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On 20 May 2016, Chairman of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin delivered a lecture to the students of the Kutafin State Law University of Moscow: Pressing issues of the activities of the Russia’s Investigative Committee.

Addressing the students, Mr. Bastrykin noted that since the moment it was created in 2011 as an independent authority the Investigative Committee has managed to reach considerable results, to increase the number of grave crimes solved. In only 5 years the Investigative Committee has checked over 4 million reports on crimes, launched about 700,000 criminal cases and referred to court almost 500,000 of them. 1 million calls have been attended.

Mr. Bastrykin added that the Investigative Committee has quite wide range of authorities not only in exercising criminal procedure laws, but in making and improving the laws of the Russian Federation. This is why during a lively conversation with the students, he explained them the gist of the legislative initiatives of the Investigative Committee concerning taxation of controlled foreign organizations, wider use of property confiscation, introduction of criminal liability for legal entities, introduction of the institution of the objective truth and dwelled at length on the issues relating to priority of the national law over the international one.

Answering on of the questions about the practice of restraint, Mr. Bastrykin said that the Investigative Committee has the following position: if the case allows avoiding custodial restrain, investigators would always seek to ask for house arrest or other more lenient restraint. At the same time, he reminded about the danger of letting those under investigations into economic crimes go abroad and hide from the investigation. As an example he named the case against former minister of finance of the Moscow Region Government Aleksei Kuznetsov who is still in France.

Answering another question, Mr. Bastrykin gave some statistic data on the crimes committed against children. Over 2,000 minors are killed in Russia each year, with growing number of children’s sex abuses. As an example the Chairman said told the students about a brutal murder of six kids in Nizhny Novgorod Region, which Oleg Belov is now accused of; a small girl who was kidnapped from a day care facility and then murdered in the city of Tomsk; and the murder of a family near the town of Syzran, Samara Region.

During the lecture Mr. Bastrykin thanked the students for interesting and relevant questions which made the lecture an active dialogue.

In the conclusion, the Chairman gave the Chancellor of the Kutafin State Law University of Moscow Viktor Blazheyev a medal of the Investigative Committee “For Service” noting his high achievements in training law specialists, including future investigators of the Investigative Committee.

Head of Media Relations                                                                                                                                V.I. Markin