Interview

Interview by Chief of the Komi Republic Investigations Directorate of the Russia’s Investigative Committee Nikolai Basmanov to newspaper Nash Novy Sever (Our New North)

“Crimes against children are under special control”

Profession of investigator can be compared to that of a diagnostician. He, like his colleague in a white coat, gathers conclusive and sufficient evidence to “diagnose” – to conclude to which category the person should be attributed – a suspect, a witness, a guilty person or a victim. This is why investigator bears great deal of responsibility for correctness of decisions made.

Chief of the Komi Republic Investigations Directorate of the Russia’s Investigative Committee Nikolai Basmanov told about priorities in the work of the agency, methods and operational situation in Usinsk during a videoconference.

- Mr Basmanov, what are the special features of work by the Investigative Committee?

- We inquire into serious and especially serious crimes – murders, rapes, infliction of grave injuries ending in death, corruption, serious crimes committed by minors or against minors. And on top of everything else – all crimes of the so called special subjects: judges, investigators, prosecutors, deputies. Each year our Directorate investigates more than a thousand of cases.

- Which crimes committed in Usinsk are under special care of you’re the Directorate?

- There is a not very good tendency: a number of criminal cases over murder are going down, but they are going up in Usinsk. Over nine months of current year there have been nine murders – in comparison with 2011 – a much larger number. A number of crimes classified as “infliction of grave injuries entailing death” have doubled. We take under our special control crimes against children. One of the latest cases was investigation of crimes committed by a pedophile, who acted in Usinsk and Ukhta. The accused has already read the materials of the case, which are more than ten volumes, and the case has been forwarded to the RF Supreme Court. I am convinced that a person, who abused a child, has forever severed his relations with society and deserves the most severe punishment, because there are no crimes more hateful than those committed against children.

- It’s not a secret that official statistics gives no precise picture – there are more crimes committed than law enforcement know of. People often fear for their safety and do not appeal to the police, do not write applications…

- There is a problem, indeed, but a security system is mature enough and efficient. We have a witness protection program under which the case provides fake names and details – we have the right to keep them secret. In general I would like to remind that much depends on people’s initiative, on their readiness to contact law enforcement, including the swiftness with which the case is solved, how full and conclusive evidence would be.

- One of the areas of the agency’s activity is prevention and solution of corruption related crimes. In which spheres officials are most often caught in bribery?

- The most corrupted are law enforcement officials, then go representatives of municipal authorities, healthcare, education and different controlling bodies. Roughly speaking nobody would give a bribe to a worker – too low a level and status, and they don’t have enough power. The difficulty in investigating such crimes is the fact that they are hidden, committed behind the closed doors and without witnesses. We can bring the criminals to the light thanks to meticulous work of investigators, during prosecutor’s checks and as a result of investigating other cases and revealing new elements of crimes, including those related to corruption. I am deeply convinced that such things like authorities and corruption are incompatible. The state contaminated by this problem is similar to a body infected with a disease, can’t live and grow in a normal way. The law has to be the same for everyone, nobody has the right to use their official position as a personal criminal way of enrichment.

- People all the time criticize the police for inactivity. Which steps are being taken in this area?

- Not so long ago an employee of a Juvenile Division concealed information about rape of one of girls studying in the school to which she was an inspector. She was responsible for the fact that the child suffered twice – the stepfather who went unpunished abused her again, and the inspector didn’t even wrote any report! Results of internal investigation and launching of criminal proceedings are an example that negligent implementation of official duties is strictly punished by the law and is under special control of the Investigative Committee. I personally supervise all the cases in which victims are children. Moreover, we respond swiftly to all signals about inactivity of dishonest police officers, not even one fact stays unattended.

I would like everybody to note that investigator’s job is extremely difficult, intense and requires a great deal of devotion. In general we have professional investigators and with them the Investigative Committee can solve any tasks. This is also showed by the fact that almost all serious and especially serious crimes in the republic are solved.

- Mr Basmanov, I heard that you have a special attitude to Usinsk…

- Yes, I have a lot of memories connected with this town. I remember well the time when Usinsk was part of Pechorsky district. I was then a senior investigator in the Pechorsky Prosecutor’s Office. There were only beams instead of houses in the streets, there was not a single capitally built building. When people said that there would be a town there, it seemed far from reality, as there wasn’t even a railway and the main means of communications were through air by AN-2 planes. In 1974 I happened to investigate a plane crash, when a plane due to pilots crashed within only seventeen kilometers away from Usinsk. The guilty ones were found and punished. It was a kind of baptism of fire for me. The criminal situation then was difficult, the population were mostly newcomers so it was hard to find the criminals by a hot scent.

Today Usinsk is a modern promising town, an industrial center and I am very happy that it was built in such a short time.

Using the chance I would like to wish all citizens of Usinsk further development and wellbeing. Let the crimes become fewer each year so that every citizen would feel safe under protection of the law.

And I congratulate colleagues – veterans and all employees of law enforcement – on the coming professional holiday. Let your working weeks have more calm days and all your efforts to protect the law and order give a lot of positive results.