Immediately after summing up the results of the elections to the State Duma, the president will dismiss the head of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin. In any case, RBC writes about this with reference to numerous sources close to the leadership of the FSB, the central office of the TFR and the presidential administration.
Presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said what they expected to hear from him - he allegedly had not heard anything about the preparation of his resignation. TFR spokesman Vladimir Markin, whose imminent departure became known earlier on Wednesday, also declined to comment on the information.
Alexander Bastrykin is now 63 years old, he was born in Pskov. He graduated from the law faculty of Leningrad State University - at the university he was the head of the group in which Vladimir Putin studied. Then he went to work in the internal affairs bodies, and at some point he became the secretary of the Leningrad city committee of the Komsomol. During Perestroika, he made a scientific career, at first he headed the Leningrad Institute for the Improvement of Investigative Workers under the USSR Prosecutor's Office, and then the St. Petersburg Law Institute. In the 2000s, he worked as the head of the Department of the Ministry of Justice for the North-Western Federal District, in 2006 he was appointed Deputy Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika. In 2007, Bastrykin headed the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office, on the basis of which the Investigative Committee of Russia was formed in 2011.
The idea to create an independent investigative agency appeared long before 2007 - the draft laws on its creation were written back in Soviet times. But it was Bastrykin who was instructed to create it. It is said that initially he did quite well: for example, key investigators were relieved of a huge shaft of paperwork. But the Investigative Committee still constantly found itself at the center of scandals.
So, at some point it turned out that since 2007 Bastrykin had a residence permit in the Czech Republic for some time, as he headed his own company Low Bohemia. After that, the head of the TFR received the caustic nickname "Pan Bastrykin." In 2012, the editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta, Dmitry Muratov, said that Bastrykin threatened the life of Novaya Gazeta journalist Sergei Sokolov in connection with the publication of an article about the sentence against Sergei Tsepovyaz. Sokolov wrote in his article that the heads of law enforcement agencies, including Bastrykin personally, protected the Tsapkov gang.
Also in 2012, Bastrykin publicly and rather rudely reprimanded the head of the Investigative Committee for the Kirov region for refusing to initiate proceedings against opposition politician Alexei Navalny. After that, the “case of Kirovles” quickly reached the court.
But all these stories in the summer of 2016 seemed like flowers. In July, high-ranking officials of the ICR were accused of taking a bribe on an especially large scale (part 6 of article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The head of the department of interagency cooperation and own security (UMViSB) of the TFR Mikhail Maksimenko, his deputy Alexander Lamonov and deputy head of the Main Investigation Department for Moscow Denis Nikandrov were arrested. According to the FSB, they tried to organize the release of the people of the criminal authority Zakhary Kalashov, nicknamed Shakro Molodoy, for money.
Although the leadership of the ICR instantly "renounced" its employees, and Markin claimed that all arrests and searches were carried out in agreement with Bastrykin, it became clear that this case would not end well for the ICR.
The question of Bastrykin's career was resolved immediately after the arrests of his subordinates, an interlocutor close to the leadership of the FSB told RBC, but in order to avoid unnecessary hype, the announcement of his resignation was postponed until the fall. At the same time, we recall, Dmitry Peskov said that "hypothetical arguments [about the possible resignation of Bastrykin] against the backdrop of investigative actions are absolutely unacceptable." Actually, his words became an important signal: the career of the head of the TFR could suddenly end at any moment.
However, dissatisfaction with the head of the TFR has been manifested for a long time. In 2015, according to media reports, at one of the meetings, Vladimir Putin criticized Bastrykin. The Kremlin is also said to have disliked its work in investigating the murder of an Armenian family by a Russian soldier.
The question of who will replace Bastrykin in the chair of the head of the TFR, according to RBC, has not yet been resolved. As a possible new head of the department, the current deputy chairman of the TFR, Major General of Justice Igor Krasnov, is being considered. He is known for investigating high-profile cases such as the murder of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova in the center of Moscow. Krasnov spent two months investigating the murder of Boris Nemtsov, after which he was replaced at the head of the investigation team by Nikolai Tutevich. In May 2015, Krasnov headed a new division in the Investigative Committee, which allegedly included the best employees of the department.
