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Your Relative Has Been Arrested or Convicted in Russia: A Practical Legal Guide for Families Abroad



Discovering that a relative has been taken into custody, charged with a crime, or convicted in Russia can leave a family uncertain about what to do next - all the more so when you are living thousands of kilometres from Russia, have little or no knowledge of Russian, and know only parts of what has happened. The Russian legal system in criminal cases can be difficult to navigate even for Russian citizens; for people trying to help from another country, the lack of local knowledge, language difficulties, and physical distance make the situation considerably more complicated.
This guide, prepared by the criminal law team of Yalanzhi & Partners in Moscow, provides an overview of what normally happens at the principal stages of a Russian criminal case, which deadlines matter, which mistakes can seriously damage the defence, and what steps can still be taken in practice - including cases in which a court has already delivered a guilty verdict.

Step one: establish the facts, not the promises

Before any realistic legal assessment can be made, the family must establish several essential facts: where exactly the person is detained, which authority is investigating, what offence is alleged, whether the person has been formally charged, whether pre-trial detention has been authorised by a court, and whether a lawyer - state-appointed or privately retained - is already involved. For foreign nationals, additional questions arise around language assistance, consular access, and family communications. The sooner an independent defence lawyer reviews the situation, the greater the range of legal options that may still be available. Work done at the investigation stage - raising objections, challenging evidence, and documenting mitigating circumstances - later becomes the foundation for any appeal. This is what defence during the investigation means in practical terms: addressing the current case while ensuring that important defence arguments are preserved for the future.

Charges foreign nationals face most often

From our experience with criminal cases involving foreign nationals, foreign citizens in Russia are commonly charged under a number of recurring provisions of the Russian Criminal Code. These include Article 228 and Article 228.1 (drug possession and trafficking), Article 229.1 (smuggling of narcotic substances, including cases arising at airports), Article 159 (fraud), Articles 111 and 112 (intentional bodily harm), Articles 131 and 132 (sexual offences), Article 105 (murder), and Article 322 (unlawful crossing of the state border). The evidentiary issues and relevant appellate decisions vary considerably from one category to another, which must be taken into account when developing the defence. You can read more about our work in these matters: defence against criminal charges.

The trial and the importance of preserving the record

Acquittals in Russian trial courts are statistically rare - a fraction of one percent. Families should view this not as a reason to give up, but as a reason to approach the case realistically: in the Russian system, a significant part of the legal battle may continue before appellate and cassation courts. And those courts primarily examine materials already contained in the case file. If mitigating circumstances were never documented, if the defence failed to challenge whether crucial evidence was admissible, if arguments concerning the correct legal classification were not placed on the record - presenting these arguments effectively at the review stage may become much more difficult. A strong trial defence therefore serves two purposes simultaneously: the verdict today and the appeal tomorrow.

What happens after the verdict: appeals and deadlines

A conviction does not mean that every legal remedy has been exhausted. Russian law sets out a series of procedures through which a conviction may be reviewed. An appellate appeal must be filed within 15 days of the judgment under Article 389.4 of the Code of Criminal Procedure; for someone being held in custody, the period runs from the day a copy of the judgment is served. A particularly important point is that, on a defence appeal, the court cannot worsen the convicted person's position - the law prohibits it - so the family risks nothing by appealing. Once the judgment enters into force, a cassation appeal may be pursued: the first cassation procedure must be initiated within six months, while subsequent review proceedings - including a petition to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation - is not limited by a strict deadline where it seeks to improve the convicted person's position. There are cases in which convictions are changed or set aside years after entering into legal force when the defence establishes a material breach of criminal or procedural law. A procedural deadline that has already expired, if caused by valid reasons, can also be restored by the court.

How Yalanzhi & Partners evaluates a case - before asking for any fee



Our post-conviction work begins in the same way in every case: with evidence and court documents rather than predictions or guarantees. We normally ask relatives to provide the judgment and, if the case has already gone through further review, the subsequent appeal and cassation rulings - scans or clear photos are sufficient. The text is transferred into a searchable format and analysed against our internal database of 136,000 Russian criminal cases in which courts modified sentences, reduced punishment, or overturned convictions, indexed by charge, factual pattern, type of violation, region, and court level.
Our lawyers then study the comparable decisions and assess whether existing judicial practice provides realistic grounds for challenging the judgment. This first-stage review is conducted at no cost, and in the majority of cases - roughly eight out of ten our professional conclusion is that the available grounds are not sufficiently strong - the judgment is free from an identifiable substantial violation, or the case law is too inconsistent to justify a confident challenge. Families abroad are especially vulnerable to people selling hope; we would rather decline a case than sell false hope. When the documents reveal substantial grounds for challenging the judgment, the client is shown before signing an agreement which court decisions will support the defence.

Parole and sentence commutation while serving a sentence

For those who are already serving their sentence in a correctional facility, the law offers two additional legal mechanisms: conditional early release (parole, Article 79 of the Criminal Code) and commutation of the unserved part of the sentence to a less severe form of punishment under Article 80, which may include a move to a less restrictive form of punishment. Eligibility depends on the category of the offence and how much of the sentence has already been served; conduct history, employment, restitution, family circumstances and other supporting documents can play a major role, making early preparation essential. A detailed explanation of these mechanisms can be found here: parole and sentence commutation.

Representing families overseas: the process can be handled remotely

Our practice is structured for remote handling: documents are shared securely in electronic form, and representation before regional appellate and cassation courts can be coordinated using court videoconferencing - a standard, legally recognised procedure. When a case proceeds to the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, our lawyers appear personally: the Court is located in Moscow, where our Moscow office is situated. Where in-person presence in a regional court is important to the client, we work with verified local counsel while the overall strategy and preparation of legal documents stay under our control.
Another essential part of the service is that, you will receive information in a form you can understand. We communicate with each family in their own language - whatever language that is, and our updates explain developments in clear language rather than dense legal terminology: what has been submitted, what the court has ruled, what happens next and when. A collection of translated legal terms does not necessarily tell a family what is actually happening; a clear explanation does. For families monitoring proceedings from abroad, that distinction is an essential part of effective legal support.

A word of caution

Be very cautious with anyone who promises a guaranteed outcome, claims to have "special connections", or insists on urgent payment while telling you not to discuss the matter with others. No lawyer can lawfully promise a particular decision from an independent court, and paying for "influence" can expose your own family to criminal risk. A reputable criminal defence lawyer provides legal analysis, a reasoned strategy, and documented professional work - and should have no difficulty explaining the legal grounds they see and identifying the person who will actually handle the case.

Start by having the documents reviewed

If your partner or another person close to you has been arrested, charged, or convicted in Russia, do not wait for the complete criminal case file before asking for a review. Send whatever court documents you have - even the judgment by itself can provide substantial information - for a free and confidential initial assessment at lawyersinrussia.com. In some cases the review identifies substantial grounds for further action; in others, the responsible conclusion is that the available options are limited. Either way, what your family needs at the beginning is not a guarantee. It is an informed assessment of the current situation.

Author: Grigoriy Nosov, Head of Criminal Practice, Yalanzhi & Partners - Head of Criminal Practice