A third of entrepreneurs’ appeals to the Moscow Business Ombudsman concerned the criminal law sphere

In 2023, the capital’s business ombudsman Tatyana Mineeva received 295 written complaints from entrepreneurs. Mrs. Mineeva herself spoke about this at conferences “Kommersant” “Criminal and subsidiary liability of owners and managers – 2024.” At the same time, according to her, a third of such complaints concerned the criminal legal sphere. In them, entrepreneurs most often reported unfounded criminal prosecution, restriction of freedom, and unjustified seizure of property or accounts.

Ms. Mineeva also noted that in 52% of the cases of the total number of criminal complaints filed by entrepreneurs, it was possible to achieve victories and help restore rights. For three entrepreneurs, the preventive measure was replaced with a more lenient one, criminal prosecution and criminal cases against two were stopped, and the sentence for one was commuted. More than 40 police and investigative officials were brought to disciplinary liability for violating criminal procedural legislation.

The Business Ombudsman also advocated making Part 1.1 of Art. 108 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, which provides for restrictions on the detention of entrepreneurs, to change the approach to choosing a preventive measure in the form of bail for businessmen, and also to increase the thresholds for large and especially large damages for economic crimes.

In January, President Vladimir Putin announced the need to study law enforcement practices and prepare proposals for possible mitigation of sentences for non-violent crimes. Prior to this, HRC member Eva Merkacheva, at a meeting with the president, drew attention to the fact that for economic crimes, courts impose a sentence two to three times longer than for rape or murder. Mr Putin called such sentences controversial.

How crimes of entrepreneurs are viewed in Russia – in the publication “Kommersant” “Entrepreneurs are included in the Code of Criminal Procedure”.