A crime under Article 2841 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: еvolution of the criminal law norm аnd the problems of its interpretation

Abstract

Countering the penetration of destructive organizations into the territory of the Russian Federation, blocking attempts by them to influence the social and political institutions of Russian society led to the addition of Article 284¹ of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in 2015. In addition, a procedure has been developed for the recognition of undesirable activities on the territory of the Russian Federation by a foreign or international organization. In the almost 9-year history of the existence of the norm under consideration, it has already been amended three times, which characterizes the tightening of criminal liability for the acts provided for. The statistics of the number of convicts under the article in question during this period indicate that the introduced norm is not in demand in practice. Despite the fairly common approach to the construction of criminal liability for crimes of an organizational nature, used in the presentation of Article 284¹ of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, difficulties in interpreting certain signs still arise. In particular, the article draws attention to the different approaches of criminologists to determining the object of encroachment, which can lead to a distortion of the social orientation of the act and errors in law enforcement. Practice is experiencing difficulties in interpreting a number of signs of the objective side of the crime, the possibility of termination of criminal prosecution due to the insignificance of the act. The article also discusses other issues that cause controversy in criminal law science and judicial practic.