Top investigator says the Russian justice system's 0.51-percent acquittal rate proves his agency's effectiveness

Alexander Bastrykin, a secret poet better known as the director of Russia’s Federal Investigative Committee, says the country’s staggeringly low acquittal rate is proof positive of his agency’s bang-up job. In comments reported on Friday by the news agency TASS, Bastrykin said Russia’s 0.51-percent acquittal rate in 2018 (just 516 not-guilty verdicts all year) demonstrates the stability and high quality of investigators’ work. By that metric, however, the Investigative Committee under-performed when compared to 2017, when Russia's acquittal rate was just 0.42 percent.

Bastrykin noted that acquittal rates throughout Europe are generally 20 percent. “And they’re actually proud of these results,” he said incredulously.