Characteristics of the State of Crimes in Russian Foreign Economic Activities After the Adoption of Special Economic Measures

Abstract

Currently, foreign trade-related crimes do not only pose a serious threat to the economic and national security of the Russian Federation, but are a considerable obstacle for the international cooperation of the country. Such crimes create conditions for widening the scale of the shadow economy, and contribute to practically all negative trends in the law enforcement sphere of the country. The author analyzes the indices related to the law enforcement work of the customs departments. The latter are immediate participants of customs operation and combat crimes in the sphere of foreign trade within their jurisdiction. In the current geopolitical situation, the Russian Federation used the defense mechanism connected with the application of special economic measures. The author believes that this practice to some degree provoked the criminals to come up with new ways and means of bypassing existing prohibitions and limitations. In the last decade there has been an increase in the number of crimes connected with the smuggling of timber, currency operations with forged documentation, unlawful establishment of a juridical person and unlawful use of documentation to establish a juridical person. Besides, over this period the customs departments have not been able to reduce the number of crimes involving smuggling of cash, alcohol and tobacco, evasion of customs payments and certain duties to any significant extent. The author links this situation to the increase in foreign trade-related crimes committed with the aid of some corrupt officials from the state bodies, as well as the «grey» customs system. It is concluded that the state should continue to improve its law enforcement work in the sphere of foreign trade and economy while taking into consideration the current special economic measures in order to ensure a more efficient counteraction to foreign trade crimes.