Mediation in bribery: questions of classification and punishment

The article deals with some problems of classification of mediation in bribery and inflicting punishment for such actions taking into account the practice of application of Art. 291.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and the provisions of the resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court as of 09/07/2013 №24 "On judicial practice in cases of bribery and other corruption crimes". Attention is drawn to the contradictory approaches to the question of whether the size of the bribe is a prerequisite for the criminal procedure under Art. 291.1 of the Criminal Code. Similar approaches are found when finding a solution to the question of possible recharacterization of mediation in obtaining or giving a bribe for mediation in bribery and vice versa. Higher courts concede such recharacterization in some decisions while in others not. The excessive severity of certain sentences regarding the size of the penalty for mediation in bribery is stated, making the penalties originally unenforceable. The author proposes to reflect the answers to these and other controversial issues which arise in the course of application of Art. 291.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in a new version of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation "On judicial practice in cases of bribery and other corruption crimes".

bribery, mediation in bribery, accessory to bribery, getting a bribe, bribe, fine, classification of a crime, the Criminal Code, the Plenum of the Supreme Court

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