Criminal legal means for the glorification of the armed aggression of the russian federation in Ukraine

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of criminal law sanctions for glorification of the armed aggression of the russian federation in Ukraine (Article 4362 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (hereinafter – the CC of Ukraine)). The author establishes that the current version of Article 4362 of the CC of Ukraine in terms of sanctions regulation has a number of shortcomings which require legislative resolution. In particular, it is necessary to exclude from Part 2 of this Article such an additional type of punishment as confiscation of property due to its inconsistency with the provisions of the General Part of the CC of Ukraine, or to increase the upper limit of the punishment in the form of imprisonment to six years in order to turn this criminal offense into a grave one. It would also be advisable to supplement the sanction of Part 1 of this Article with such a type of punishment as restriction of liberty. This would eliminate the legislative “vacuum” between probationary supervision and imprisonment. It would also be logical to synchronize the upper limit of imprisonment under Part 1 of Article 4362 of the CC of Ukraine and the lower limit of the same type of punishment under Part 3 of Article 4362 of the CC of Ukraine by setting the amount of imprisonment in Part 3 of Article 4362 of the CC of Ukraine as “three years” instead of “five years”. In addition, the analysis of judicial practice has also shown the need to rethink the types and amounts of punishment for glorification. After all, in 88 % of cases, convicts were released from serving their sentences with probation. This indicates that courts do not always perceive glorification as an offense with a high degree of social danger, and therefore, in their minds, there is an opinion that the types and amounts of punishment for glorification established by law do not correspond to the real degree of social danger. In this regard, it is advisable to reduce the amount of punishment for glorification or to move to less severe types of punishment. This will allow judges to impose real punishment instead of exemption from serving a sentence, which will increase the effectiveness of criminal law measures for glorification.