Pepeliaev Group’s expert has participated in a session of the Expert Panel with the business ombudsman of the Russian Federation
Sergey Taut, expert at Pepeliaev Group, has participated in a session of the Expert Panel with Boris Titov, the Russian President's Ombudsman for Entrepreneurs' Rights. The session was held on 17 August at the World Trade Center and was dedicated to the amendments, both implemented and prospective, to criminal and criminal procedure legislation for the purposes of the subsequent decriminalisation of economic relations.
Taking part in the discussion were Boris Titov, the Russian President's Ombudsman for Entrepreneurs' Rights, Pavel Krashennikov, the Head of the State Duma's Committee for Nation-Building and Legislation, and Andrey Nazarov, the Co-Chairman of the non-governmental organisation Business Russia. They were joined by representatives of business, attorneys and the expert community.
On 3 July 2018 the Russian President signed Federal Law No. 186-FZ “On amending article 72 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation” pursuant to which a day spent at a pretrial detention facility (also known by the Russian acronym SIZO) is now accounted as 1.5 day spent in a general-regime correctional facility, as two days in a settlement-regime correctional facility and as one day in a strict-regime correctional facility or in prison.
The law concerning the recalculation of the timeframes for detention will influence more than 110,000 convicted persons in Russia, including a significant number of persons convicted of crimes with economic elements under the Russian Criminal Code.
Pavel V. Krashennikov, the Head of the State Duma's Committee for Nation-Building and Legislation, underlined that law No. 186-FZ has retroactive effect. This means that the detention timeframes will be recalculated for persons that are currently in a custodial facility. According to Mr Krashennikov, this law may cover more than 7,000 persons under house arrest and more than 110,000 persons in custodial facilities. “Of course, in the majority of cases this will not mean that they will be immediately released. According to the estimates of the Russian Federal Penal Service, only 14,000 persons will be released, but nonetheless, for the remaining part, detention timeframes will be significantly reduced” - specified the deputy.
“Business feels much better now. But there are still many problems. The main one is the number of criminal cases initiated based on business disputes. In 90% of cases the famous article 159 of the Criminal Code is used, for which anything can serve as a ground - including the failure to perform agreements. Within the framework of standard business activity these issues should be regulated by civil litigation. But here, to make the ‘client’ more manageable criminal cases are initiated from the very outset. For this reason, we have today proposed that legislation be amended and this could radically change the situation. In particular, we propose to prohibit the initiation of criminal cases under those agreements which are deemed to be in force and have not been invalidated by courts. The adoption of such law would become a serious obstacle to hostile takeovers and the illegal prosecution of business” - underlined business ombudsman Boris Titov.
The adoption of the above law continues to implement legislative amendments proposed by the attorney and expert community with the support of the institution of the ombudsman for entrepreneurs' rights in order to humanise and decriminalise economic regulation in the interests of business.