Approaches to the Form and Content of a Letter of Accusation Must Be in Line with Its Intended Purpose

The article analyzes destructive approaches to the form and content of indictments, which arose due to a number of reasons, complicate the law enforcement practice of preliminary investigation bodies and lead to an imbalance of procedural functions, to an unreasonable balance of investigative, prosecutorial and judicial powers. In addition, it is established that these approaches do not correspond to the true purpose of the indictments. In this regard, the need for normative and practical restoration of approaches to the form and content of indictments, which were reflected in the original edition of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation, is substantiated — it is proposed to again reduce the volume of information included in indictments and turn them into short “annotations” to the materials of completed pre-trial proceedings that do not involve detailed coverage of the results of investigative activities, primarily a detailed presentation of the available evidence.