| The President instructed Vladimir Ustinov’s subordinates to improve the quality of work On Friday, at an extended meeting of the board of the Prosecutor General’s Office, President Putin spoke as the main “examiner and mentor.” In general, he assessed the activities of the prosecutors quite critically, although he did not draw any hard organizational conclusions, but set a whole series of new tasks. All of them in one way or another turned out to be connected with the need to improve the quality of work of Mr. Ustinov’s subordinates. The Prosecutor General himself, by the way, also noted many shortcomings of his employees. From which we can conclude that the criticism “from above” voiced at the board was agreed upon in advance and the prosecutor’s office is unlikely to face serious shocks in the near future.
Vladimir Putin called the fight against corruption one of the most important “new-old” areas in the work of the Prosecutor General’s Office, while clearly developing the idea expressed last fall, when a special Anti-Corruption Council was created on the instructions of the President. In this area, as Mr. Putin said, “systemic and qualified work is needed, and not individual high-profile cases.” Later, in his speech, Vladimir Ustinov also complained about the insufficient attention of his subordinates to this problem. According to him, in some regions “the sentences for bribe-takers can be counted on one hand.” Thus, in Mari El last year only one bribe-taker was convicted, in Karachay-Cherkessia - two, in North Ossetia - three, which, according to the Prosecutor General, clearly does not correspond to the real state of affairs.
The president also pointed out to prosecutors the weak oversight of the investigation. “It is unacceptable that, after many months of investigation and detention of people, charges fall apart in court. This does not mean that we must defend the honor of our uniform at any cost and let people rot behind bars.” Vladimir Putin noted that the main thing is the quality of the investigation, recalling that “it is for this reason that the number of prosecutors’ offices was significantly increased last year.”
Prosecutors also received punishment for their passive position in relation to violations of the rights of ordinary citizens: “We cannot remain silent when, due to the negligence of officials, multi-storey buildings remain for weeks without water and electricity, people are freezing in their apartments. Such facts exist all the time, they are in plain sight, but proper control over the actions of officials is still rarely carried out.” Alexey GRISHIN |
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