Criminal proceedings in the Russian Federation and in most other countries of the world are based on adversarial proceedings. An adversarial process presupposes the existence of two parties - prosecution and defense - and a court independent of them.
The charge is subdivided into public, private and public-private.
Private prosecution involves the initiation of a case by a magistrate on the complaint of the victim or his representative and the termination of criminal prosecution at the request of the victim in the event of his reconciliation with the accused. In this case, the victim himself represents the prosecution. Private accusation is possible in relation to such unlawful acts that do not pose a great public danger: libel, insult, causing minor harm to health.
The victim may at any time drop the charges until the magistrate retires to the deliberation room. Failure of a victim to appear in court without a valid reason is considered a waiver of charges.
Private-public prosecution also presupposes the initiation of a case at the request of the victim, but such a case cannot be terminated if the victim is reconciled with the accused. In this order, cases of violation of copyright or inventive rights, as well as rape without aggravating circumstances, are considered. In this case, the prosecution in the court is represented by the public prosecutor in the person of the prosecutor - an official of the prosecutor's office. Under certain circumstances, the prosecutor has the right to initiate such a case in the absence of a victim's statement. This happens if the victim cannot defend his interests due to a helpless state or dependence on the accused.
The predominant form of accusation in modern jurisprudence is public accusation. The case is initiated by state bodies or persons having the appropriate powers under the law, and the consent of the victim is not required to initiate a case. As in the case of private-public prosecution, the case cannot be terminated at the request of the victim. In court, public prosecution supports the prosecutor as public prosecutor.
The prosecutor, as a representative of the prosecution, has a number of powers in court proceedings. He has the right to go to court with a statement of claim. Unlike other persons presenting claims, he does not bear legal costs at the same time, he cannot be refused to accept the statement of claim.
During the trial, the public prosecutor, represented by the prosecutor, imposes the accusation against the defendant, which is set out in the indictment, makes a proposal on the application of a particular article of the Criminal Code and on the imposition of punishment, makes petitions, participates in the study of evidence and speaks with an accusatory speech. If the public prosecutor considers the court verdict to be unfounded, he has the right to appeal against it in cassation procedure.
