Alexander Ivanovich Bastrykin (, born August 27, 1953) is a Russian lawyer and official who has served as the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia since 15 January 2011. He served as the First Deputy Prosecutor General of Russia and Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General's Office from 2007 to 2011. He holds the special rank of General of Justice, the academic rank of

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

, and a

doctoral degree A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

in law.

Biography

Alexander Bastrykin graduated from the Law Faculty of Leningrad State University in 1975, and was a university classmate of

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

. In 2007, President Vladimir Putin established the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General's Office, ''de facto'' independent from the Prosecutor General's Office, and Bastrykin became its first chairman. The appointment was reportedly instigated by

Igor Sechin Igor Ivanovich Sechin (; born 7 September 1960) is a Russian entrepreneur and a government official, considered a close ally and "de facto deputy" of Vladimir Putin. Sechin has been a confidant of Russian leader Vladimir Putin since the early ...

, wishing to retain his influence after the dismissal of his close ally Vladimir Ustinov from the position of prosecutor general in 2006. On November 28, 2009, as head of the Investigative Committee at the scene of the 2009 Nevsky Express bombing, Bastrykin was injured by a second bomb and was hospitalised. The second bomb was reportedly targeted at investigators, and was detonated by

mobile phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This rad ...

. Bastrykin is considered to be an intimate advisor of President Putin. In July 2022, amid the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, he announced that the Investigative Committee had opened 1300 criminal investigations against Ukrainian prisoners of war, saying that 92 of them had already been charged with crimes against humanity. The announcement drew criticism from human rights experts, with

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

saying that the Russian government "shared no evidence to support these charges" and that "willfully depriving a prisoner of war of fair trial rights constitutes a war crime."

Controversies

Plagiarism

Bastrykin holds a

doctor of law A Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) is a doctoral degree in legal studies. The abbreviation LL.D. stands for ''Legum Doctor'', with the double “L” in the abbreviation referring to the early practice in the University of Cambridge to teach both canon law ...

degree, and has published more than 100 scholarly works in Russia. In 2007 Bastrykin was publicly accused of

plagiarism Plagiarism is the representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.From the 1995 ''Random House Dictionary of the English Language, Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary'': use or close ...

, because parts of his then new book "Signs of the Hand. Dactyloscopy" (2004) had been rewritten from the famous book of German writer

Jürgen Thorwald Jürgen Thorwald (born Heinz Bongartz, October 28, 1915 – April 4, 2006) was a German writer, journalist and historian known for his works describing the history of forensic medicine and of World War II. Thorwald was a native of Solingen, Rhen ...

. In 2013 these accusations were confirmed and supplemented by

Dissernet Dissernet () is a volunteer community network working to clean Russian science of plagiarism. The core activity of the community is conducting examinations of doctoral and habilitation (higher doctorate) theses defended in Russian scientific and ...

community and its founder

Sergey Parkhomenko Sergey Borisovich Parkhomenko (; born March 13, 1964) is a Russian publisher, journalist, opposition activist and political commentator. He currently works for the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Biography Parkhomenko ...

: it was found that Bastrykin's book also contains an entire chapter from the book by

Anthony Summers Anthony Bruce Summers (born 21 December 1942) is an Irish author. He is a Pulitzer Prize Finalist and has written ten non-fiction books. He worked for the BBC in current affairs coverage as a producer and then as an assistant editor of the long ...

"The Secret Life of

J. Edgar Hoover John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American attorney and law enforcement administrator who served as the fifth and final director of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) and the first director of the Federal Bureau o ...

" (in Russian translation "The FBI Empire – Myths, Secrets, Intrigues").

Sanctions and blacklistings

On January 9, 2017, under the

Magnitsky Act The Magnitsky Act, formally known as the Russia and Moldova Jackson–Vanik Repeal and Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act of 2012, is a bipartisan bill passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in D ...

, the

United States Treasury The Department of the Treasury (USDT) is the national treasury and finance department of the federal government of the United States. It is one of 15 current U.S. government departments. The department oversees the Bureau of Engraving and ...

Office of Foreign Assets Control The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is a financial intelligence and enforcement agency of the United States Department of the Treasury, United States Treasury Department. It administers and enforces economic and trade economic sanctions, ...

updated its

Specially Designated Nationals List The Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List, also known as the SDN List, is a United States government sanctions/embargo measure targeting U.S.-designated terrorists, officials and beneficiaries of certain authoritarian regimes, a ...

and blacklisted Aleksandr I. Bastrykin, Andrei K. Lugovoi, Dmitri V. Kovtun, Stanislav Gordievsky, and Gennady Plaksin, which froze any of their assets held by American financial institutions or transactions with those institutions and banned their travelling to the United States. On 6 July 2020, the government of the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

imposed sanctions on Bastrykin as part of a move to sanction a number of Russians and Saudis for having 'blood on their hands'.