Earlier, RBC reported that the Investigative Committee could be headed by the Governor of St. Petersburg Georgy Poltavchenko.
Last week, there were reports in the media that after the elections, the head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, may resign. What do you think?
I think that all these rumors are related to the fact that Bastrykin himself, perhaps, came to such a decision while in thought. Or maybe the first person came to the conclusion that the head of the Investigative Committee needs to be changed. The fact is that Bastrykin must bear moral and disciplinary responsibility, including for the actions of his immediate subordinates: investigators Nikandrov, Maksimenko and Lamonov, who directly reported to Bastrykin, against whom criminal cases were initiated, and they were taken into custody. (Denis Nikandrov - Deputy Head of the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Moscow, Mikhail Maksimenko - Head of the Department of Internal Security of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Alexander Lamonov - his deputy. All three are involved in the case of extortion of 8 million rubles, the defendant of which is the thief in law Zakhary Kalashov (Shakro Molodoy) - Open Russia) Nikandrov for a long time was a senior investigator for particularly important cases directly under the chairman of the Investigative Committee Bastrykin. It was only in May that he transferred to the GSU SK in Moscow. Lamonov and Maksimenko were subordinate to Bastrykin until the last moment. They were appointed to all these positions at the suggestion of Bastrykin. Therefore, from my point of view, if Alexander Ivanovich himself came to the decision to resign, then this is a very courageous and correct decision.
You know Bastrykin well. And you know how the decision to resign is made by leaders of this rank. Rather, Bastrykin himself decided this, or was he asked to leave?
I think he can solve it himself. I think that he did not really hold on to the place, and fatigue certainly affects - the place is very nervous, I must say. He spent nine years in one place.
Naturally, he must agree on this: such things are not done without agreement. He must agree at what point to submit such an application - after all, they must prepare a replacement for him. This is the highest state position, which means that he must come and ask a question to the person in whose direct subordination he is. You can't do things like this on your own.
- That is, he should come to Putin and ask if he can leave or not?
Yes, of course, he should ask him if he can leave his position at the moment. Maybe they will say to him: “Yes, we don’t object in principle, but let’s go until such a moment due to the political situation or something like that ...”. But since such a leak of information has passed, it is possible that such a conversation has already taken place.
- According to your information, Bastrykin will leave?
Why not? After all, there are no eternal people. And after all, this is not the Central Committee of the CPSU, where everyone was only carried out feet first. We need to change people. I think that the candidacy of General Krasnov, whom RBC wrote about as a possible successor, is quite acceptable (Major General Igor Krasnov, Bastrykin's deputy, investigated the "BORN case", began an investigation into the murder of Boris Nemtsov. - Open Russia).
This would be the right decision. Krasnov is a high professional, decent person, fair. Young - he is 45 years old. Recently, the personnel policy of Alexander Ivanovich has led the Investigative Committee into an era of deep stagnation. Personnel leapfrog, change of leaders in the central office - of course, this is not the case.
- Now the media are writing that Bastrykin's possible departure may be connected with the "case of investigators of the Investigative Committee", who are suspected of having links with the well-known criminal authority Shakro Molody. Do you think Bastrykin could have known something about these connections?
I think that if he had known about something like this before the initiation of a criminal case on July 19 against Nikandrov and other high-ranking employees, then, of course, for the sake of personal self-preservation, he would have made this story public long ago and would have decided the issue of initiating a case. Because it doesn’t climb into any gates when high-ranking employees of the Investigative Committee serve the interests of criminal authorities. Alexander Ivanovich is not his own enemy, he would never tolerate such a thing.
People Situation 14 Sep 2016, 20:34
RBC learned about the dismissal of Bastrykin after the elections
Vladimir Anosov / Yugopolis
Head of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin will leave his post after the elections. It is reported by RBC with reference to sources close to the leadership of the Investigative Committee, the FSB and the Presidential Administration.
