THE PROBLEMS OF INITIATION OF CORRUPTION-RELATED CRIMINAL CASES

The research focuses on some problems an investigator faces when initiating corruption-related criminal cases. The relevance of the studied problem is caused by the necessity to improve the procedure for initiating this category of criminal cases due to the trends of intellectualization of corruption crime and expanding the scope of its penetration. These circumstances require investigators to thoroughly study the current legislation, law enforcement practice, as well as the correct logical comparison and assessment of many existing factors, signs, and circumstances. The analysis of court decisions on corruption cases gives grounds to assert that it is the investigator’s work, especially in the stage of initiating a criminal case that influences the further collection of a sufficient set of admissible evidence necessary for a court sentence. As the main problems when initiating criminal cases of such categories, the author analyzed the criteria of admissibility to use the results of operative search activity as a reason to initiate a criminal case, including for the purpose to prevent an offense in the form of provocation of bribery. The author studied the procedural arrangements for initiating criminal cases provided for by the Articles 201, 204 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, in relation to Article 23 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the RF, identified the gaps in the legal regulation. The paper highlights the necessity to raise the professionalism level of investigators investigating the corruption-related crimes due to the intellectualization of these crimes.