Alexander Bastrykin summed up the work of the Investigative Committee

At the six-month collegium of the Investigative Committee, which was held in St. Petersburg, the head of the department, Alexander Bastrykin, promised to open new cases on the events in the south-east of Ukraine and get everyone who commits crimes against civilians and fires at Russia. At the same time, Mr. Bastrykin’s subordinates themselves received punishment for mistakes in criminal cases and pre-investigation checks.

Alexander Bastrykin promised to deal with everyone who is carrying out the operation in the southeast of Ukraine
Photo: Alexander Koryakov, Kommersant / buy photo

Summing up the results of the department’s work, Mr. Bastrykin noted that trends towards a decrease in the crime rate in general have continued. But the structure of crime itself, according to him, has not actually changed: a quarter of it still consists of serious and especially serious crimes that fall under the jurisdiction of the Investigative Committee. Thus, in 30 regions the number of murders increased, in 28 regions the number of rapes increased, the number of extremist crimes increased by 20%, and terrorist crimes increased by 72%. “The most important task of all law enforcement agencies is the decriminalization of spheres of public life in Dagestan,” Mr. Bastrykin said in this regard.

During the same period, six months, the Investigative Committee completed the investigation of 50 thousand criminal cases, including such high-profile ones as the case of the former head of the Department of Property Relations of the Ministry of Defense Evgenia Vasilyeva.

Mr. Bastrykin noted the prompt creation of investigative departments in Crimea, which are processing more than 700 cases. Considering that 1 trillion rubles are expected to be allocated for the development of Crimea and Sevastopol, Mr. Bastrykin called the main task of his employees to suppress “any attempts to steal budget funds,” as well as counter the threat of terrorism, which obviously comes from Ukraine.

Having reported on the successes achieved by the department, including in solving previously committed crimes and in investigating cases of corruption, Mr. Bastrykin examined the mistakes that investigators and their leaders make. In particular, it turned out that the number of criminal cases returned by prosecutors, as well as cases of redrawing of indictments, has increased. “Have you forgotten how to draw up this final document?” - Mr. Bastrykin asked the present heads of ICR departments, promising to strictly punish for such a marriage. And then he drew the investigators’ attention to the fact that due to mistakes they made (incorrect indication of the personal data of the defendants, lack of investigators’ signatures on documents and incorrect dates), the courts were returning cases to prosecutors for correction.

Another point that has drawn criticism from the head of the department is acquittals, as a result of which the accused receive the right to rehabilitation. “This is facilitated by the weak professional knowledge of investigators and their leaders in the field of operational investigative activities, an incorrect assessment of both the evidence itself and the legitimacy of its receipt,” said Alexander Bastrykin.

The head of the department was also not satisfied with the practice of issuing decisions to refuse to initiate criminal cases: based on the results of the inspection of such materials, every tenth (more than 34 thousand decisions) was canceled. This is due to poor quality checks of crime reports, which lead to the loss of evidence. Investigators also take such steps “to create the appearance of well-being based on time-bound reports.” “It’s time to stop this race for performance,” demanded the head of the Investigative Committee.

The chairman of the Investigative Committee did not ignore the situation in the south-east of Ukraine, promising to initiate new criminal cases (Kommersant spoke in detail about the investigation of those already initiated on July 22). “We know the names of 40 mid-level commanders suspected of war crimes. We will get everyone. You won’t scare us with gunfire. For every shell fired at Russia, someone will be responsible,” said Alexander Bastrykin, who drew a parallel between today’s events in Ukraine and the Nazi attack on the Soviet Union.

Dmitry Marakulin, St. Petersburg; Nikolay Sergeev

Investigators were fact-checked