RBC sources say that the decision to dismiss him was made after the initiation of criminal cases against high-ranking employees of the UK.
In July, Bastrykin's department was at the center of a scandal in connection with a criminal case against high-ranking officials of the TFR. Charges of taking a bribe on an especially large scale (part 6 of article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) were brought against the head of the department for interagency cooperation and own security (UMViSB) of the TFR Mikhail Maksimenko, his deputy Alexander Lamonov and Deputy Head of the Main Investigation Department for Moscow Denis Nikandrovat. According to the FSB investigators, they tried to organize the release of the people of the criminal authority Zakhary Kalashov, nicknamed Shakro Young. The operatives assigned a key role in the case to Maksimenko, who, according to two interlocutors of RBC in law enforcement agencies, was one of the most influential employees of the ICR and a friend of Bastrykin, RBC sources in the ICR and the FSB say. Markin then expressed his gratitude for the detention to the FSB officers.
The question of Bastrykin's career was resolved after the arrests of his subordinates, says RBC's interlocutor, close to the leadership of the FSB, but all personnel decisions were left for the period after the Duma elections. At the same time, the press secretary of the President Dmitry Peskov told journalists that "hypothetical discussions [about the possible resignation of the chairman of the TFR] against the backdrop of investigative actions are absolutely unacceptable."
Dissatisfaction with Bastrykin "was ripe for a long time," explains a source in the FSB. According to him, the chairman of the TFR often riveted undue attention to himself. In April of this year, the chairman of the TFR published an article in the Kommersant-Vlast magazine, in which he justified the tightening of anti-extremist legislation and argued that Russia's problems are related to the hybrid war waged by the United States against it. In the summer of 2012, he threatened Sergei Sokolov, deputy editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta. In the same year, the founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation Alexey Navalny I found Bastrykin's residence permit in the Czech Republic and real estate in this country. And at the end of 2015, it became known that the Spanish prosecutor's office connected Bastrykin with members of the Tambov criminal group.
In 2015, President Vladimir Putin expressed dissatisfaction with the work of the head of the TFR at one of the meetings, RBC sources close to the government and the law enforcement agency told. His work in coordinating the work of the security forces of Russia and Armenia to investigate the high-profile murder of an Armenian family by a Russian soldier was considered clumsy, one of the sources said.
15/09/2016
The head of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin may leave his post. This statement was made by RBC on Thursday. The decision on his departure will be made after the Duma elections. The reason for this was the initiation of criminal proceedings against high-ranking employees of the department. Bloggers are discussing the second high-profile news in a week about personnel changes in the law enforcement agency.
O The resignation of Alexander Bastrykin is a foregone conclusion, RBC writes, citing its own sources. After five years of work at the head of the Investigative Committee, it seems that the numerous scandals around the person of Bastrykin and his subordinates played a cruel joke on him.
The resignation will take place shortly after the elections on September 18, although RBC's interlocutors do not name the exact dates.
“This is the first time I’ve heard of it,” presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told RBC, answering a question about whether Bastrykin’s resignation is being discussed right now. TFR representative Vladimir Markin (whose imminent departure became known on Wednesday) refused to talk to RBC.
Recall that this summer the Investigative Committee was at the center of a scandal in connection with a criminal case against high-ranking officials of the TFR. Charges of accepting a bribe on an especially large scale (part 6 of article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) were brought against the head of the department for interdepartmental cooperation and own security (UMViSB) of the TFR Mikhail Maksimenko, his deputy Alexander Lamonov and deputy head of the Main Investigation Department for Moscow Denis Nikandrov. According to the FSB investigators, they tried to organize the release of the people of the criminal authority Zakhary Kalashov, nicknamed Shakro Molodoy, for money.
