State security investigation

The Investigative Committee at the Prosecutor's Office was strengthened by personnel from the FSB

President Vladimir Putin, as his press service reported yesterday, signed a decree appointing one of the deputy chairmen of the Investigative Committee (IC) at the Russian Prosecutor's Office - Yuri Nyrkov. He became the first appointed of 12 deputy heads of the new structure. The positions of the remaining deputy heads of the Investigative Committee are still vacant. All that is known about Mr. Nyrkov is that he has the rank of lieutenant general and until recently headed the department of organizational and personnel work of the FSB of Russia.

The Investigative Committee, headed by the current Deputy Prosecutor General Alexander Bastrykin (he is known as a former classmate of Vladimir Putin at Leningrad University), began operating on September 7 of this year. This structure was created in accordance with the law signed by the President in June 2007 in connection with the recent adoption of amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) and the Law “On the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation”, and is involved in the investigation of crimes under prosecutorial jurisdiction (murder, rape, terrorism , malfeasance). In addition, the president signed a decree according to which Mr. Bastrykin must have 12 deputies, “including one first deputy chairman and one deputy chairman of the Investigative Committee - the head of the military investigative department.” It is still unclear which direction Mr. Nyrkov will supervise.

As the Vremya Novostei newspaper has already reported, according to unofficial information, Valentina Polyakova, head of the civil service and personnel department of the Ministry of Justice, may become Mr. Bastrykin’s first deputy. Previously, she headed the personnel department of the Prosecutor General’s Office under Vladimir Ustinov for six years. The current Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin, who oversees the Main Directorate for Supervision of Procedural Activities of the Prosecutor's Office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Federal Drug Control Service, the Federal Customs Service and Justice, is also being considered as a possible candidate for the post of deputy head of the Investigative Committee. According to the newspaper's sources, Igor Myasnikov, who worked for many years as an investigator in the Prosecutor General's Office and, among other things, investigated the murder of State Duma deputy Sergei Yushenkov, may also be appointed to the post of deputy head of the Investigative Committee. Another deputy chairman of the Investigative Committee could be the First Deputy Prosecutor of Moscow, Vyacheslav Rosinsky. Also among the possible candidates for the position of deputy head of the Investigative Committee were previously named Vladimir Lyseiko, who for many years headed the department for investigating particularly important cases of the Prosecutor General’s Office, and Alexander Kizlyk, who served as head of the department for supervision of procedural activities of internal affairs and justice bodies. It was believed that both of them were part of the team of ex-Prosecutor General Vladimir Ustinov and after his departure to the Ministry of Justice they were also forced to leave the Prosecutor General’s Office.

Yesterday, the Investigative Committee did not officially comment on the appointment of Yuri Nyrkov.

Ekaterina KARACHEVA