On March 27, 2019, the Basmanny District Court of Moscow chose a preventive measure in the form of imprisonment of the former Open Government Minister Mikhail Abyzov, accused of creating a criminal community and fraud (Article 210 of the Criminal Code of the RF).

According to the investigation, in the period from 2011 to November 2014, Abyzov, being the beneficial owner of a number of offshore commercial organizations, created and headed the criminal community, acting in partnership with other persons, by deceiving shareholders of Siberian Energy Company, OJSC and Regional Electricity network "committed theft of funds of these companies in the amount of 4 billion rubles."

“It is striking how easily the authorities of the preliminary investigation have recently been charged according to the economic composition of art. 210 of the Criminal Code, the maximum penalty for which provides for life imprisonment. It is noteworthy that this trend has taken root against the background of the proclaimed policy of decriminalizing economic crimes and improving the investment climate in our country. ”

If earlier investigators and operatives needed more than one year to gather evidence regarding leaders and members of the criminal community, now criminal cases under art. 210 of the Criminal Code are excited overnight in the absence of sufficient evidence.

In fact, any crime committed by a group of persons may be qualified by the investigating body as a crime committed by a criminal community. As a rule, in most cases when the courts consider such cases, the prosecution under Art. 210 of the Criminal Code does not find its confirmation, but in itself incrimination of this article in practice almost guarantees a guilty verdict to the defendant.

Abyzov is accused of committing an economic crime, and Art. 210 was introduced into the Criminal Code in order to toughen penalties for criminal authorities, thieves in law, who themselves, as a rule, did not take part in the commission of crimes, but led criminal gangs.

It is obvious that the application to Abyzov Art. 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation guaranteed to the investigation the election of a preventive measure in the form of remand in custody, and subsequently, most likely, would allow to prolong the time of preliminary investigation and custody without difficulty.

Such a assignment of the role of criminal authority to a high-ranking official looks at least strange and, unfortunately, testifies to the obvious tendentiousness of criminal proceedings in this case.

full version at PRAVO.ru