15 Years of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation

Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, General of Justice of the Russian Federation A. I. Bastrykin

The establishment of a new state body was not merely a complex undertaking, it was an important landmark in the evolution of Russia’s law enforcement system. The country’s leadership’s decision to revive the model of a separate, independent investigative authority — first applied in the era of Peter the Great — was no accident. It was driven by the need to elevate criminal investigation to a higher standard and to adequately respond to the new challenges confronting the state at the present historical moment.

My colleagues and I understood clearly which tasks were the priorities: protecting victims' rights and securing compensation for the harm done to them; combating corruption; reducing the number of unsolved crimes from prior years. These were the areas where we concentrated our principal efforts. We began analysing investigative practice and taking organisational decisions informed by the prevailing crime situation.

Approaches to handling citizens' complaints were fundamentally overhauled. The most important thing is genuinely to hear people, understand their difficulties, and do everything possible to help. Therefore, we made the process of submitting complaints simpler for people, improved the data processing system, and paid greater attention to crimes in the social sphere. This includes the rights of orphans, the dilapidated housing problems, defrauded property buyers (or ‘dol'shchiki' in Russian, people who paid in advance for flats in off-plan property development and were left without either property or money when developers defaulted), wage arrears, and the list is long. This approach has raised the level of public trust in the Investigative Committee of Russia, as confirmed by independent surveys.

One of the Investigative Committee of Russia’s responsibilities is to develop measures to improve the regulatory framework. Over the years, drawing on the analysis of specific problems, the agency has proposed amendments to existing legislation: a series of changes to the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure (the principal statute governing criminal procedure in Russia) concerning victims' rights, the rules for conducting investigative actions, the recovery of damages, and the criminality of certain conduct. Proposals have been submitted on combating corporate raiding, migrant crime, and a number of other areas. All of this has contributed to improved law enforcement effectiveness.

Our achievements would be impossible without professional personnel. When the Investigative Committee of Russia was established, both highly experienced and young officers joined the service. But we knew that we should cultivate a talent pool. We therefore set about building a departmental education system. Today we have our own departmental academies and cadet corps that train specialists for the Investigative Committee to meet our specific professional requirements.

We do not stand still. Analysis of the agency’s work with a view to improving its effectiveness is a continuous process. New challenges and threats are taken into account, and proposals for improving core activities are drawn up, accordingly. This is the only way to achieve actual results and make progress with confidence.

Over 15 years, the Investigative Committee of Russia has referred almost one and a half million criminal cases to the courts. In those cases, 1.6 million defendants have been brought to justice. At the investigative stage alone, damages amounting to more than one trillion roubles were recovered. To guarantee compensation and the enforcement of sentences, assets worth nearly 900 billion roubles were seized from defendants. These results show that, in a relatively short time, we have succeeded in building an effectively functioning system of investigative, forensic, and expert units.

Since 2014, the Investigative Committee of Russia has been investigating crimes against the peace and security of mankind committed by representatives of the Kyiv regime. In that time, nearly 10,000 criminal cases have been commenced against 2,411 individuals: among them the military and political leadership of Ukraine, personnel of Ukrainian security forces, and foreign mercenaries.

Our investigators have documented the deaths of 7,572 civilians as a result of the crimes committed by the Ukrainian armed formations. Other 22,000 people were wounded. 132,000 people have been recognised as victims in the criminal proceedings. Damage from the destruction of civilian infrastructure in the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Lugansk People’s Republic, the Zaporozhye Region, and the Kherson Region exceeds 560 billion roubles; in the border and rear-area regions, it exceeds 148 billion.

The Investigative Committee of Russia has already completed investigation of 1,021 criminal cases, in which 1,336 Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen, nationalists, and foreign mercenaries, who fought on Ukraine’s side, are named as defendants. Courts have heard the merits of 860 cases and brought in the verdicts of guilty against 1,129 Ukrainian servicemen. They were convicted of murdering civilians, mistreating the civilian population, and participating in hostilities as mercenaries.

The growth of crime in information and communications technology is, in essence, the flipside of technical progress, and the situation demands that law enforcement continuously improve its means to counter such crimes. There is a clear trend: general criminal offences, primarily property offences, are migrating increasingly into the online environment. Since 2022 alone, the Investigative Committee has investigated 34,500 crimes committed using information technologies. The majority — 9,096 — were thefts. Second were economic crimes (5,854), and third were drug offences (4,040).

Criminals exploit the ability to commit offences from outside the Russian Federation, hiding in unfriendly countries and using anonymisation tools. The newest challenge we face is the use of artificial intelligence: criminals are already counterfeiting a person’s voice and video image in phone conversations with victims (so-called deepfake fraud).

To solve these dangerous offences, we deploy a range of technologies to de-anonymise internet users. The specialised cybercrime investigation unit of the Main Investigative Directorate has its own facial recognition software; we are capable of analysing large data arrays, conducting open-source intelligence, and tracing digital footprints. We make active use of the Rosfinmonitoring (Federal Financial Monitoring Service, Russia’s financial intelligence unit) programme, which assists in tracking cryptocurrency transfers. We have also established contacts with the largest Russian IT companies; jointly with them, we are developing solutions to the complex technical problems that arise in the course of investigations. And we are going to further develop this area.

