Return to the prosecutor of powers on initiation of legal proceedings: pros and cons

The author analyzes some of the legislative changes in the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation in 2007 and 2010, which affected the powers of the prosecutor in criminal proceedings. The study correlated the prosecutor’s powers at the pre-trial stages of the process, in particular at the stage of a criminal case with its procedural position and role assigned to him. It is noted that currently in the criminal procedure science-based opinions are expressed about the need to return the prosecutor’s authority to initiate criminal proceedings. The author concludes that there is the need to expand powers of the prosecutor at the stage of a criminal case and give the prosecutor the power to initiate criminal proceedings, which would enable a prosecutor to effectively conduct criminal indictment and control the progress and results of the preliminary investigation.