Everyone is asking: why did Bastrykin make such a public outcry?
Alexander Bastrykin, head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, demanded explanations from his subordinates over the closure of the criminal case against Alexei Navalny concerning alleged embezzlement through the state company Kirovles. RIA Novosti reported this. Speaking at a board meeting of the agency in St. Petersburg, Bastrykin expressed dissatisfaction with the work of the Investigative Committee’s Kirov Region directorate, which had closed the case. He suggested that this may have been done under pressure, since Navalny had previously served as an adviser to Governor Nikita Belykh. "The whole country is talking today, the recordings of the conversations (between Belykh and Navalny — Lenta.ru’s note) have been published, and all we hear is mumbling. You had a criminal case against this man, and you quietly shut it down. If there are grounds to close the case, report it... If you’re weak, afraid, under pressure — report it...," Bastrykin said. http://lenta.ru/news/2012/07/05/mooo/
It’s obvious that the party and the government are telling them to fabricate a case, but before this they used to do everything quietly. Especially since there was clearly nothing "quiet" about it. The order closing the case was issued on April 10.
I wrote about it only a month and a half later, on May 28. In other words, I was waiting to see whether the order would "hold up" with the prosecutor’s office and higher-ups. It did hold up, and Bastrykin shouldn’t lie: all the materials were sent to the Main Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee for review.
But as soon as I wrote about it, the Investigative Committee immediately canceled the order — on May 29. They didn’t even have time to read everything.
And the case ended up in Kirov in the first place because Bastrykin’s Main Investigative Directorate sent it there after opening it in Moscow. We repeatedly challenged the transfer of the case to Kirov in Moscow’s Basmanny District Court.
So the question is: why did Bastrykin suddenly make such a fuss?
His loyal servants brought him our little greeting letter from the reception desk yesterday:
Since a case against the head of the Investigative Committee is initiated under a special procedure, then:
You can read the order describing the drunken exploits of Bastrykin with a pistol here. Perfectly normal: he was waving a pistol at some guy walking his dog. By the way, why does a Justice Ministry official need a pistol?
He’s literally just a monkey who was mistakenly handed a weapon.
Bastrykin ought to be kept isolated from people, not housed in the building on Tekhnichesky Lane. He knows it too, but he doesn’t want isolation. So he squeals there at his meetings.
Separately, I would like to remind the "Chairman" of the "Investigative" "Committee," Bastrykin, that an investigator is procedurally independent, and if he believes that decisions on reopening a case or transferring it are made at "planning meetings," then I hasten to disappoint him: that is not how it is supposed to work.
Well, obviously Bastrykin has no time for criminal procedure — he’s too busy playing lackey to the Party of Crooks and Thieves (a derogatory nickname for United Russia) and Putin, otherwise they might take away his two Infiniti escort SUVs — and that would be bitter and upsetting.