Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, Alexander Bastrykinand he the country’s new ‘immigrant hunter’. He assures that more than 30,000 foreigners have been identified in Russia who have recently received Russian citizenship and are not registered in the army. 10,000 had already been sent to «dig trenches».
Russian law enforcement agencies periodically raid companies where immigrants work. They summon them or take them to military offices. Workers without Russian citizenship are promised that they will quickly receive Russian passports if they sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense.
Bastrykin assures that he will simply devote himself to «implementing the provisions of the Constitution and our laws.» He graduated from the Faculty of Law of Leningrad State University in 1975 and He was a classmate of Vladimir Putin. Today it is known for conduct investigations without much basisaccusing the Ukrainian military of causing the Mariupol maternity massacre or the United States of opening biological weapons laboratories in Ukraine. He maintained the same position as head of the investigation into the Moscow attack last March, when, despite being claimed by Islamic extremists, he insisted that it was a Ukrainian operation.
«Already We have chased away more than 30,000 of them [migrantes] who have received citizenship and do not want to join the army, we have registered them and have already sent about 10,000 of them to the zone of military operations,» Bastrykin said. «They tell us: ‘Why do we need these comrades there? ‘ WELL, dig trenches and create fortifications«, which requires very good workers, and now they join our rear units», proudly explains the head of the investigative commission, always very direct in his approaches. Sometimes, too much: according to the head of Novaya GazetaDimitri Muratov, years ago Bastrykin threatened to kill the journalist Sergei Sokolov and assured him – they say jokingly – that he himself would investigate the murder.
Bastrykin wants to change Russia’s immigration policy, in line with the isolationist retreat that emerged after the invasion and the attacks in March. He says he wants to «fine tune the needs and perhaps also ensure that we can solve our political and economic problems with our own resources.» Bastrykin had already expressed the need for this in 2016. establish an official national ideology and censor the Internet. Now he is the “grand inquisitor” who implements the censorship laws imposed after the invasion began.
Born in 1953, he has a doctorate in law and has published more than 100 academic works in Russia, but his life and work do not stand up to even the slightest scrutiny. In 2007 Bastrykin, author of ‘Hand Signs. Fingerprints’, he was publicly accused of plagiarism. Years later it was learned that this book contains an entire chapter of Anthony Summers’ book «The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover». In 2012, dissident Alexey Navalny published documents indicating that Bastrykin had done so residence permit in the Czech Republic and owned real estate in that country, something he apparently had hidden so as not to lose access to state secrets.
Bastrykin sparked controversy again yesterday calling deputies stupid and ask them to quickly pass immigration laws. «I would really like to know when our ‘mad state’ [en vez de Duma Estatal, la cmara baja del parlamento ruso] pass good laws.» The Chairman of the State Duma, Viacheslav Volodinhe denounced that Bastrykin insults the Russian people, since it is he who elects the deputies.
