Russia’s Constitutional Court ruled Thursday that law enforcement authorities are no longer bound by statutes of limitations when seeking state seizure of assets in anti-corruption cases.
“Prosecutors should not be constrained by time limits in anti-corruption lawsuits,” the court said.
Those accused of corruption “must be denied the ability to use the statute of limitations to protect interests contrary to the rule of law,” it added.
The court specified that the ruling applies only to anti-corruption legislation and does not extend to cases of “unlawful privatization” from Russia’s turbulent 1990s.
If lawmakers choose to set statutes of limitations for anti-corruption cases, the court recommended they be longer than the current limits of three and 10 years.
The landmark ruling comes amid Russia’s wartime redistribution of wealth, including the nationalization of 1 trillion rubles ($10.8 billion) worth of strategic assets.
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