The Development and State of Criminal Legislation on Responsibility for Smuggling Strategically Important Goods and Resources

Abstract

The paper is devoted to monitoring the development in the Russian criminal legislation of responsibility for the illegal movement of strategically important goods and resources across the customs border of the Customs Union within the EurAsEC or the State border of the Russian Federation. At the same time, the author argues the correctness of the indication in the disposition of Art. 226.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation a State Border as a place of commission of the crime under consideration. The author provides a detailed list of strategically important goods and resources, since the establishment of the subject matter of a crime makes it possible to qualify the offense and differntiate criminal smuggling from smuggling the responsibility for which is envisaged only in administrative legislation. The author substantiates the statement according to which this type of smuggling infringes not on public safety, but on relations in the field of economic activity. Therefore, a proposal is made to return the criminal law rule to Ch. 22 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. At the same time, it is proposed to establish criminal liability for smuggling flora and fauna items classified as strategically important goods and resources in a separate article in the Chapter entitled "Environmental Crimes" with due regard to the social danger of this act. The liability should not be related to the value of the goods and resources being moved. Taking into account only the cost of biological resources in their protection under criminal law does not reflect the real social danger of these acts. The need for the protection of biological resources using criminal law instruments is caused not only and not so much by economic preconditions but by the need to preserve rare and endangered representatives of flora and fauna for future generations—the most important components of the ecosystem of the entire planet. The author draws conclusions largely aimed at observing the systematic nature of the criminal law due to the peculiarities of the object of the offence.