Ivan Kuptsov

Education and research

Ivan Kuptsov graduated from the Law Faculty of St. Petersburg State University, has a bachelor’s degree in jurisprudence and a master’s degree in civil and commercial procedure.

Ivan completed post-graduate studies at the Law Faculty of St. Petersburg State University under the program "Criminal procedure and criminalistics".

Ivan Kuptsov is a teacher at the Higher School of Economics in Saint Petersburg. He is the author of several educational and methodological manuals.

Currently, he is working on the PhD thesis "Institutional obstacles to initiation of criminal case in the context of the principle of legal certainty".

Work experience and practice

Ivan Kuptsov is a specialist in environmental and intellectual property law, as well as in criminal defence of business. He has considerable experience in disputes on compensation for environmental damage, challenging prescriptions and resolutions on administrative liability for violation of environmental requirements.

Ivan Kuptsov is an expert in criminal defence in such highly specialised areas of criminal law as environmental and tax crimes, criminal bankruptcy and money laundering.

Ivan Kuptsov's extensive experience also includes successful defence of clients in various litigation disputes in both civil and criminal cases, including customs, antitrust, intellectual property and energy disputes. He has supported such major projects as reconstruction of production facilities of mining and metallurgical companies, gold mining operations and military facilities.

More than fifteen years of professional experience has been marked by solving complex legal problems, including litigation in various industries.

Ivan Kuptsov's key projects include the following:

• Repeated successful representation of one of the largest pulp and paper companies in challenging the instructions of regulatory authorities, as well as appealing against administrative liability rulings;
• Drafting amendments to forest legislation, participating in relevant working groups and supporting the draft law in its further approval;
• Termination of criminal proceedings for the absence of the event of an offence under Article 250 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (water pollution);
• Refusal to initiate criminal proceedings for an offence under article 327 of the Criminal Code (forgery, production or trafficking in forged documents, state awards, stamps, seals or letterheads);
• defending the interests of a notary in a dispute with a branch of the Pension Fund of the Russian Federation, in which Ivan Kuptsov developed a position subsequently reflected in the Resolution of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation No. 27-P dated 30.11.2016 (on the amount of notaries' income taken into account for determining the amount of insurance contributions to the Pension Fund);
• defended in court one of the leaders of the CPA (Cost Per Action) market in the CIS, which led to a change in court practice on civil liability of information intermediaries on the Internet;
• representing of the investors’ interests in a number of high-profile land disputes concerning corruption scandal in the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, including applying to the European Court of Human Rights;
• legal defense of a company specializing in the production of gasoline reforming catalysts in a dispute with customs authorities regarding the application of the customs code of the EAEU Commodity Nomenclature of Foreign Economic Activity with a zero rate of import duty. As a result of proceedings, a new judicial practice was formed. This practice ensures that all commodity items are used in accordance with their actual economic rationale;
• advocacy for the Notary Chamber of Saint Petersburg in a dispute with the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation. The case had a significant influence on the regulation of Notary Chambers;
• preparation of the legal opinion for the large international construction company with the risk minimizing strategy concerning the construction of a residential complex in the Moscow region;
• legal defense of one of the world leaders in the development of software for data backup.

As part of his work, he has repeatedly appealed judicial acts to the courts of cassation and the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation resulting in several new precedents and the revision of the existing approaches in judicial practice.

Recent publications:

• The problem of establishing the limits of inter-branch prejudice in criminal proceedings // Law. 2023. № 1. P. 213-221.
• Practice of application of the provisions of the methodology for calculating the amount of damage caused to water bodies due to violation of water legislation (approved by Order of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the Russian Federation from 13.04.2009 № 87), on offsetting measures to prevent over-normative or over-limit discharge of harmful (polluting) substances // Eurasian Bar. 2022. № 1 (56). P. 70-73.
• Specificity of the exceptional reason to initiate criminal proceedings on tax offences // Nalogoved. 2022. № 6. P. 30-42.
• Institutional obstacles to the initiation of criminal proceedings // Law. Journal of the Higher School of Economics. 2021. № 1. P. 107-129.
• Features of initiation of criminal case for tax crimes. Collection of articles based on the materials of the International scientific and practical conference dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the birth of Professor Nikolay Sergeevich Alekseev: "Prosecution and defense in criminal cases: historical experience and modernity". Saint Petersburg State University; edited By N. G. Stoiko. 2015. P. 646-658.
• Consequences of cancellation of part 1.1 of article 140 of the Criminal Procedure code of the Russian Federation / / Nalogoved. 2015. № 6. P. 48-61;