President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Bastrykin, just a few days ago, a board meeting was held. How did it go and what were its outcomes?
Chairman of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin: Mr President, I would like to begin with a report on the work that the Investigative Committee has performed over the 15 years of its existence. Here is the album, where you will find what we achieved from 2011 to 2025.
Almost 1.5 million cases have been taken to court, damages amounting to almost 1 trillion rubles have been recovered, and damages for tax-related crimes equal to 561 billion [rubles] have been reimbursed, and so on. Over 1.5 million individuals faced criminal charges. This is to say that we accomplished a lot during these 15 years with your support.
We are effectively developing a forensics division and are using new forensics methods. Also, with your support, we have created our own expert centre. It sparked a strong discussion, but you supported us. This has enabled us to carry out complex expert reviews without turning to other agencies, and we have already performed thousands and hundreds of them.
We have been expanding our international cooperation with other countries and have over 60 international agreements with our foreign colleagues. This way, we can benefit from the experience of foreign law enforcement agencies and receive their assistance.
In addition to this, the Media Relations Department has been quite proactive too. We have established a new unit – an information centre that monitors all media outlets and social media, enabling us to work directly with people who want us to help them.
Moving on, it is with your support, your assistance, that we created five cadet corps. The initiative to establish another cadet corps specialising in maritime-related cases is about to be launched in St Petersburg. After all, about 500 of our investigators work on various fleet-related matters.
We have created a cadet corps in the Lugansk People’s Republic. In addition, we have established three academies, in Moscow, St Petersburg, and in the Lugansk People’s Republic. A dedicated unit has been created to work with civil society and carry out educational activities. Hero of the Russian Federation Viktor Petrov has been proactive at the head of this entity. We created a veteran’s organisation back in 2008 and have been active in reaching out to our veterans so that they can assist us in our efforts.
As for our performance in 2025, we have also accomplished a lot by taking over 93 criminal cases to courts regarding 104,000 defendants. The Investigative Committee has established an effective framework for working with the Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service, which enabled us to help the state and other victims recover over 128 billion roubles in damages.
Moreover, investigators helped arrest property belonging to suspects and defendants worth 196.5 billion roubles. The quality and responsiveness of investigations improved, with the number of criminal cases solved in less than two months increasing by 17 percent. The Investigative Committee submitted to courts 14,200 criminal cases dealing with attempted corruption, up by a quarter compared to the previous year. Of this total, 535 corruption-related crimes were perpetrated by organised groups and criminal associations. There were 617 persons with special legal status among those facing corruption charges.
We have requested the Higher Qualification Board of Judges of the Russian Federation to indict 23 judges on criminal charges. All the requests were reviewed and satisfied. In 2025, criminal cases against 12 judges made it to court.
Vladimir Putin: As far as I understand, your colleagues from the judicial system treat these matters with understanding and have made solving these cases a matter of principle?
Alexander Bastrykin: Yes, you are absolutely right. Persons accused of committing 70 crimes. More than 22,000 cases on economic crimes have been sent to courts. These cases include crimes by heads of enterprises, recurrent non-payers of wages, cases involving tax evasion, crimes committed in the military industrial complex and when performing state defence orders.
We were firm in countering extremist and terrorist acts and referred to court over 1,000 criminal cases involving terrorism-related crimes against 1,330 persons, including 72 cases dealing with crimes involving the financing of terrorism. There were 877 criminal cases brought to court on charges of extremism, and 1,177 individuals who committed such crimes have been brought to justice.
We have completed the investigation of a criminal case regarding the terrorist act at the Crocus City Hall that left 150 people dead and 609 wounded. The total property damage was equal to about 6 billion roubles.
Investigating criminal cases committed during previous years remains an important element in our work. In 2025, we successfully completed 6,716 criminal investigations that occurred in previous years: 650 murders, 259 cases of causing severe bodily harm, and 381 cases of sexual violence.
We are active in solving the problem of defrauded homebuyers. To protect their interests, we filed 32 criminal cases against 43 developers and officials. We are actively working to restore the housing rights of those who have been living in dilapidated or substandard housing for a long time. We have initiated over 1,000 criminal cases over such facts and 206 cases against 229 defendants have been sent to court.
We are working hard to prevent juvenile crime. This year, we investigated more than 16,000 crimes committed by minors and 8,105 such cases have resulted in court proceedings.
During the same period, we investigated 22,000 criminal acts involving underage victims. Courts received from us 12,000 cases dealing with criminal offences against minors. We protect the housing rights of orphaned children, take effective measures to protect these rights, and investigated 100 criminal cases involving crimes of this kind over the past year. They have been completed with an indictment to the court.
One of the key tracks in our work concerns crimes committed by migrants. Over the past year, we sent to courts 2,490 criminal cases dealing with migrant criminality. At the same time, we investigated and sent to courts 283 criminal cases against officials working on migration-related matters.
The system of forensic expert support that I have already mentioned functions quite successful. Over the past five years, experts from this centre carried out 134,000 forensic enquiries and undertook a major forensic expert effort to come with an accurate assessment of the damage sustained by Donbass as a result of the Kiev regime’s crimes and define its nature. This damage is equal to 580 billion roubles.
To date, judicial bodies in Donbass have delivered guilty verdicts against 1,084 militants and mercenaries, sentencing them to lengthy prison terms, including 71 life sentences for killing civilians and acting with cruelty towards prisoners of war.
In an effort to protect the rights of the special military operation participants and their families, we provided for reviewing over 83,000 applications dealing with the failure to pay full salaries or other benefits, or deficiencies in medical services for military personnel, as well as to locate family members, and other matters.
We had 5,143 face-to-face meetings with the special military operation participants and visited 53 hospitals where we met with the wounded, answered their questions, held meetings there and provided the necessary assistance to the wounded fighters.
We have been working to ensure the rule of law in new territories by creating four departments. They have been working hard, with their investigators sending 1,823 criminal cases to courts.
In conclusion, I would like to say that in 2025, I made 20 trips to Donbass where I held a meeting, took various cases under my personal control, and offered our investigative departments the assistance they needed.
This concludes my report.
Vladimir Putin: Thank you. Have you been able to provide for the functioning of your agency in the new territories?
Alexander Bastrykin: Yes.
Vladimir Putin: Have all the necessary tools for the work of the investigative authorities been put in place?
Vladimir Putin: Yes, and you know, Mr President, many people want to work there, even young women are putting forward their candidacies. However, I introduced a special procedure for them: whenever a woman wants to be assigned to work there, I get a report. After reviewing it, I can either grant the request or reject it, since some women have children, etc. Overall, these unites have been quite effective.
Those who head these departments have the rank of general and have demonstrated robust performance. I must say that they are even slightly more effective compared to the central headquarters and other territories.
Vladimir Putin: Good. Thank you.
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