- Category
- Latest news
Russia’s Judicial System Convicts Defendants at Rate Over 20 Times Higher Than Under Stalin, Lawyer Says

Russia’s judicial system has a conviction rate more than 20 times higher than during the Soviet era under Joseph Stalin, and over 30 times higher than military tribunals of the early 1940s, The Moscow Times reported on January 30.
The comparison was made by Boris Zolotukhin, a lawyer with the Belgorod Bar Association and advisor to the Federal Chamber of Lawyers.
On average, Russian courts acquit just 0.3% of defendants each year. In contrast, Zolotukhin noted, in 1937, Soviet courts acquitted 7% of those tried, and during 1941–1944, military tribunals exonerated 10–12% of defendants.
Russia’s Supreme Court and judicial leadership justify the staggering conviction rate by claiming that prosecutors only bring strong cases to trial, weeding out weak ones beforehand.
However, Zolotukhin dismisses this explanation, pointing to jury trials as evidence to the contrary—where 20–25% of defendants are acquitted, even in cases handled by Russia’s Investigative Committee, supposedly the country’s most professional prosecutorial body.
In 2023, Russian courts convicted a record 589,011 defendants, the highest figure in a decade, according to data from the Federal Chamber of Lawyers. Meanwhile, the already minuscule acquittal rate dropped further from 0.26% to 0.25%—meaning that for every one acquittal, judges issued 400 guilty verdicts.
To put that into perspective, a defendant in Russia is 10 times less likely to be acquitted than a gambler is to win at roulette, where the odds are 1 in 36 (2.7%).

Dmitry Taraborin, managing partner at Karpov, Taraborin & Partners, agreed, arguing that criminal procedure in Russia has been reduced to little more than a set of nonbinding recommendations. Courts routinely ignore violations of legal process as long as the trial ends in a conviction, he said. In many cases, judges even distort legal precedents set by Russia’s Supreme Court to justify their decisions.
As a result, Russia’s judicial system has devolved into a mere rubber-stamp process for the security apparatus. “Investigators request, prosecutors approve, judges comply. A confession is the ‘queen of evidence,’ while denying guilt is merely a defense tactic to escape punishment,” explained Moscow Bar Association lawyer Yekaterina Tyutyunnikova.
Despite the alarming statistics, Russian leader Vladimir Putin sees no issue with the courts’ near-total conviction rate.
“The courts should reflect the real situation in our country,” he said in late December when asked about expanding jury trials. “We will certainly move in that direction, but only as society becomes ready for broader use of this institution.”
Earlier, a Russian court slapped Google with a fine larger than the GDP of the entire world.