RBC: Bastrykin will leave the post of head of the Investigative Committee after the elections to the State Duma

Chairman of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin will leave his post after the State Duma elections, RBC reports , citing sources close to the leadership of the FSB, the central apparatus of the Investigative Committee and three interlocutors close to the presidential administration.

The publication's interlocutors do not give the exact timing of the resignation, but say that it will happen after the vote on September 18.

“I’m hearing this for the first time,” said presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov when asked whether Bastrykin’s resignation was being discussed. Investigative Committee press secretary Vladimir Markin refused to comment on this information.

Two interlocutors of RBC, close to the leadership of the Investigative Committee and the FSB, name the deputy chairman of the Investigative Committee, Igor Krasnov, as a possible new head of the department.

Earlier today, Life, and then TASS and Interfax reported on the resignation of Markin himself. However, he did not comment on this information either.

In July, high-ranking employees of the Investigative Committee were arrested - the head of the Investigative Committee's own security department, Mikhail Maksimenko, his deputy Alexander Lamonov, and the deputy head of the Moscow department of the Investigative Committee, Denis Nikandrov. They are accused under Part 6 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code (taking a bribe on an especially large scale). According to Rosbalt and Kommersant, the generals of the Investigative Committee were offered five million dollars for refusing to prosecute people from the circle of criminal authority Zakhary Kalashov (Shakro Molodoy). A Rosbalt source said that the accused managed to receive a million dollars.

According to RBC sources in the Investigative Committee and the FB, Maksimenko was one of the most influential employees of the department and a friend of Bastrykin. An interlocutor close to the leadership of the FSB claims that the issue of Bastrykin’s resignation was decided after the arrest of the Investigative Committee generals, but personnel decisions were postponed due to the Duma elections.

As a source in the FSB notes, dissatisfaction with Bastrykin “has been brewing for a long time.” The publication's interlocutor, close to the presidential administration, believes that the head of the Investigative Committee relies on unprofessional investigators.

Krasnov led the case of the murder of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and journalist Anastasia Baburova and headed the investigative team in the case of the murder of politician Boris Nemtsov. Later, the investigation team in the Nemtsov case was headed instead of Krasnov by Nikolai Tutevich. In May last year, Krasnov became the head of a new unit of the Investigative Committee and deputy head of the department.