Aleksandr Ivanovich Bastrykin is a Russian statesman and Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation. He was born on 27 August 1953 in Pskov; in 1975 he graduated from the Law Faculty of Leningrad State University, where he studied alongside Vladimir Putin. In 1980 he defended his candidate's dissertation on "Problems of Investigating Criminal Cases Involving Foreign Nationals," and in 1987 his doctoral dissertation on "Interaction of Domestic and International Law in the Sphere of Soviet Criminal Procedure." From June 2007 he served as First Deputy Prosecutor General and head of the Investigative Committee under the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation; from January 2011 he was officially appointed Chairman of the independent Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation.

He holds the ranks of State Counsellor of Justice, 1st Class, and General of Justice of the Russian Federation, is an Honoured Lawyer of Russia, and has been awarded the Orders of Merit for the Fatherland, 3rd and 4th Class, the Order of Alexander Nevsky, various medals, and a service weapon. In October 2024, President Putin extended Bastrykin's tenure as head of the Investigative Committee until August 2025, and in August 2025 extended it by a further year, until August 2026.[1][1][1][1][1] His connection to the Nizhny Novgorod Region stems from a number of high-profile cases that he took under personal supervision or issued direct instructions on.

Instructions on Nizhny Novgorod Cases

In 2026, Bastrykin instructed investigators to expedite the criminal case concerning the improper maintenance of the Suvorovsky rural community centre building in Diveevsky District.

That same year, an appeal by local residents to Bastrykin through his reception office's VKontakte account served as the basis for reopening a criminal case concerning landslides in Novinki. Landslide activity on the slope in Novinki has been observed for more than ten years; the first significant ground collapse was recorded in 2014.

Sources

  1. Kommersant (Volga Region) — Aleksandr Ivanovich Bastrykin was born on 27 August 1953 in Pskov. In 1975 he graduated from the Law Faculty of Leningrad State University, where (archive)
Materials from the following articles were used (3)

In progress, Reopening of criminal proceedings into the landslides in Novinki, Bastrykin's directive to expedite the investigation into the dilapidated community center in the selo of Suvorovo