Theft, robbery and armed robbery

Article 158 — theft. Taking property secretly: the owner and everyone else is unaware, or the accused reasonably believes they are. Even where someone did see, if the accused believed they were unobserved, it remains theft.

Article 161 — robbery. Taking property openly, in the presence of someone who understands what is happening. Part 2 adds violence that is not dangerous to life or health — a shove, a grip, holding someone back.

Article 162 — armed or violent robbery. An attack for the purpose of taking property, with violence dangerous to life or health, or the threat of such violence. This one is complete at the moment of the attack — whether anything was actually taken does not matter.

The boundaries are argued in every contested case. Whether the accused realised they had been seen decides between 158 and 161. Whether a threat was capable of being understood as life-threatening decides between 161 and 162, and that single question is worth years.

The parts of Article 158 turn on thresholds set in the notes to that article: significant damage to a citizen begins at 5,000 roubles and is assessed against their actual means, large scale begins at 250,000, and especially large scale at 1,000,000. Below 2,500 roubles a first simple theft is not a crime at all but an administrative offence under Article 7.27 of the Code of Administrative Offences.

Because the thresholds are absolute, the valuation is a battleground. The figure normally comes from the victim’s own statement, sometimes from a purchase receipt for a used item, sometimes from nothing at all. Depreciation, condition, the actual market price of the model, and whether value added tax belongs in the figure are all arguable, and moving a figure below a threshold moves the case down a part.

"Significant damage" is not a fixed number above 5,000: the law requires the victim’s property position to be assessed. The same phone taken from two different people can be significant damage for one and not for the other.

Unlawful entry into a dwelling moves theft to part 3 of Article 158, with up to six years. It is applied broadly and often wrongly.

What has to be established: that the premises were a dwelling within the meaning of the note to Article 139, that entry was unlawful, and that the intention to steal existed before entering. A person who was admitted lawfully, or who was living there, or who formed the intention only once inside, has not committed the aggravated form. Investigators routinely skip the last of those three, and it is often the strongest available argument.

These cases are built on camera footage, identification by the victim, fingerprints, and the recovered property. Two things recur.

Identification conducted in breach. Article 193 of the Criminal Procedure Code requires identification among at least three similar persons, and forbids showing the witness the suspect beforehand. Where the victim was shown a photograph first, or saw the suspect in handcuffs at the station, the subsequent identification is worthless and challengeable.

Episodes attached by similarity. A person charged with one theft is frequently charged with several more that resemble it. Each episode requires its own evidence. Removing unproven episodes reduces the total and, where they were the basis for the "continuing offence" construction, can move the case to a lower part.

Property offences are the category where returning or compensating the loss has the greatest effect. It is a mitigating circumstance under Article 61; with a confession and active assistance it triggers the sentencing cap in Article 62; and for a first offence of minor or medium gravity — which covers part 1 and often part 2 of Article 158 — it opens termination of the case entirely on reconciliation under Article 76, or a court fine under Article 76.2.

For a family abroad this is usually the most useful thing they can do. Do not send money to a complainant directly: how the payment is documented determines whether it counts, and an undocumented transfer helps nobody.