INITIATION OF CRIMINAL CASE: LEAVE AS IS, ABOLISH OR REFORM?

The article is devoted to the consideration of problems that are well known, but have not been resolved. They are inherent in the initiation of a criminal case — the first stage of Russian criminal proceedings. It is said about serious contradictions of the stage of initiation of a criminal case, which have a negative impact on law enforcement practice, including causing the legal inadequacy of the results of verification activities carried out by police and preliminary investigation bodies. It is said that such activities are often carried out in bad faith. In addition, it is said that parts of the similar procedural actions in content cannot be carried out. At the same time, proposals are made about the reasons for the emergence of the stage of initiation of a criminal case — they are associated with the intentions of Soviet scientists-proceduralists to ensure the genuine legitimacy of the preliminary investigation in the context of the original system of pre-trial proceedings that had formed by that time, which implied the endowment of extra-judicial law enforcement agencies with jurisdictional legal capacity. As a result, a conclusion is formulated about the unacceptability of the liquidation of the stage of initiation of a criminal case without extra-systemic unity with other transformations of the Russian criminal process in general, and preliminary investigation in particular, without a clear and distinct understanding of the directions and prospects of the planned reforms.