Chest Badge "For Faithful Duty".

[CtahhR]

This Chest Badge "For Faithful Duty" (Нагрудный знак «За верность долгу») was founded by the Ministry Of Internal Affairs on 14th June 2000 by ministerial order #633 and is "Awarded to employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs who have worked continuously in the same service for at least five years: for courage and dedication shown during the performance of duties; for achieving high personal performance indicators, for improvement of professional skills; for the development and introduction of new working methods enhancing the effectiveness of ministerial agencies; for active cooperation with other services of Internal Affairs which contributes to strengthening the protection of public order and strengthening crime fighting."

[deValcourt]

That is great to know, but this one is of such poor quality that I sincerely hope that it is not real. There were several similar badges available a couple of years ago with varying colors from blue to red, green and black for the cross. Sometimes the swords are sheathed and other times drawn.

Phillip

[CtahhR]

Russian awards can be a minefield. With there being so many Ministries and branches awarding real awards there are a vast number of designs and you also have the infinite amount of unofficial awards. The official awards can also vary a great deal now that capitalism has come to the country as most awards are made by contract (to the lowest bidder) and you can have varying quality due to a different contractor. Some awards can have different style fonts or finishes but will be just a "real" as another. You can find some medals with many different mint marks. It also seems like different ministries use the mint of their own choice and whilst one ministry has awards made at one mint at the same time another at another etc. A very complicated minefield to collect.