History of the crime of commercial bribery
Among crimes of corruption referred to in the Criminal Code, a separate place is occupied by commercial bribery (art. 204 of the Criminal Code). The article provides for punishment for giving a bribe to an official of a commercial organization. Responsibility for this norm is slightly lower than for corruption in government agencies.
History of the introduction of Art. 204 in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
The new Criminal Code of post-perestroika Russia was introduced in 1997, and an article appeared in it that was fundamentally different from the previously familiar bribe. The criminal legislation of the RSFSR did not distinguish between subjects, and giving a bribe was equally prosecuted, regardless of whether it was given to a market director or an officer of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Within the framework of the 204th article of the new Criminal Code, a separate entity was named as an independent entity - a person performing managerial functions in a commercial organization.
Both parties to a corrupt transaction are responsible for the crime:
- a person offering bribery - for the transfer of money, property or property rights to an employee of the company, damaging the activities of the organization and its management;
- bribe-taker - for actions or inaction aimed at obtaining property benefits for himself and providing illegal benefits to the second party to a corrupt transaction.
Features of law enforcement
Among the features of the application of responsibility for a crime, two qualifying signs are distinguished:
- offering a bribe for deliberately illegal actions, increasing the responsibility of the bribe-giver;
- extortion of property, which is an aggravating circumstance for the bribe taker.
After 2013, when Russia signed a number of fundamental international documents in the field of combating corruption, the structure of responsibility changed. Now the participant in the crime faces a fine, in some cases exceeding the amount of property benefits by 70 times. This has become an additional factor in reducing the frequency of crimes.
08.12.2020