Abstract:  
The subject of this research is the status of a victim as the main participant of criminal procedure, whose rights and legal interests are protected on priority basis. The author substantiates that despite the adopted by legislator measures (of December 28, 2013 and later) on optimization of the procedural status of a victim, there is still a need for improvement of his rights. Based on the analysis of the acting legislation and various points of view among the scholars, the article determines a trend towards the actual alignment of the volume of right between the victim and the accused. At the same time, the legislator did not consider the situations, in which the accused does not realize the granted rights or even avoids the participation in criminal procedure. The scientific novelty of this work consists in determination of status of a victim in the criminal process at the current stage of development of the Russian criminal procedure that differs from the earlier proposed approaches, including formulation of a conclusion on the need for demarcation of the procedural status of a victim of crime, taking into account his legal interest as a civil plaintiff, victim, and witness.