Separation of a criminal case into separate proceedings in relation to a person who has concluded a pre-trial cooperation agreement

The article examines a set of problems related to separating a criminal case into separate proceedings against a person who concluded a pre-trial cooperation agreement. Despite the ambiguous scientific interpretation of provisions of Art. 317.4 and 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation and the position of law enforcers (the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the Prosecutor’s General Office of the Russian Federation) regarding the mandatory separation of a criminal case into separate proceedings in relation to a person who concluded a pre-trial cooperation agreement, in the course of study the author comes to the conclusion that, based on the systemic interpretation of these norms of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, the construction of Art. 154 of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation and the procedural independence of the investigator, separating a criminal case into separate proceedings in relation to a person who concluded a pre-trial cooperation agreement is a right, but not the obligation of the investigator. In our opinion, separating a case into separate proceedings is possible only in exceptional cases with appropriate reasoned substantiation, taking into account that as a result of the «fragmentation» of a criminal case, difficulties arise with proof and the reliability of the information of the cooperating person.