It should be noted that according to a source in the FSB, dissatisfaction with Bastrykin has been ripening for a long time. Too often, Bastrykin's person was in the center of excessive attention. So, for example, his scandalous article in Kommersant that Russia's problems are related to the hybrid war waged by the United States against it, and anti-extremist measures in Russia need to be tightened, caused a heated discussion in society. In the summer of 2012, he threatened Sergei Sokolov, deputy editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta. In the same year, the founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, Alexei Navalny, found Bastrykin's residence permit in the Czech Republic and real estate in this country.
After the Duma elections, Alexander Bastrykin, chairman of the TFR, will leave his post. The issue was resolved after the initiation of criminal cases against high-ranking employees of the department, RBC sources say.
Bastrykin's resignation
Alexander Bastrykin will leave the post of chairman of the Investigative Committee, interlocutors close to the leadership of the FSB, the central office of the TFR, and three sources close to the presidential administration told RBC. The resignation will take place shortly after the elections on September 18, although RBC's interlocutors do not name the exact dates. “This is the first time I’ve heard of it,” presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov told RBC, answering a question about whether Bastrykin’s resignation is being discussed right now. TFR representative Vladimir Markin (whose imminent departure became known on Wednesday) refused to talk to RBC.
In July, Bastrykin's department was at the center of a scandal in connection with a criminal case against high-ranking officials of the TFR. Charges of accepting a bribe on an especially large scale (part 6 of article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) were brought against the head of the department for interdepartmental cooperation and own security (UMViSB) of the TFR Mikhail Maksimenko, his deputy Alexander Lamonov and deputy head of the Main Investigation Department for Moscow Denis Nikandrov. According to the FSB investigators, they tried to organize the release of the people of the criminal authority Zakhary Kalashov, nicknamed Shakro Molodoy, for money. The operatives assigned a key role in the case to Maksimenko, who, according to two interlocutors of RBC in law enforcement agencies, was one of the most influential employees of the ICR and a friend of Bastrykin, RBC sources in the ICR and the FSB say. Markin then expressed his gratitude for the detention to the FSB officers.
The question of Bastrykin's career was resolved after the arrests of his subordinates, says an RBC interlocutor close to the leadership of the FSB, but all personnel decisions were left for the period after the Duma elections. At the same time, Peskov told reporters that "hypothetical discussions [about the possible resignation of the chairman of the TFR] against the backdrop of investigative actions are absolutely unacceptable."
Dissatisfaction with Bastrykin "was ripe for a long time," explains the FSB source. According to him, the chairman of the TFR often attracted too much attention. In April of this year, the chairman of the TFR published an article in the Kommersant-Vlast magazine, in which he justified the tightening of anti-extremist legislation and argued that Russia's problems are related to the hybrid war waged by the United States against it. In the summer of 2012, he threatened Sergei Sokolov, deputy editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta. In the same year, the founder of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, Alexei Navalny, found Bastrykin's residence permit in the Czech Republic and real estate in this country. And at the end of 2015, it became known that the Spanish prosecutor's office connected Bastrykin with members of the Tambov criminal group.
In 2015, President Vladimir Putin expressed dissatisfaction with the work of the head of the TFR at one of the meetings, RBC sources close to the government and law enforcement agencies told. His work in coordinating the work of the security forces of Russia and Armenia to investigate the high-profile murder of an Armenian family by a Russian soldier was considered clumsy, one of the sources said.
The Investigative Committee is objectively in crisis, and the head of the TFR has relied on non-professional personnel, says an RBC interlocutor close to the presidential administration. The level of investigation in the Investigative Committee has been falling all the time, lawyer Ruslan Koblev believes. According to him, the lack of prosecutorial control had a negative impact on the quality of the investigation. “Investigations have become opaque and reduced to the fact that investigators stuff cases with formal evidence, because they know that in the end the courts will still deliver guilty verdicts,” the lawyer says.
