Russia’s ‘top cop’ visits Cuba
Aleksandr Ivanovich Bastrykin, chairman of the Investigations Committee of the Russian Federation, arrived Sunday (March 30) in Havana, where he was welcomed by the Cuban Interior Minister, Gen. Abelardo Colomé Ibarra.
According to the daily Granma, the two men “analyzed topics of interest for their respective domains and ways to further strengthen the relations of work and collaboration between their two institutions.”
In its three-paragraph account, Granma did not state how long Bastrykin will stay in Cuba but did say that he “will tour places of historic and social interest.”
It would not be unreasonable to assume that, as former First Deputy Prosecutor General, former chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General’s office and, since 2011, chairman of an agency that specializes in the investigation and prosecution of enemies of the Russian state, Bastrykin is in Cuba to lend his expertise to the Cuban Ministry of the Interior, which oversees domestic security.
Described by the media as “Russia’s most senior policeman,” Bastrykin, 62, has a long and distinguished career in judicial procedure and law enforcement, which includes membership in the Presidential Anti-corruption Council.
Perhaps not coincidentally, he arrives in Havana two days after Gen. Leonardo Andollo Valdés told the National Assembly that Cuba is drafting a law on “the institutionalization of police functions and services” that will demand from policemen a “professional, ethical and humane” behavior.
As quoted in Granma, Andollo said that the proposed bill “establishes basic concepts of police behavior, such as respect for the Constitution and the laws; professional, ethical and humane treatment; self-identification before acting, and speed and rationality on the job.”
The bill is intended “to guarantee the citizens’ security,” Andollo said.
In Cuba, it is necessary to have “a law to guarantee the public order, the defense and protection of the citizens’ rights, in cooperation with the state organs and organizations, economic entities, social institutions and the citizens, as well as to strengthen the authority, protection and legal backing for the [police] forces,” Andollo said.
Last month, Cuba’s ambassador to Russia, Emilio Lozada García, praised the professionalism of, and “correct operation of crowd control” by, the Moscow police in a confrontation with anti-government dissidents. For that comment, in Progreso Weekly, click here.
(In photo above Aleksandr Ivanovich Bastrykin is greeted by Cuba’s Gen. Abelardo Colomé Ibarra.)
