All charges against the scientist were finally dropped on February 29, 2024.

[tanjimajuha20]

On December 11, Moscow's Zamoskvoretsky Court overturned Tsvetkov's arrest, imposing only a ban on him communicating with the participants in the case via means of communication and the Internet.

"Of course, there was a feeling of joy and great relief that it was all finally over," he said. "But the full realization of freedom came much later, after the signing of the decree to end the criminal prosecution. Only then did I feel real freedom.


"During the investigation of belize whatsapp number database the criminal case, the investigators carefully checked the evidence collected, ordered and conducted forensic examinations, which established Tsvetkov's non-involvement in the incriminated crimes. In connection with this, the criminal prosecution against Tsvetkov was terminated," the Main Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for Moscow commented on this decision.

"No one can be protected from knowingly false slander"
Despite the fact that the law provides for the possibility of terminating criminal prosecution at the stage of preliminary investigation, such cases in practice do not occur very often, Vladimir Kuznetsov, vice president of the Association of Lawyers for Registration, Liquidation, Bankruptcy and Legal Representation, told Izvestia.

According to him, according to statistics, in 2021, the share of criminal cases terminated in pre-trial proceedings amounted to 9.35% of the total, and this percentage is growing every year.

— This trend is due, among other things, to the softening of the regulatory approach, — he noted. — For example, in 2022, the Constitutional Court formulated a position according to which investigative bodies are obliged to terminate criminal prosecution in cases where the investigation has been conducted for more than a year from the expiration of the statute of limitations for criminal prosecution.

Speaking about the possible amount of compensation for the illegal detention of Alexander Tsvetkov, the lawyer noted that when deciding such issues, the courts operate primarily with evaluative criteria.

— At the same time, in 2018, the Supreme Court formulated a position in which it cited a formula in which reasonable compensation for one day of illegal deprivation of liberty was determined to be 2 thousand rubles.

The story of Alexander Tsvetkov itself is not new. The practice of accusing a person of committing a crime solely on the testimony of another defendant who has entered into a pre-trial cooperation agreement is flawed, says lawyer Alexei Yakushkin.

"Unfortunately, no one can be protected from a deliberately false slander by a "pre-trial agent" in committing a criminal offense," he emphasized. "When assessing the argument of law enforcement agencies about the similarity of the photofit with the real image of Tsvetkov, it should be noted that this is not evidence of guilt, according to the norms of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Russian Federation. This fact could only serve as a basis for his interrogation as a witness.

A 20-year-old case requires a special approach to its investigation by the preliminary investigation bodies, the statute of limitations is long, and it is impossible to carry out many investigative actions, but still this is not a reason for the criminal case to be terminated and not investigated, added Gor Shagverdyan, a lawyer with the first Krasnoyarsk regional bar association. The key role in the persecution of the scientist, the lawyer believes, was played by a witness who testified against him.