The Orientation to Russian Legislation

The Supreme Council in the course of the spring session will continue work on a package of legislations aimed at returning the lost powers to the prosecutor's office. Legislative initiatives were drafted by the President and adopted by the deputy corps in the first reading in May last year. Earlier amendments were made to the constitutional law "On the Prosecutor's Office", the laws "On the Investigative Committee", "On Operative-Investigative Activities", as well as in the Code of Criminal Procedure. Amendments to the last of the documents were the subject of discussion among the participants of the interdepartmental working group established under the Committee on Legislation, Law Enforcement, Defense, Security, Peacekeeping, Protection of Citizens' Rights and Freedoms. In addition to parliamentarians, representatives of the prosecutor's office, the Investigative Committee, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the courts, the government and the president took part in the meeting. As the deputy chairman of the profile committee Gregory Dyachenko noted during the meeting, the working group is called upon to work out a unified position of all interested parties.

Changes in the norms of the Code of Criminal Procedure are aimed at clarifying such concepts as "investigation" and "supervision", which directly relate to the day-to-day work of the investigative bodies and the prosecutor's office. In Russia, these functions are delineated, the competence of the relevant agencies is clearly defined. According to the Prosecutor of the Republic Anatoly Guretsky, the Russian experience will be an example for our law enforcement system.

The President instructed state authorities to resolve this issue at the legislative level in an expeditious manner.

The Working Group considered more than 50 amendments. The meeting participants reached common opinion on the majority. A package of legislations clarifying the functions of the prosecutor's office will be considered by the relevant committee in the second reading in the near future.