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Taking part in the meeting were Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov, State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov, Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Sergei Naryshkin, Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov, Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev, Director of the Federal Security Service Alexander Bortnikov, Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service Mikhail Fradkov and Head of the Federal Customs Service Andrei Belyaninov.

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President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Colleagues, before we get down to work I would like to inform you that I have signed two laws that are relevant to our efforts. One of them is a new law on security. This document, which replaces the previous law, defines the list of threats to our state and our means of responding to those threats.

This is a fundamental law for the Security Council, security agencies and law enforcement agencies. Naturally, I assume that everyone present here will be guided by the law in your activities.

The second law has a more narrow scope but is equally important. This law sets out the procedures for investigating crimes, conducting investigations and the agency that will be responsible for them in accordance with my decision to transform Prosecutor General’s Investigative Committee into an independent agency. The relevant draft law has passed through our Parliament, through the Federal Assembly, and has been signed by me. It is the Law On the Investigative Committee.

The Investigative Committee will begin work as an independent federal agency; it will have its own jurisdiction, which is determined by the law On the Investigative Committee and by the Criminal Procedure Code. This is a new agency. I hope that its work will be efficient and result-oriented and that it will be able to achieve better results in investigating crimes than has been the case until now. It has all the necessary powers to achieve that objective, while it also has its own jurisdiction, which, of course, may change over time.

Remark: We are leaving behind the Soviet prosecution system…

Dmitry Medvedev: And creating a system that has been debated for a long time and on which many different points of view exist. Nevertheless, this decision has been made, and I will reiterate that I hope the Investigative Committee will be efficient and at the same time will safeguard the legitimate interests and rights and freedoms of our citizens.

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