On further improvement of Chapter 22 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
Authors:   Tomsk State University (Tomsk, Russian Federation), Lozinskiy Igor V. 
Published: March 2023

The article analyzes the changes to Chapter 22 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on the basis of the Federal Laws of the Russian Federation No. 215-FZ of June 11, 2021, No. 216-FZ of June 11, 2021, No. 241-FZ of July 1, 2021, No. 248-FZ of July 01, 2021, No. 262-FZ of July 1, 2021, and No. 293-FZ of July 01, 2021. It has been established that the changes introduced by these Laws are not enough to improve the Chapter in full. After the introduction of the indicated changes, Chapter 22 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation was supplemented with a new law - Article 171.5, which provides for liability for “illegal provision of consumer loans”, which indicates the “expansion” of criminal law interference in the sphere of economic activity. The “expansion” was to eliminate the legislative gap in this Chapter. The changes also “expanded” the scope of Article 183 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, since its new edition provides for liability for a greater number of criminally punishable methods of obtaining tax, banking and commercial secrets, like blackmail, deceit, and coercion. Moreover, the indicated changes “expanded” the scope of Articles 195 and 196 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Their new editions determine the qualifying signs of committing criminal bankruptcies. Besides, the scopes of application of other norms that make up Chapter 22 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation have also been “expanded” - for example, the new version of Article 194 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, along with evasion from paying customs duties, establishes liability for evading payment of special, anti-dumping and / or countervailing duties. In the new wording of Article 172.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, liability for forging financial accounting and reporting documents has been extended to foreign insurance companies operating in the Russian Federation. The new version of Article 171.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation also provides for liability for the use of knowingly counterfeit means of identification for marking goods. However, the author has analysed the shortcomings of the legislative structure of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and concluded that, despite all those changes, there are still problems of further improvement of Chapter 22. Having analysed the rest of Chapter 22 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation using the comparative and analytical method, the author argues that out of 60 provisions that make up Chapter 22 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, only 12 of them are applied. The remaining 48 provisions are practically inapplicable. Moreover, there is a significant legislative gap in this Chapter, since there are no provisions providing for criminal liability for committing crimes of a raider nature. Some of the provisions are varieties of acts that do not constitute an encroachment on social relations in the field of economic activity. Thus, further improvement of Chapter 22 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation requires, on the one hand, the formation of a range of acts that, by their legal nature, are attacks on business and competition relations. This range of acts can be formed through both the criminalization of new acts, which are criminal attacks on these relations, and the decriminalization of acts, the fight against which is possible with less repressive, non-criminal measures, as well as acts that are not attacks on these relations. On the other hand, the problems can be solved by the “transfer” of individual acts prohibited by Chapter 22, which are crimes of minor gravity, into the category of criminal offenses. In the future, Chapter 22 may also include new laws, which would provide for criminal liability for committing crimes of minor gravity.