Vehicle Seizure for the Purpose of its Confiscation as a Measure to Enforce Criminal Proceedings in Russia

The paper analyses the seizure of property as one of the basic institutions of ensuring criminal justice in Russia. The author provides the most recent practice of district (city) courts, as well as courts of constituent entities of the Russian Federation, based on the legal standing of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in compliance with the new paragraph «d« of Part 1 of Article 104.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation regulating confiscation of a vehicle used in the commission of crimes stated in Articles 264.1, 264.2 or 264.3 of the Criminal Code. The statutory provisions under discussion have been included into the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation recently. The paper determines the key features of judicial practice concerning the issues of enforcement (in the form of seizure) and confiscation, although not directly specified in the law, but significantly affecting the court’s decision concerning application of the norms in question. The author proves strong influence of the civil law rules on the solution of the issues under consideration in criminal proceedings. In particular, the author refers to the appeal decision of the court of the constituent entity that refers to the definition given by the Judicial Board for Civil Cases of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation.

Using cases, the author justifies the necessity of the following additions: Paragraph 7.1 supplementing Part 1 of Article 73 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation obliging the prosecution to collect evidence to resolve the issue of seizure of any property subject to confiscation; amendments to paragraph 8 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation No. 17 of 14.06.2018, regulating the seizure by the court; dissemination of all the above (analysed) norms and provisions on the situation with the commission of crimes provided for in Parts 2‑6 of Article 264 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (the addition of the specified elements of crimes in paragraph «d« of Part 1 of Article 104.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation); legislative obligation of state registration of transactions with vehicles (their purchase and sale, barter, donation, etc.) with their introduction into the unified state register (by analogy with the USRT) of the information about their owners (with the creation of such a register).

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