PROSECUTOR'S COMPETENCE AT THE STAGE OF CRIMINAL PROSECUTION IN GERMANY AND RUSSIA

This article is devoted to one of the important institutions of criminal justice, the role of the prosecutor in criminal prosecution. It is important to conduct a comparative legal analysis of the prosecutor's functions in criminal proceedings of Germany and Russia. Both criminal proceedings in Germany and Russia, and the emerging ideas about the European model of criminal investigation should be examined. The authors systematically consider the main areas of the prosecutor's functions in pre-trial proceedings, highlighting the beginning of the criminal prosecution, the principles governing the functions of the prosecutor and the powers of the prosecutor. The paper examines the discrepancies in the prosecutor's powers in Russia and Germany. Besides, the authors conclude that the variety of forms of criminal prosecution in these countries has a positive effect on the development of domestic legal proceedings. It should be noted that in Germany, the prosecutor investigates crimes reported to the prosecution authorities by victims or on the basis of information from the police. In the Russian Federation, when information about an offence is received by the procurator's office, the procurator verifies this information and, depending on the significance of the offence in question, transmits the relevant materials to inquiry or investigative bodies. The prosecutorial authorities do not investigate crimes, but only exercise control. At the same time, as part of this control, the procurator is notified of the detention of a person suspected of having committed a crime, verifies the criminal case file upon termination of the investigation and signs an indictment. According to the Russian Code of Criminal Procedure, in Russia an investigator or a person conducting an inquiry shall bring charges against the offender, while in Germany the prosecutor has a "state monopoly" on bringing a charge.