Russia’s chief federal investigator launches criminal case against security guards who wouldn’t let him onto construction site

Russia’s Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin has launched a criminal case against the security guards who wouldn’t let him onto a St. Petersburg construction site on May 14.

According to the local news outlet Fontanka, Bastrykin lives close to the construction zone and tried to enter it, introducing himself to the contractor’s security team, who reportedly looked at his government ID and replied: “So what?” Bastrykin then left the site, but soon came back, with a number of OMON troops in tow.

The Investigative Committee has since opened a criminal case, alleging that the contractor, Gruppa LSR, had violated environmental safety norms. The agency claims that local residents had complained about the construction site, located on St. Petersburg’s Vasilyevsky Island.

This isn’t the first criminal investigation connected to this particular construction site. The previous case launched by Bastrykin’s agency had been dismissed by the Prosecutor General.

On May 15, the authority launched a separate criminal investigation into the security contractor, Agis, alleging that its employees had deliberately exceeded the scope of their security jobs, violating the Russian Criminal Code.