Timur Khutov, Head of Criminal Law Practice, BMS Law Firm:

One of the fundamental principles of Russian criminal procedural laws is the assumption
of innocence. Its essence is explained in Article 14 of the Russian Code of Criminal Proceedings. Thus, an accused person is considered to be innocent until his/her guilt is not proved by an effective court judgment. In the meantime, the accused is not obliged to prove his/her innocence, and the burden of proof is on the prosecution.

An important provision of this article of the Russian Code of Criminal Proceedings states that all doubts which cannot be eliminated must be interpreted in favor of the accused. This means that failure to prove guilt equals proven innocence. Unfortunately, in practice these provisions
are ignored, and courts most often interpret all doubts in favor of the prosecution.