The organizational and tactical aspects of initiating a criminal case and conducting a preliminary investigation at the initial stage on the facts of causing property damage by deception or abuse of trust committed in the field of generation, transmission and sale of electric power

Introduction: in the modern world, energy is the basis for the development of basic industries that determine the progress of social production. In all industrialized countries, the pace of energy development was faster than that of other industries. Aspecific feature ofelectricity as a commodityis that its generation, transmission, distribution and consumption occur simultaneously; it cannot be stored and (or) preserved. It is impossible to imagine life without electric energy. The electric power industry has penetrated into all spheres of human activity: industry and agriculture, science and space, and our everyday life. In many ways, it is precisely because of the demand for electricity for the structure of the criminal situation in modern Russia that the crimes committed in the electricity sector have become characteristic; according to the statistics, the number of facts of unaccounted electricity consumption is growing by 11 % annually, which leads to an increase in accounts receivable for electricity from bona fide consumers. The electric power industry is characterized by such characteristic features as the presence of long, complex distribution networks, imperfect designs of metering devices, the availability of power supply lines in the areas of consumer connection and the impossibility of their large-scale periodic monitoring by the staff of the power supply organizations. All this creates the preconditions for committing crimes in this sphere. However, for the goals of criminal proceedings to be achieved, the authorized law enforcement officials must correctly and in strict accordance with the criminal procedure law organize and carry out their activities at the stage of initiating a criminal case. The analysis of the current investigative and judicial practice shows that the bodies of preliminary investigation and inquiry make, both as at this stage and at the stage of preliminary investigation, a large number of errors that affect the legality and validityof the decisions on initiating a criminal case and all subsequent decisions in the criminal case. In this regard, the authors set a goal to reveal the organizational and tactical aspects of initiating a criminal case and conducting an investigation at the initial stage on the facts of causing property damage by deception or abuse of trust committed in the field of generation, transmission and sale of electricity. Methods: the methodological framework for this study is a set of methods of scientific knowledge, among which the main ones are the methods of information processing and logical analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction and generalization. Results: the authors’ meaning of organizational and tactical features of initiating a criminal case and conducting a preliminary investigation at the initial stage on the facts of causing property damage by deception or abuse of trust committed in the sphere of production, transmission and sale of electricity, based on the judicial and investigative practice, makes it possible to use them in the practical activities of the authorized law enforcement officials during the detection and investigation of the above-mentioned crimes. Conclusions: the study identified the organizational and tactical features of initiating a criminal case and conducting a preliminary investigation at the initial stage on the facts of causing propertydamage bydeception or abuse of trust committed in the field of generation, transmission and sale of electricity in order to inform law students, the teaching staff of law schools, as well as the practitioners in order to better understand the features of investigating crimes of this category.