Since the agency had been established, people have turned to the Investigative Committee far more frequently. Whereas 245,600 complaints were received in 2011, that figure reached 650,000 by 2024. Over that period, the number of complaints directed to the Central Office grew almost fourfold, from 69,000 to 259,000. In total, over its years of operation, the Investigative Committee of Russia has processed 5.5 million complaints, of which 2 million have been handled by the Central Office.

I have always told my subordinates: you must engage personally with people’s problems, receive citizens in person, listen to them, and truly hear what they are saying. Citizens can visit the Investigative Committee of Russia in person and therefore meet a manager of any level. The most frequent issues people bring are social matters. But there are also many complaints concerning the rights of servicemen and the rights of crime victims. In addition, 7,586 crime reports have been registered from media sources, including the internet and social media, resulting in the opening of more than a thousand criminal cases. We do everything in our power to help people. That is my principal requirement imposed on my subordinates.

Following the reform of the investigative bodies, our agency received a body of unsolved criminal cases, about 200,000 of them, from the Prosecutor’s Office. We had to build a systematic approach to solving them, draw in experienced investigators and forensic specialists, and deploy the latest technologies. To this end, inter-agency analytical investigative and operational task forces were created, specifically focused on solving non-obvious (crimes in which the perpetrator is unknown, and the connection between suspect and offence is not immediately apparent) serious and extremely serious crimes committed in prior years. These task forces analyse the materials of shelved cases, examine physical evidence, and commission fresh forensic examinations of remaining traces using modern techniques.

Over the agency’s entire period of operation, 94,000 such cold-case crimes have been solved, and those responsible brought to justice. Among these crimes are 10,000 murders, 5,000 cases of grievous bodily harm resulting in death, and more than 6,000 sexual offences.

The Investigative Committee’s forensic system has been developing actively over 15 years. We are continuously bringing new equipment into use; we keep on refining methodologies for investigating various types of crimes and conducting specific investigative actions. Today’s forensic investigators have at their disposal all the technical means they need to work a crime scene and to detect virtually any trace evidence: forensic light sources, endoscopes, geo- and hydroacoustic detection equipment, metal detectors, explosive component detection tools, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and much more.

CCTV footage is now widely used in solving crimes, as is well known, but objects are not always clearly distinguishable in the recordings. Our personnel use specialised video analytics tools to enhance image quality, which assists investigations a lot.

Applying the most advanced methodologies, our forensic specialists provide practical investigative support at crime scenes following the numerous strikes on civilian infrastructure in Russia’s new and border regions (the new regions of Russia are the four territories that acceded to Russia in 2022: the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Lugansk People’s Republic, the Zaporozhye Region, and the Kherson Region), in criminal cases involving man-made disasters, crimes against persons, and terrorism. In all such cases, the skilled, highly professional use of forensic and specialist equipment enables agency personnel to effectively locate, record, and recover traces and items of evidential value.

Full-fledged units of the Investigative Committee of Russia are now operating in the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Lugansk People’s Republic, the Zaporozhye Region, and the Kherson Region. The investigative directorates and their departments are equipped with everything necessary for effective work, and enhanced security measures are in place.

The backbone of these directorates was formed by our own personnel who had previously served in other regions: 653 people relocated to their new postings. There are also graduates of our departmental academies: eight chose to begin their careers in Donbass. More than 700 people now serve in these four constituent entities of the Russian Federation, of whom 350 are investigators. Many have been provided with accommodation; families get assistance in enrolling children in nurseries and schools and organizing recreational activities.

Those who have come here understand perfectly: this is not simply service under difficult conditions. For many, it is a special mission: to protect the people of Donbass and to restore justice. And our experience shows that the most cohesive teams are formed in such conditions where difficulties must be overcome.

Over 15 years, the Investigative Committee’s personnel have been substantially renewed. Many young officers have joined, while at the same time, there are a considerable number of experienced investigators and managers who have served since the agency’s establishment and have become mentors.

As already noted, we now train our own personnel for the agency. The Investigative Committee operates three academies and five cadet corps, based in Moscow, St Petersburg, Volgograd, Sevastopol, and Lugansk. Across the country, more than 200 specialist cadet classes are also in operation, with local managers tasked with establishing a minimum of ten such classes in each constituent entity.

The agency operates a system of continuous industry-specific education. Future investigators are actually prepared from school age. In the cadet corps, students study law-related subjects, the history of the investigative bodies, and the procedures of service. On completing their cadet corps or cadet class education, students may continue their studies at the Investigative Committee’s own higher education institutions. A total of 893 graduates of our educational establishments are already serving in the investigative bodies of the Investigative Committee of Russia.

We make every effort to help children who have lost their parents obtain a sound academic background, and we support the families of our servicemen. The Investigative Committee of Russia’s educational institutions currently have 1,232 cadets enrolled, of whom 340 are orphans and 269 are children of the SVO (Special Military Operation) participants. There are also 1,177 officer cadets, among them 229 orphans and 113 children of the SVO participants. In addition, to provide social support to SVO participants themselves, our academies offer the opportunity to obtain a higher legal education in both intramural and extramural courses.