Urgent Investigative Actions in Russia

A tendency to avoid recognizing the evidence gathered through urgent investigative actions inadmissible has been noticed during the research. The paper gives an account of the court statistics about the appeals against decisions to carry out urgent investigative actions. The analysis of the case law should specifically demonstrate the current situation in terms of complaints of illegal investigative methods in this field. An objective of this study is to examine the issue whether the results of urgent investigative actions have ever been declared inadmissible by the court, what grounds courts have relied on and how it is consisted with legal provisions. For this purpose, another aim of the research is to provide a clear picture of the relevant court statistics in the country. The statistics have indicated that the judges patronize investigators, wrongdoings of whom are in no way reflected in the court decisions, disciplinary practices and acquittals. The central thesis of this paper is that the current implementation of the legal provisions related to urgent investigative provisions frequently infringe the Constitution and guarantees of parties to criminal proceedings. The proper regulation of this legal institution should base on strict conditions for using urgent methods, correct judicial supervision over the conduct of the body of inquiry, and limit the scope of officials who may perform urgent investigative actions.