue.

The real problem lies not with the run-of-the-mill police officer extracting "fines," but with his superiors, in the halls of the Duma and the labyrinthine intricacies of the self-interested bureaucracy. It is corruption at this elevated level that is truly threatening to the Russian state and society at large.

This level of corruption is not likely to be addressed, however, beyond public targetings of well-known, odious figures that earn the Kremlin positive PR with the masses of Russian citizens.

The fact of the matter is, the people whose corruption is really a blight on the country as a whole - not just on the pocketbook of the everyday citizen - have thus far proven too powerful to be touched. And, considering how close many of them are to the corridors of power - or ensconced within them - it is unlikely they ever will be.