Corruption exists in every country. However, in Russia it has frightening proportions. Officials who accept bribes are rarely deterred by the fact that they are committing a criminal offense - the thirst for easy money outweighs any concerns. But it is important to know that both parties are responsible for bribery - both the official and the bribe giver.
Their degree of guilt may vary. An official who solicits a bribe will receive a more severe punishment. The opposite is also true: the court will apply serious sanctions to the bribe-giver if it turns out that he persuaded a civil servant to violate the law and was the initiator of the offense. Moreover, even attempted bribery is criminally punishable. A motorist who offers a traffic policeman to “resolve the issue on the spot” risks not only finding himself without a license, but also ending up in the dock.
Bribe concept
Before considering an encroachment on a bribe, you need to decide on bribery itself and how the law defines it. According to the Criminal Code (CC), a bribe is the bribery of an official. Bribery is committed so that an official, taking advantage of his position, performs certain actions in the interests of the bribe-giver. However, an official does not have to do anything; sometimes his inaction is enough.
The bribe itself can be:
- explicit, when the transfer of funds occurs from hand to hand;
- veiled, when material assets in the form of various goods and services are offered as a bribe, free of charge or at reduced prices.
A bribe is a transaction in which two parties are involved. At the same time, both sides do not always want this “deal” equally. That is why the Criminal Code contains two articles provided for the initiator of illegal actions:
- under Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the recipient of illegal remuneration, that is, an official, is responsible;
- According to Article 291 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the guilt of the bribe-giver is determined.
One way or another, both will be held accountable to the law, but it is the initiator who usually receives a more severe punishment.
What is attempted bribery
An encroachment on a bribe is the same bribery, but only unfinished . There are several reasons why the “deal” is not completed:
- law enforcement agencies prevented this by entering the premises where the transfer of funds took place;
- the official did not accept the illegal reward due to the presence of witnesses, a camera in the room, etc.
Attention! The official may be honest and not accept the money. In this case, it only makes sense to talk about an attempt to bribe an official. The briber will be liable under Article 291 of the Criminal Code, but taking into account the fact that the crime is not complete, the court will consider the case based on Article 30. Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
If we talk about attempted bribery by an official, then in most cases the transfer of remuneration does not occur not because of honesty, but because the transfer process is interrupted by law enforcement officers.
How to prove giving a bribe to a traffic police officer?
Perhaps this is one of the most troubling questions, after determining the type and measure of responsibility for what was done. To bring to criminal liability, indisputable evidence of the commission of a crime is required, including the mere report of a traffic police officer that he was offered a bribe is clearly not enough. However, he also plays an important role here.
Do not forget that road patrol vehicles are equipped with an audio and sometimes video recording system aimed at monitoring road users, as well as the behavior of traffic police officers. Yes, such complexes are designed to stimulate them to properly perform their duties, exercising objective control over official behavior.
In order to combat corruption and reduce the number of abuses in office, current legislation obliges officials to report every instance of corruption. At the same time, the employee has the right to stop illegal actions by reporting the incident to the duty service and waiting for the arrival of the operational investigation team.
Also quite common are preventive measures carried out under the auspices of CSS. The detection and suppression of crimes here is carried out in relation to an indefinite number of persons, and, often, such activities bring certain results. As already noted, if the transfer of a bribe was stopped by law enforcement officers or cash and other valuables were seized immediately after they were received, then there can be no question of any attempt to give a bribe. In this case, a completely completed crime takes place. True, in such cases, the likelihood of provocation on the part of the employees themselves is quite high.
Important!
If it is proven that giving a bribe was a consequence of extortion or incitement on the part of an official, then there is a possibility of exemption from criminal liability.
ATTENTION!
Due to recent changes in legislation, the information in this article may be out of date! Our lawyer will advise you free of charge.
Gift, bribe, attempt - crimes
But all that glitters is not a bribe. The law does not prohibit making gifts to officials and civil servants. But with one significant amendment, or rather limitation. According to Article 575 of the Civil Code, an official can accept gifts if their value does not exceed three thousand rubles.
At the same time, gifts should not be in any way connected with the performance of any actions (inaction) in the interests of the donor. Otherwise, the crime of bribery will be evident, and the amount spent on the donation will not matter.
Reference. The articles on bribery do not establish a minimum amount of funds or material assets at which a criminal case is initiated.
If we talk about the differences between an attempt and a committed crime from a legal point of view, then an attempt to take a bribe does not constitute a crime. According to Art. 290 and 291, the objective side of bribery is the transfer or receipt of remuneration.
For qualification purposes, it does not matter what amount was transferred (only part of the funds may be transferred), the court will be interested in the “final” amount that was discussed by the parties .
The subjective side of an attempt remains the same as that of a committed crime - this is direct intent. The bribe-taker, an official, is well aware that he is receiving a bribe for certain actions (inaction) in his service in the interests of the bribe-giver.
The bribe giver, in turn, is also well aware that he is committing an illegal act by giving money in exchange for “preferences.” And one way or another, both sides have the only motive - self-interest.
The difference between a bribe and commercial bribery is here.
Responsibility for attempted bribery
The punishment for attempted bribery, as in the case of a completed crime, is determined by its size, in accordance with Articles 290 and 291 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The legislation identifies the following amounts of bribes :
- small – up to 25 thousand rubles;
- significant - from 25 thousand rubles;
- large - more than 150 thousand rubles;
- especially large – more than 1 million rubles.
Responsibility for a completed crime can be assigned in the form of:
- fine;
- correctional labor;
- imprisonment (from one to 15 years, depending on the size of the crime and the qualifying features of the crime).
