OLGA PLESHANOVA'S ARTICLE IN THE JULY 2025 ISSUE OF THE ZAKON MAGAZINE

28.07.2025

OLGA PLESHANOVA'S ARTICLE IN THE JULY 2025 ISSUE OF THE ZAKON MAGAZINE

On July 3, 2025, the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation accepted the request of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation to verify the constitutionality of a number of regulatory provisions and clarify the possibility to remove in a bankruptcy case the seizure of debtor's property, imposed in criminal case.

The Head of Analytical Department of Infralex Olga Pleshanova discusses the request in her article in the July 2025 Issue of "Zakon".The expert cites several cases, in which certain courts intending to maintain a balance between the creditors' rights protection (bankruptcy case) and public interests protection (including the rights of victims) failed to give the final answer.

At the same time, the author notes that since 2011, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation have not found significant conceptual solutions to the conflict between bankruptcy and other areas of law.

For example, analyzing the circumstances of the dispute in the A.L.Churilova case, Olga notices:

“The seizure of property as an execution of a sentence does not allow this property to be included in the bankruptcy estate, and, in fact, this turns into the collection of a criminal fine at the expense of the convicted debtor’s creditors. Furthermore, this results in a situation when the treasury can obtain execution at the expense of the person who suffered from the crime!”

Olga also draws attention to what complicates the situation:

“…The seizure of property in criminal proceedings ensures not only civil claims, but also the execution of a criminal penalty in the form of a fine. This raises the question no longer about the priority of private law claims, but about the choice between private and public interests. What is more important - the payment of a fine to the state (with the subsequent expungement of the conviction for the convicted person) or payments to private individuals, including victims of the crime?”.