Tsipinova's defense criticized the new demand for a review of the case.
The Deputy Prosecutor General filed a cassation appeal against the second acquittal of lawyer Diana Tsipinova, insisting that she is guilty of assaulting a police officer. The prosecutor's office is challenging the facts established by the courts, which is beyond the scope of the cassation review, the defense indicated.
As reported by "Caucasian Knot," on February 20, the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria rejected the prosecutor's request to review the case of Diana Tsipinova, accused of assaulting a security officer, and upheld the repeated acquittal.
There is no evidence in the case that the police officer who prevented Tsipinova from entering the police station acted in accordance with the law: he did not identify himself, did not explain her rights, and pushed her out of the premises "with unjustified use of force," lawyer Suren Natanov reported in February. "She asked, 'Give me the phone,' and reacted reflexively, like a woman, to the insults and clearly illegal actions of the victim. Meanwhile, the man (the victim) was wearing an untucked T-shirt without any insignia indicating affiliation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, had his hands in his pockets, and did not identify himself, so Tsipinova did not know that she was in fact a police officer," he said.
The Prosecutor General's Office has demanded that the case be returned for a new trial
Deputy Prosecutor General Igor Tkachev filed a cassation appeal against Diana Tsipinova's acquittal with the Fifth Cassation Court, the media project "Word to the Defense" reported on May 11.
"According to the agency, the courts failed to comply with the cassation court's requirements during the new trial: they failed to properly assess the issue of the use of force and insufficiently justified the rejection of the prosecution's evidence. In the cassation appeal "The prosecution insists that Tsipinova's attempt to return to the police station to retrieve her phone, despite police officers' demands, cannot be considered a legitimate defense and demands that the decision be overturned and the case remanded for a new trial," the publication stated.
The publication noted that the appeal was filed in March, and on May 6, the lawyers filed an objection to the appeal. As of 8:55 a.m. Moscow time on May 12, the Fifth Cassation Court in Pyatigorsk has no record of a hearing date for Diana Tsipinova's new case.
Lawyers insist Tsipinova is innocent
The defense's objections note that Diana Tsipinova's attempt to return to the police station for her phone, which was not legally confiscated and contained information subject to attorney-client privilege, cannot be considered illegal, and police officers had no grounds for denying Tsipinova access to her property, the Advokatskaya Gazeta newspaper reported on May 7.
According to the defense's objections, the court correctly found that Diana Tsipinova struck police officer Timur Nagoyev in response to his unlawful actions, under the impression of an unjustified detention and unaware of his official status at the time conflict.
"The fact that the courts' assessment of the evidence does not align with the position of Prosecutor Igor Tkachev does not indicate a violation of the requirements of criminal procedure law by the courts and does not constitute grounds for overturning or modifying the court's decisions," the publication quotes from the objections.
The incident occurred in May 2020. Diana Tsipinova was among three lawyers who volunteered to provide legal assistance to her colleague, Ratmir Zhilokov, after his arrest in Nartkala. They arrived at the police station and were unable to get access to Zhilokov for 40 minutes. Security officials disapproved of the lawyers filming and violently ejected them from the building. The use of force against lawyers in Kabardino-Balkaria and their subsequent criminal prosecution is considered extraordinary by the professional community, although it is not an isolated incident. Violations of the right to legal representation pose a potential threat to every citizen, according to lawyers interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot."
The prosecutor is attempting the impossible – to reexamine the factual circumstances of the case at the cassation stage.
One of Tsipinova's lawyers, Suren Natanov, stated that the prosecutor's demand is "nothing more than an attempt to rewrite already established facts." "Meanwhile, the trial and appellate courts demonstrated an exemplary approach to the case: they meticulously examined every document, assessed every piece of evidence, and rendered a decision that fully complied with the law. The prosecutor is essentially attempting the impossible—reexamining the factual circumstances of the case at the cassation stage. This contradicts the very essence of cassation proceedings, which examine the legality and validity of decisions, rather than reexamining the facts. The courts' findings that Timur Nagoyev failed to warn Diana Tsipinova of the possibility of using force and failed to identify himself as a police officer before her actions are based on irrefutable evidence: video recordings document the chronology of events, and witness testimony provides a complete picture of what happened. This evidence was thoroughly reviewed in two courts," he told the publication.
The lawyer noted that the trial court "professionally separated two episodes linked by a single thread of events," and the appellate court confirmed the correctness of this approach. "First, the lawyers attempted to enter the building, demanding to be 'marked in the register' after being denied access to their client. And here the court rightly noted: even if the lawyers' actions were considered to be formal violations, this did not give the police the right to resort to forceful methods—bypassing the law and professional ethics. Then, after being expelled from the building, Diana Tsipinova attempted to retrieve her phone, which contained attorney-client privilege and had not been legally seized. And again, Timur Nagoyev opted for a forceful approach: he used force without warning," Natanov said.
The prosecutor's office has been trying to overturn the acquittal for three years.
As a reminder, on July 7, 2023, the Urvan District Court, having first heard the case, found no criminal offense in Diana Tsipinova's actions and acquitted her. The Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria upheld the verdict, but the cassation court in Pyatigorsk upheld the prosecutor's demands and remanded the case for a new trial. The cassation ruling is clearly incriminating; the court exceeded its authority in assessing the evidence and its credibility, stated Tsipinova's defense attorney.
On December 1, 2025, the Urvan District Court, which retried the case, again acquitted Tsipinova. However, the prosecution had requested a 2.5-year prison sentence.
The prosecutor's office also challenged the second acquittal, demanding that the case be remanded for a new trial. The appellate court, the Supreme Court of Kabardino-Balkaria, after reviewing video footage from the scene of the incident at the Ministry of Internal Affairs department, again upheld the acquittal. The court very rarely sides with the defense—only when egregious violations are evident, the lawyers noted.
The prosecution, unlike the defense, can initiate repeated rounds of case hearings until a guilty verdict is reached or procedural options are exhausted. The prosecutor's office is exploiting this legal bias in Tsipinova's case, the lawyers said.