Putin ordered that businessmen and top managers be placed in pretrial detention for economic cases only in exceptional cases

Vladimir Putin signed amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code, according to which, in cases of economic crimes, courts will assign more lenient measures of restraint to businessmen and top managers instead of detention. The corresponding law was published on the official legal information portal.

Thus, according to the text of the law, suspects and defendants in cases of economic crimes - for example, embezzlement or fraud - must be assigned a preventive measure that will allow them to continue their entrepreneurial or organizational activities.

At the same time, a preventive measure in the form of placement in a pretrial detention facility may be assigned only in exceptional cases: for example, if a person previously tried to hide from the justice system or violated a preventive measure. The absence of a place of residence or place of stay on the territory of Russia may also be a reason for placement under arrest.

The corresponding bill was introduced to the State Duma in December 2022. According to the text of the explanatory note, the purpose of the amendments is to "eliminate excessive criminal-legal impact on entrepreneurs." The bill was adopted in the final reading on May 30, 2023, and the Federation Council approved it in June.

It has been proposed before to refuse to arrest defendants in economic crime cases - for example, in 2010, representatives of the United Russia party put forward a corresponding initiative, but the bill was not adopted at that time. In 2009, after the death of lawyer Sergei Magnitsky in Matrosskaya Tishina, the State Duma adopted amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code, which, in particular, prohibited placing defendants in tax crimes in pretrial detention.