Abstract: This study analyzes the formations with prepositions used in the language of the contemporary Russian press that explicitly violate rules of the literary standard. In the print mass-media the non-literary grammatical formations more often are used for description of realities of the criminal world. At the same time journalists who write about criminal life are the literary language supports. The research of study consider reasons which contribute to the promotion of the similar formations with prepositions in Russian language as well as assess the extent of influence of the argotic subnorms (uncodified norms of substandard language system) at the Russian language standard. The specifics of sub-standard formations is studied by using the method of linguistic observation and description, the features of the argotic formations with prepositions are revealed by context analysis. The result of the research was stylistic characteristic of the substandard prepositional phrases. The study can be useful for language experts who study substandard forms of Russian language and for journalists.