On the development of the Russian Federation criminal legislation for the protection of social relations in the sphere of economic activity

This article focuses on the changes introduced into Chapter 22 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Crimes in the Sphere of Economic Activity" on the basis of Federal Law No 203-FZ of 26 July 2017. In accordance with the law, the chapter was supplemented with Article 171.3 that establishes criminal liability for "production and/or turnover of illicit alcohol", and Article 171.4 that establishes liability for "illegal retail of alcoholic and alcohol-containing products". Thus, the legislator first introduces specific legal rules that institute criminal proceedings for production of illicit alcohol, illegal retail of alcoholic and alcohol-containing products, which will make up for gaps in the current legislation. The objective of the research is to examine how far the legislator, under the decision on criminalization of acts prohibited by Article 171.3 and Article 171.4, takes into account the legal principles of criminalization of acts. The comparative method and the method of analysis are applied in the analysis of the legal changes. The research showed that the legislator, in deciding on criminalization of acts where the responsibility is established by the novels subject to Article 171.3 of Criminal Code of the RF, does not observe the "principle of legal rule on criminal injunction planning". In this connection, the name of the novel proves to be "vague" as it becomes ambiguous: what criminal act is subject to criminal liability - "illegal production and turnover of ethyl alcohol, alcoholic and alcohol-containing products" or "illegal production or turnover of ethyl alcohol, alcoholic and alcohol-containing products". Its disposition appears to be "vague" as well since it does not clearly state the cases of criminal liability - for production only, for purchase only, including import, for delivery only, including export, for possession only or for shipping of ethyl alcohol, alcoholic and alcohol-containing products without a relevant license only. Furthermore, it is still not clear how the component "retail sale" with conjunctions "and/or" correlates with the disposition of Article 171.3. To sum up, to improve the Chapter, amendments should be made to Article 171.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation; particularly, only the conjunction "and" should remain in the title. The components after "production" can be added to "turnover of ethyl alcohol, alcoholic and alcohol-containing products".

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