Secret residence permit and real estate in the Czech Republic

On 26 July 2012 Russian blogger and anticorruption activist

Alexei Navalny Alexei Anatolyevich Navalny (, ; 4 June 197616 February 2024) was a Russian Opposition to Vladimir Putin in Russia, opposition leader, anti-corruption in Russia, corruption activist and political prisoner. He founded the Anti-Corruption Found ...

published documents indicating that Bastrykin had a residence permit and owned real estate in the Czech Republic. Mr. Navalny wrote that the real estate holding and residence permit in a country belonging to

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

, a military alliance opposed to

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, should raise questions about Mr. Bastrykin's security clearance for work in law enforcement and access to

state secrets Classified information is confidential material that a government deems to be sensitive information which must be protected from unauthorized disclosure that requires special handling and dissemination controls. Access is restricted by law or ...

Threatening journalists

According to

Dmitry Muratov Dmitry Andreyevich Muratov (; born 29 October 1961) is a Russian journalist, television presenter and the former editor-in-chief of the Russian newspaper . He was awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Maria Ressa for "their efforts to ...

, Bastrykin threatened the life of newspaper editor Sergei Sokolov, and jokingly assured him that he would investigate the murder himself.

2022 war censorship laws

In March 2022, Russian journalist

Alexander Nevzorov Alexander Glebovich (Oleksandr Hlibovych) Nevzorov (; Ukrainian: Олександр Глібович Невзоров; born on 3 August 1958) is a Russian and Ukrainian television journalist, film director and a former member of the Russian S ...

wrote to Bastrykin that Russia's 2022 war censorship laws, which introduced prison sentences of up to 15 years for those who publish "knowingly false information" about the Russian military and its operations, violate the

freedom of speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been r ...

provisions of the Constitution of Russia.

Political views and legislative initiatives

In 2015, Bastrykin proposed to amend article 15 of the

Constitution of Russia The Constitution of the Russian Federation () was adopted by national referendum on 12 December 1993 and enacted on 25 December 1993. The latest significant reform occurred in 2020, marked by extensive amendments that altered various sections ...

by establishing the priority of national laws over universally recognized principles and norms of international law and international agreements ratified by

Russian Federation Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

(it is possible only through the adoption of the new Constitution because article 15 appears in chapter 1, established the fundamental principles of the constitutional order). In 2016, Bastrykin expressed the need to establish official national

ideology An ideology is a set of beliefs or values attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely about belief in certain knowledge, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones". Form ...

and censor the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

, on the grounds that there is

information warfare Information warfare (IW) is the battlespace use and management of information and communication technology (ICT) in pursuit of a competitive advantage over an opponent. It is different from ''cyberwarfare'' that attacks computers, software, and ...

against

launched by

USA The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

and its allies. As such proposals clash with the provisions of chapters 1 and 2 of the

, established the fundamental principles of the constitutional order and the fundamental rights of citizens, the complaint was lodged against Bastrykin with the

General Prosecutor's Office of Russian Federation A general officer is an officer of high rank in the armies, and in some nations' air and space forces, marines or naval infantry. In some usages, the term "general officer" refers to a rank above colonel."general, adj. and n.". OED Online. Mar ...

but General Prosecutor's Office refused to initiate an investigation.

Honors and awards

* Order for Merit to the Fatherland, 2nd and 4th class *

Order of Alexander Nevsky The Order of Alexander Nevsky () is an Order (distinction), order of merit of the Russia, Russian Federation named in honour of saint Alexander Nevsky (1220–1263) and bestowed to civil servants for twenty years or more of highly meritorious ser ...

* Order of Honor *

Medal "In Commemoration of the 300th Anniversary of Saint Petersburg" The Medal "In Commemoration of the 300th Anniversary of Saint Petersburg" () is a state commemorative medal of the Russian Federation established on February 19, 2003, by Presidential Decree No. 210 to denote the 300th anniversary of the foundati ...

*Medal of Anatoly Koni (Ministry of Justice) *Medal in Commemoration of the 200th Anniversary of the Ministry of Justice *Medals "For Diligence" 1st and 2nd classes (Ministry of Justice) * Russian Federation Presidential Certificate of Honor (2009) *Honorary Title of Honored Jurist of the Russian Federation *Order of Friendship (

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

, 2016) *Order of Honor (

Ingushetia Ingushetia or Ingushetiya, officially the Republic of Ingushetia, is a republic of Russia located in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe. The republic is part of the North Caucasian Federal District, and shares land borders with the country o ...

, 2013) *Order of Honor (

South Ossetia South Ossetia, officially the Republic of South Ossetia or the State of Alania, is a landlocked country in the South Caucasus with International recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, partial diplomatic recognition. It has an offici ...

, 2009)

References

External links

Michael Weiss. ''The Rise and Probable Fall of Putin's Enforcer'' // The Atlantic, Aug 12 2013
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bastrykin, Alexander 1953 births Living people People from Pskov Russian jurists Russian prosecutors Scholars of criminal law Saint Petersburg State University alumni 20th-century Russian lawyers 21st-century Russian lawyers 20th-century Russian politicians 21st-century Russian politicians People sanctioned under the Magnitsky Act Russian nationalists Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 2nd class Recipients of the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland", 4th class Recipients of the Order of Alexander Nevsky (Russian Federation) Recipients of the Order of Honour (Russia) Honoured Lawyers of the Russian Federation