Criminal Charges in Russia: A Family Guide

What to Do When a Relative Is Arrested or Convicted in Russia: A Legal Guide for Families Abroad

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Learning that a family member has been detained, accused of an offence, or given a prison sentence in Russia is an extremely difficult situation - all the more so when you are living thousands of kilometres from Russia, cannot communicate confidently in Russian, and are receiving incomplete or conflicting information. The criminal justice process in Russia is not always easy to understand even for local residents; for a family abroad, the distance, language difficulties, and unfamiliar legal rules multiply the confusion. This practical guide, prepared by the criminal defence lawyers of Yalanzhi & Partners in Moscow, sets out what normally happens at each stage of a Russian criminal case, which deadlines matter, what errors should be avoided, and what can realistically be done - even where the defendant has already been convicted.

Step one: establish the facts, not the promises

Before a meaningful defence strategy can be developed, the family must establish several essential facts: where exactly the person is detained, which authority is investigating, what criminal offence the person is suspected or accused of committing, whether the person has been formally charged, whether a court has ordered pre-trial detention, and whether a lawyer - state-appointed or privately retained - is already involved. For foreign nationals, several further matters must be established around access to an interpreter, contact with the relevant consulate, and communication with family members. The earlier an experienced independent defence lawyer reviews the situation, the more opportunities there generally are to influence the course of the case. Work done at the investigation stage - raising objections, challenging evidence, and documenting mitigating circumstances - later becomes the foundation for any appeal. This is what defence during the investigation is really about: defending the accused at the present stage while preserving arguments for later review.

Charges foreign nationals face most often

From our experience with criminal cases involving foreign nationals, foreign citizens in Russia are often prosecuted under a number of recurring provisions of the Russian Criminal Code. These frequently involve Article 228 and Article 228.1 (offences involving possession and trafficking of narcotic substances), Article 229.1 (drug smuggling - a common airport scenario), Article 159 (fraud), Articles 111 and 112 (intentional bodily harm), Articles 131 and 132 (sexual offences), Article 105 (murder), and Article 322 (unlawful crossing of the state border). Each type of offence involves its own typical evidentiary issues and established appellate practice, which has a direct impact on how the defence should be structured. Our approach to defending these types of cases is described here: defence against criminal charges.

Why the trial record is critical for a future appeal

Statistically, acquittals in Russian courts of first instance are extremely rare and represent only a fraction of one percent. Families should view this not as a reason to give up, but as a reason to approach the case realistically: in the Russian system, much of the real contest happens on review, before appellate and cassation courts. And those courts rely heavily on the written case record. If important mitigating factors were not formally recorded, if the admissibility of key evidence was never challenged, if the defence never formally objected to the legal classification of the alleged conduct - the defence may face serious obstacles when attempting to raise them for the first time on appeal. A properly structured defence at trial therefore must pursue two objectives at the same time: the verdict today and the appeal tomorrow.

Post-conviction review: important deadlines and stages

A guilty verdict does not necessarily mark the end of the case. Russian law provides a series of procedures through which a conviction may be reviewed. An appellate appeal must be filed within 15 days of the judgment under Article 389.4 of the Code of Criminal Procedure; for a convicted person who remains in detention, the period is calculated from the date on which the judgment is formally delivered to them. It is also important to understand that, on a defence appeal, the court cannot impose a less favourable outcome merely because the defence appealed - Russian procedural law contains protection against such deterioration - so the defence does not create a risk of a worse result simply by filing such an appeal. Once the judgment enters into force, a cassation appeal may be pursued: the initial mandatory stage of cassation review must be sought within the six-month statutory period, while further review - including a petition to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation - is not limited by a strict deadline where it seeks to improve the convicted person's position. A final conviction may still be altered or overturned years later when the defence identifies a substantial violation of law. A procedural deadline that has already expired, if there were valid grounds for the delay, may in appropriate circumstances be reinstated by the court.

Our approach to case assessment before any fees are discussed

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Our work on post-conviction cases always starts the same way: with evidence and court documents rather than predictions or guarantees. We ask the client's family to forward the text of the judgment and, if the case has already gone through further review, the decisions issued by the appellate and cassation courts - readable scans or photographs are sufficient for the initial review. The text is digitised and matched with our internal database of 136,000 Russian criminal cases in which judgments were changed, sentences reduced, or convictions overturned, indexed by article of charge, case circumstances, nature of the violation, region, and court instance. Our lawyers then review the matches and assess whether existing judicial practice provides realistic grounds for challenging the judgment. This preliminary legal analysis is provided without charge, and in approximately eight cases out of ten our initial conclusion is that the available grounds are not sufficiently strong - the judgment is free from an identifiable substantial violation, or the case law is too inconsistent to justify a confident challenge. Relatives living abroad are especially exposed to advisers who sell hope rather than legal analysis; we would rather give an unwelcome answer than charge for a challenge we do not believe is properly supported. When the documents reveal substantial grounds for challenging the judgment, the client is shown before signing an agreement which court decisions will support the defence.

While serving a sentence: parole and commutation

For those already serving a custodial sentence, the law offers two additional legal mechanisms: conditional early release (early release on parole, Article 79 of the Criminal Code) and commutation of the unserved part of the sentence to a less severe form of punishment under Article 80, which may include a move to a less restrictive form of punishment. The point at which a person becomes eligible depends on the offence category and the portion of the sentence served; careful preparation, including conduct records, employment information, restitution and family circumstances, can be extremely important and should begin well in advance. More information can be found here: parole and sentence commutation.

Working with families overseas: no travel required

Our work is organised so that cases can be handled remotely: documents are exchanged electronically, and regional appeal and cassation hearings can, where applicable, be handled through the court's videoconferencing system - a procedure recognised within the Russian court system. When a case reaches the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, our lawyers are present in person: the Court is located in Moscow, where our firm is based. Where in-person presence in a regional court is important to the client, we involve trusted local co-counsel while the overall strategy and preparation of legal documents stay under our control. Another essential part of the service is that, you will be able to understand what is happening in the case. We organise communication so that each family can follow the case in its own language, and our written case updates use straightforward language instead of unnecessary legal jargon: what was filed, what the court decided, what the next procedural step will be and when. A collection of translated legal terms does not necessarily tell a family what is actually happening; a clear explanation does. For relatives following a case from another country, that difference is half the service.

A note of caution

Be particularly cautious with anyone who guarantees a result, claims to have "connections", or demands immediate payment while discouraging you from speaking to anyone else. No lawyer can lawfully promise a particular decision from an independent court, and attempting to pay for supposed influence can create serious legal risks for the family. A reputable criminal defence lawyer should provide an evidence-based assessment, legal strategy, and verifiable work - and should have no difficulty explaining the legal grounds they see and identifying the person who will actually handle the case.

Start with the documents

If your partner or another person close to you has been taken into custody, charged with an offence, or sentenced in Russia, do not delay seeking an assessment until every document from the case has been collected. Send any relevant court documents already in your possession - the judgment itself is often enough to begin identifying the main legal issues - for a free and confidential initial assessment at [lawyersinrussia.com]. Sometimes there are significant grounds for further proceedings; in other cases, an honest assessment shows that few viable options remain. Either way, what your family requires before making further decisions is not a promise. It is an informed assessment of the current situation.

Author: Grigoriy Nosov, Head of Criminal Practice, Head of the Criminal Practice at Yalanzhi & Partners