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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Bastrykin, at the Board meeting you discussed the results of last year’s work.

Chairman of The Investigative Committee of Russia Alexander Bastrykin: That’s right.

Vladimir Putin: Could you please summarise them?

Alexander Bastrykin: We noted certain positive results, specifically in combatting terrorism, extremism and crimes against women and children.

However, there is a problem. This has to do with the quality of our work. We should not strive for numbers, but for better quality. This means greater attention to compliance with the law when initiating proceedings and investigating criminal cases, providing forensic equipment, conducting forensic studies, conducting investigations faster and deciding on pre-trial detention measures in full compliance with the law.

Another challenge we are facing at the Investigative Committee is generation change, both among officials in top positions and rank and file employees. This is exactly why we have the Investigative Committee Academy, the cadet corps. We have signed a number of agreements with Moscow University and some other Moscow institutions of higher learning to train our experts. Our discussion covered all these issues and we made corresponding decisions.

Vladimir Putin: How do you intend to arrange your work now? Are you suggesting any changes?

Alexander Bastrykin: We have submitted a number of proposals to the State Duma to improve the legislation that applies to our jurisdiction. This applies, first of all, to the liability of legal entities. I believe this should become the subject of a serious discussion.

This also applies to improving our work to combat economic crime. The existing legislation contains a few clauses that, unfortunately, are not working and have to be specified to make sure that the legislation is clear on matters pertaining to criminal situations.

One such matter is expert forensic research, which we should conduct, but this is not established by law. In other words, today we need to create a better legal base for our activities. In this connection, we would like to turn to you. We have submitted a number of proposals to the Presidential Executive Office dealing with improvements to the Law on the Investigative Committee. We would like to ask you to issue appropriate instructions to expedite the consideration of our proposals.

Vladimir Putin: Good. Let us consider this in detail.

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