Prosecutor General of Russia

The Prosecutor General of Russia (also Attorney General of Russia, Russian: Генеральный Прокурор Российской Федерации) heads the system of official prosecution in courts known and heads the Office of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation (Генеральная прокуратура Российской Федерации). The Prosecutor General remains the most powerful component of the Russian judicial system.[1]

Prosecutor General of the
Russian Federation
Генеральный Прокурор Российской Федерации
Incumbent
Igor Krasnov
since 22 January 2020
NominatorPresident of Russia
AppointerFederation Council
Term lengthfive years
Inaugural holderValentin Stepankov
Formation28 February 1991
Website(in Russian) http://www.genproc.gov.ru
Russia
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Mission

The Office of the Prosecutor General is entrusted with:

  1. prosecution in court on behalf of the State;
  2. representation of the interests of a citizen or of the State in court in cases determined by law;
  3. supervision of the observance of laws by bodies that conduct detective and search activity, inquiry and pretrial investigation;
  4. supervision of the observance of laws in the execution of judicial decisions in criminal cases, and also in the application of other measures of coercion related to the restraint of personal liberty of citizens.

The Prosecutor General leads the General Prosecutor's Office of Russian Federation. The prosecutor's offices of subjects of Russian Federation are subordinate to the General Prosecutor's Office of Russian Federation, and the prosecutor's offices of cities and raions are subordinate to the prosecutor's offices of subjects of Russian Federation. There are specialized prosecutor's offices (environmental prosecutor's offices, penitentiary prosecutor's offices, transport prosecutor's offices, closed cities prosecutor's offices) which are subordinate to the General Prosecutor's Office of Russian Federation and have own subordinated prosecutor's offices. Finally, there is the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office of Russian Federation which is subordinate to the General Prosecutor's Office of Russian Federation and have own subordinated military prosecutor's offices (military prosecutor's office of Western Military District, military prosecutor's office of Eastern Military District, military prosecutor's office of Southern Military District, military prosecutor's office of Central Military District, military prosecutor's office of Northern Fleet, military prosecutor's office of Baltic Fleet, military prosecutor's office of Black Sea Fleet, military prosecutor's office of Pacific Fleet, military prosecutor's office of Strategic Missile Forces and Moscow city military prosecutor's office) which in turn have own subordinated military prosecutor's offices (garrison military prosecutor's offices).

Prosecutors in a broad sense are directly prosecutors (who leads prosecutor's offices), their deputies, senior assistants and junior assistants. All of them are federal government officials, have special ranks (Russian: классные чины) and wear special uniform with shoulder marks. Military prosecutors (in a broad sense) are military personnel, have military ranks of commissioned officers and wear military uniform with shoulder marks but they are not subordinate to any military authority (excepting higher military prosecutor).

Appointment

The Prosecutor General is nominated to the office by the President of Russia and appointed by the majority of Federation Council of Russia (the Upper House of the Russian Parliament). If the nomination falls the President must nominate another candidate within 30 days (article 12 of the Federal Law about the Office of the Prosecutor General of Russian Federation). The term of authority of the Prosecutor General is five years. The resignation of the Prosecutor General before the end of his term should be approved by both the majority of Federation Council of Russia and the President.

Constitutional Independence

The Prosecutor General and his office are independent from the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of government. The Investigative Committee of Russia, sometimes described as the "Russian FBI", is the main federal investigating authority in Russia, formed in place of the Investigative Committee of the Prosecutor General in 2011.

List of Attorneys General
  Denotes service as acting Attorneys General prior to appointment or after resignation
# Picture Name State of Residence Term of Office First appointed by
(term)
1 Valentin Stepankov Moscow 28 February 19915 October 1993 Boris Yeltsin
(1991–1999)
2 Aleksey Kazannik Moscow 5 October 199314 March 1994
3 Aleksey Ilyushenko Moscow 26 March 199424 October 1995
4 Yury Skuratov Moscow 24 October 19952 February 1999
After Skuratov's resignation, Yury Chaika became Acting Prosecutor General of Russia, from 2 February to 6 August 1999. Then Vladimir Ustinov succeeded him as Acting Prosecutor General until 17 May 2000.
5 Vladimir Ustinov Moscow 17 May 20002 June 2006 Vladimir Putin
(2000–2008; 2012–present)
and
Dmitry Medvedev
(2008–2012)
6 Yury Chaika Moscow 23 June 200622 January 2020
7 Igor Krasnov Moscow 22 January 2020 Incumbent

Offices similar to Prosecutor General of Russia have existed in the Soviet Union (Prosecutor General of the USSR) and in the Russian Empire since January 12, 1722 (General Prosecutor of the Senate, Генерал-Прокурор Сената).

References
  1. Terrill 2009, p. 433.
  • Terrill, Richard J. (2009). World Criminal Justice Systems: A Survey (7 ed.). Elsevier. ISBN 978-1-59345-612-2.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

See also


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