Since we are talking about an attempt, in addition to the relevant articles, when passing a sentence, the court will turn to Articles 29 and 30 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Completed and unfinished crime” and “Preparation and attempted crime”). According to these legal acts, liability for an unfinished crime cannot exceed ¾ of the maximum punishment for one or another classification of the crime.
It happens that the bribe-giver has no selfish motives and is forced to pay. Extortion of a bribe is a classifying feature of a particularly serious crime. Even attempted bribery with extortion is subject to criminal liability in the form of imprisonment (Part 2 of Article 30 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
Extortion is quite difficult to prove, since a corrupt official rarely speaks directly about his desire to receive a bribe. Usually, in the language of the 90s, he “nightmares” the victim’s business through endless checks, and thereby harms his legitimate interests.
Evidence in an extortion trial , as in the case of a bribe, is:
- audio or video recordings of a crime (extortion);
- witness's testimonies;
- the presence of dummies during the transfer of a bribe.
By proving the fact of extortion, the bribe-giver proves the absence of a selfish motive in particular, and his non-involvement in the crime in general. In this case, he is exempt from criminal liability for attempted bribery under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Punishment for giving a bribe to a traffic police officer
Giving a bribe is an independent, completed crime, the legal consequences of which take place from the moment the money is actually transferred to an official, both personally and through an intermediary. For the purposes of bringing to justice and imposing punishment, it will not matter whether the traffic police officer took retaliatory actions or not, and also regardless of whether these actions were preconditioned by a bribe. It is important that their implementation was within his competence, which could help resolve the issue for the money transferred. Punishment for giving a bribe is assumed only for the guilty actions of the person. Guilt in this situation is expressed in the awareness of what has been done - the person realizes that he is giving a bribe to an employee or the head of the traffic police for release from administrative responsibility and desires this.
The punishment for giving a bribe varies, first of all, from the amount of the remuneration transferred. The larger the bribe, the higher the sanction applied to the guilty person. Most often, responsibility for giving a bribe is associated with imprisonment of the guilty person. However, the sanction established by criminal law allows for the possibility of applying alternative legal measures to the guilty person.
Important!
Giving a bribe does not always imply imposing a prison sentence on the guilty person. In some cases, the criminal law also provides for alternative types of punishment.
When giving a bribe in the amount of up to twenty-five thousand rubles, the guilty person may in the future be assigned a fine, the amount of which varies within five hundred thousand rubles, but not more than the specified amount, or is limited by the level of the annual income of the convicted person or is calculated as a multiple of the bribe amount - from five times to thirty times its size. A fine is the minimum punishment imposed for giving a bribe.
In addition to a fine, the guilty person may be sentenced to correctional labor for up to two years or forced labor for up to three years. This type of punishment, like a fine, is not associated with the isolation of the convicted person from society.
The main difference between these types of work is as follows. Thus, correctional labor is assigned to a person who has a main place of work, at the main place of work, for non-working persons - the choice of place to serve a sentence in the form of correctional labor is carried out by local government bodies in agreement with the criminal executive inspectorates, but with the obligatory condition that it will be in the area where the convicted person resides.
In turn, forced labor, within the meaning of criminal law, is used as an alternative to imprisonment for committing a crime of minor or medium gravity or for the first time committing a serious crime. When assigning them, the court is predetermined by the choice between this type of punishment and deprivation of liberty, however, leaning in their direction, it must one way or another impose a punishment associated with deprivation of liberty, subsequently replacing it with forced labor, accordingly coming to the conclusion about the possibility of correction convicted without actually serving a sentence in prison.
Important!
Moreover, if the court sentences the perpetrator to imprisonment for a term of more than five years, then forced labor cannot be applied.
On the substantive side, serving a sentence in the form of forced labor involves the convict carrying out labor activities in places determined by the institutions and bodies of the penal system. Unlike correctional labor, it does not matter here whether the convicted person has a permanent place of work or not. In both cases: during correctional and forced labor, deductions are made from the wages of the convicted person to the state income.
The most serious punishment for giving a bribe is imprisonment, which can be imposed for up to two years. Moreover, his appointment may be associated with additional liability in the form of a fine in the amount of five to ten times the amount of the bribe.
Important!
The law establishes only the upper limit of the sanction in the form of imprisonment, which formally allows for the imposition of a punishment of one month or a shorter period for this type of punishment.
The amount of a bribe in the amount of twenty-five thousand rubles is assumed to be transferred in a significant amount, upon transfer of which the guilty person is expected to be assigned a slightly different punishment. In practice, the amount of a bribe given to traffic police officers rarely exceeds the specified barrier, however, this also happens, especially in cases where the offense involves liability associated with the deprivation of rights, especially if we are talking about driving a vehicle while intoxicated intoxication.
In the future, the guilty person may be punished in the form of a fine, the amount of which varies in the amount of up to one million rubles, or in the amount of wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of up to two years, or in the amount of ten to forty times the amount of the bribe. In the case under consideration, correctional labor may also be imposed for a period of one to two years, while forced labor is excluded from the number of punishments provided for by the sanction of the article.
The term of imprisonment in the case of giving a bribe in the amount of twenty-five thousand rubles or more already provides for a minimum threshold of sanctions and varies from one year to three years, with or without the alternative collection of a fine from the culprit.
All this is not so significant, since by offering a bribe to a traffic police officer, a driver who has violated traffic rules pursues the goal of avoiding administrative punishment. The achievement of this goal must be facilitated by the obviously illegal actions of an official. The size of the sanction in this case is more than serious:
- fine – from thirty to sixty times the amount of the bribe;
- imprisonment for a term of up to eight years.
In the latter case, a fine of thirty times the amount of the bribe is also required.
Important!
Prosecution within the specified limits will take place in cases where it is proven that the motorist who gave the bribe not only knew about the illegal way to resolve his issue, but also wanted to achieve it in exactly this way.
