Translated material
Investigative migration
The Prosecutor General's Office transfers cases
The new structure of law enforcement agencies - the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office (ICP) of the Russian Federation will begin its work this morning. Officially, SKP employees were supposed to take up their duties last Friday, since it was on September 7 that the corresponding amendments to the legislation regulating its activities came into force. But on that day, all regional divisions of the Investigative Committee only announced the dismissal of the majority of employees of the prosecutor's offices and their simultaneous enrollment in the staff of investigative departments.Not everyone had the honor of working in the new structure. Some were asked to remain in the prosecutor's office - in those of its divisions that are called upon to oversee the investigation. Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika, in addition, announced the changes that his department will undergo in connection with the emergence of the UPC. For the rest of the day on Friday, there was commotion in these two structures - everyone was busy moving from office to office. And only today will investigators begin to closely engage in their direct responsibilities.
Although the SKP is officially registered with the prosecutor’s office, it will actually be completely independent. Its main task will be to initiate and investigate criminal cases, and in all these matters, investigators will no longer depend on the prosecutor’s office, whose consent was previously required on almost all key points of the preliminary investigation. The reform carried out (the Vremya Novostei newspaper described it in detail in its issue of June 7 ) left the prosecutor's office with only the supervision of the investigation and maintaining the prosecution in court as its main functions.
Officially, all prosecutorial investigators were notified of their dismissal a month ago. But until Friday, the investigators were in confusion - none of them could say with certainty where he would be the next day, whether he would get a good position in the Investigative Committee, whether he would remain in the prosecutor’s office, or whether he would even be shown the door. Certain concerns were expressed regarding the establishment of work in the Investigative Committee, for which “delay is like death” and a suspension in the investigation of criminal cases could lead to a whole stream of complaints from defendants and lawyers dissatisfied with the “lack of attention.”
But to date there have been no serious reasons for concern. As the newspaper's source in the Prosecutor General's Office said, on Friday morning, meetings were held in all regions at which investigators were informed that orders had been issued for their dismissal from the prosecutor's office as of September 7 and the enrollment of the same number in new positions in the investigative departments of the Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee. The head of the SKP, Alexander Bastrykin, signed, in particular, an order appointing 18 thousand 690 committee employees, including 2034 military investigators. “They will all work on an annual contract,” he said. In addition, on Friday, 60 thousand criminal cases were transferred from the prosecutor's office to the SKP. Of these, 110 criminal cases ended up in the Main Directorate of the Investigative Committee for the Investigation of Particularly Important Cases, which has a staff of 120 investigators.
Among these particularly important cases are the murder of Novaya Gazeta columnist Anna Politkovskaya, the bombing of the Nevsky Express passenger train, and the poisoning of fugitive security officer Alexander Litvinenko with radioactive polonium.
Approximately 30% of investigators were refused admission to the UPC for various reasons. Most of them were asked to remain in the prosecutor's office and supervise the investigation and inquiry. But, as our source in the Prosecutor General’s Office said, many considered this a demotion and, although they were forced to agree, they do not exclude the possibility that in the near future they will leave the civil service and move to the legal profession.
At a meeting on Friday, Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika congratulated all employees on the start of the work of the SKP and announced innovations in the Prosecutor General’s Office itself. He signed an order to partially change the structure of his department, namely the supervisory units for investigation and inquiry. In particular, the Main Directorate for Supervision of the Investigation, the Directorate for Supervision of the Inquiry and Operational Investigative Activities, and the Directorate for Supervision of the Investigation of Criminal Cases in the central offices of the Investigative Committee and the Investigative Committee (IC) under the Ministry of Internal Affairs were formed.
However, as has already been mentioned several times, supervision of the investigation will not be as strict as before, and the prosecutor’s instructions will become advisory rather than mandatory. By the way, the Investigative Committee under the Ministry of Internal Affairs has long been looking forward to the start of the reform. As our source in the Ministry of Internal Affairs said, having received autonomy from the prosecutor’s office, the Investigative Committee already on Friday independently opened a number of criminal cases, which was previously impossible due to the lack of a “team from above.” According to our source, several more fairly high-profile cases are expected to be initiated today. However, the details of their contents have not yet been disclosed.