Bastrykin fulfilled his function by creating the Investigative Committee, but in the process of this work, he first severely spoiled relations with the Prosecutor General's Office, and later the effectively working link with the FSB was broken, says political scientist Yevgeny Minchenko. The head of the TFR lost a hardware war with other law enforcement agencies, states a source close to the leadership of the Kremlin administration.
New leader
The current deputy chairman of the TFR, Major General of Justice Igor Krasnov, is being considered as a possible new head of the department, two RBC interlocutors close to the leadership of the TFR and the FSB say. Krasnov is known for investigating high-profile cases. Since 2009, he has been involved in the murder case in the center of Moscow of lawyer Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova. As a result, nationalists Nikita Tikhonov and Yevgenia Khasis, involved in the activities of the “Combat Organization of Russian Nationalists” (BORN), were detained and convicted. Krasnov conducted an investigation into the murder of Boris Nemtsov for two months, after which he was replaced at the head of the investigation team by Nikolai Tutevich . In May 2015, Krasnov headed a new division in the Investigative Committee, which included the best employees of the department.
Earlier, RBC interlocutors said that Georgy Poltavchenko, the current governor of St. Petersburg, is being considered to replace Bastrykin. According to them, the decision to change the head of the northern capital was made and it was discussed in the circles of the security forces that he could head the joint Investigative Committee. Theoretically, this option is being considered now, says a source close to the Kremlin. But still, there is doubt that Poltavchenko will be able to actively engage in the operational management of the work of the UK.
If Bastrykin really leaves his place, then he will probably be replaced by a person not from the TFR, but from the prosecutor's office or the FSB, lawyer Koblev suggests.
Before the boss
On Wednesday, it became known that the TFR was leaving its official representative Vladimir Markin. This was reported by Life and TASS with reference to a source, the information was confirmed by a RBC source close to the presidential administration. Markin himself declined to comment on information about his resignation.
RBC's interlocutor in the FSB explained that Markin's fate was to be decided after the elections, but the latest scandals around the press secretary of the department "overwhelmed the cup of patience." Markin leaves his post amid accusations of plagiarism. In early September, the major general presented the book The Most High-profile Crimes of the 21st Century in Russia, after which Novaya Gazeta and Kommersant journalists Nadezhda Prusenkova and Ilya Barabanov stated that Markin had used the texts of their publications without the permission of the editors and without indicating sources. Later, the Eksmo publishing house issued a message stating that Markin's book was published without references to excerpts from media materials due to a technical error. On Wednesday, September 14, Markin's meeting with readers at the Moskva bookstore was supposed to take place, but it was canceled for reasons beyond the store's control, according to a message posted on the website.
Markin had a difficult relationship with most investigators of the ICR, three RBC interlocutors close to the department say. According to one of them, the representative of the TFR was often not warned about impending searches or other operational activities. For example, the searches in the office of Mikhail Khodorkovsky's Open Russia at the end of December 2015 came as a surprise to Markin.
A TASS source said that Markin "is changing the field of activity, since he received another offer, where he can solve no less large-scale and responsible tasks." Interfax, citing an interlocutor in the fuel and energy complex, said that Markin could take the position of RusHydro's deputy general director for public relations and state authorities. A source close to the government confirmed to RBC that this option is possible. “They started discussing it recently, literally yesterday, but no decision has been made yet,” he said. The head of the RusHydro press service department told RBC that he did not have such information.
9 years of investigation
Bastrykin is a graduate of the Faculty of Law of the Leningrad State University. At the university, he was the head of the group where Vladimir Putin studied. Later he worked in the internal affairs bodies, defended his thesis and was the secretary of the Leningrad city committee of the Komsomol. In the late 1980s - the first half of the 1990s, he first headed the Leningrad Institute for the Improvement of Investigative Workers under the USSR Prosecutor's Office, and then the St. Petersburg Law Institute. In the 2000s, he worked as the head of the Department of the Ministry of Justice for the North-Western Federal District, in 2006 he was appointed Deputy Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika. In 2007, Bastrykin headed the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor's Office, on the basis of which the Investigative Committee of Russia was formed in 2011.
