Bribes: article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, liability and punishment under the law. How to avoid punishment and accusations?

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Giving and receiving bribes is one of the most dangerous social phenomena in our society. Bribery is equated to corruption and significantly undermines the foundations of statehood, equal rights and justice in society. For a long time now, the state has been actively fighting corruption, using various control mechanisms.

It is not surprising that for giving a bribe to an official, not administrative, but criminal liability is provided under Articles 290-291 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Bribery is considered to be three manifestations of corruption: receiving, giving and intermediary in bribery. Responsibility for violating social norms threatens both the person who gives the bribe and the official offender.

Fine or restriction of freedom for bribery

The degree of punishment is entirely based on the amount handed over to the official.

The form and amount of punishments are classified as follows:

1. For a bribe of up to 10,000 rubles, a punishment may be imposed in the form of imprisonment or partial isolation for a period of 1 to two years, or a fine may be issued. The fine can be up to 200,000 rubles; it is determined by the court individually and can amount to three months’ salary of the accused.
2. For a bribe exceeding the amount of 25,000 rubles, a fine of 200,000 rubles to 1,500,000 rubles or a penalty of full imprisonment for up to six years may be applied. Also, the court may impose an additional penalty in the form of a ban on working as a civil servant for up to three years.
3. When giving a bribe on a large scale, the punishments are also “large”. A fine can be issued in the amount of two to four million rubles or the accused can be imprisoned for a term of 7 to 12 years. As an additional punishment, a decision may be made to ban work in any position for a period of up to 10 years.
4. For a bribe of more than 1,000,000 rubles, the fine will be from 3 to 5 million rubles or complete imprisonment for a term of 8 to 15 years. In addition, the court may prohibit the bribe-taker from working anywhere in certain positions for up to fifteen years.

Important information! The above penalties can be imposed if the person has not previously been convicted. If the accused has previously been convicted of a similar crime, the decision on punishment will be more severe.

Methods of bribery

Solving crimes related to bribery has quite serious features.

Methods of bribery are constantly being improved, which creates certain difficulties in bringing the perpetrators to justice under Art. 291 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Small and medium-sized types of giving “rewards” are often put on hold, which also does not contribute to the detection of corruption.

Bribes can be transferred in the following ways:

1. Topping up a bank account or electronic wallet.
2. The briber informs the official about the receipt of money in the account and gives the access code to the wallet (PIN code or login and password). Such cases of corruption are very difficult to recognize. Especially if the case involves huge amounts of money.
3. Contract with the company
4. Bribery also revolves around lucrative tenders or other sponsorship competitions. Most often, corrupt officials agree to create a “dummy” company, after which they transfer it a lucrative contract or a sum of money.
5. Preferences for relatives.
6. The recipient may not be the target of the bribe at all. For example, if the bribe-giver conveys “gratitude” not to the official himself, but through his relatives or friends.
7. An envelope or package with a reward. This method of transfer is the most common. Dishonest citizens can transfer any amount in exchange for the provision of official services, bypassing the system.

Is it possible to avoid responsibility?

If a person voluntarily contacts law enforcement agencies, passing on information about a planned transaction, then he can count on being released from liability or having a reduced sentence. By the way, if you were provoked to give a bribe, then in this case you cannot talk about criminal prosecution. In such situations, if you cooperate with the investigative authorities, the FSB - all responsibility falls on the recipient of the bribe, and you remain a witness. But we always approach “plea deals” with caution, because there are many nuances in such a process, the main one of which is the actual admission of guilt, which is not always appropriate and permissible.

There are actually many options for avoiding liability, including competent testimony from all participants in the case, and the lack of evidence in the form of correspondence, video or audio recordings, printouts of phone wiretapping, etc. It is important to choose the right, most beneficial position for you and stick to it. We do not recommend radically changing the testimony during the course of the case; this is perceived negatively by the court, therefore, it is better to decide on the position on the case at the very beginning, after it has been developed with a lawyer who is a specialist in bribery cases.

As you can see, the penalties for bribes are quite severe. Therefore, before committing any such actions of giving or receiving a bribe, you need to objectively assess the situation and refuse such actions.

Attention! If in any case it is better to contact qualified bribery lawyers who can answer your questions and solve the problem

Objective side of the crime

The subject of the issue of bribery is the receipt of material or other remuneration for an action or inaction in an official position. According to Part 1 of Art. 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, an official (policeman, doctor, educator, bailiff, etc.) can receive money for the following manifestations in his behavior:

1. The use of official powers in terms of providing action or inaction in favor of the bribe-giver or his representatives (for example, a bailiff “turns a blind eye” to the collection of the debtor’s property to pay off the debt).
2. Appeal to other officials with the aim of their action or inaction in favor of the bribe-giver or his representatives (for example, a traffic police officer turns to his superiors and speeds up the procedure for issuing license plates for the bribe-giver).
3. Providing patronage in an official position (for example, a boss suppresses an administrative matter regarding one of the employees).
4. Connivance in service.

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Thus, official actions/inactions for certain material support are considered corruption. The bribe can be transferred either by the bribe giver himself or through representatives.

○ What is considered a bribe, the concept of a bribe.

According to the provisions of the Criminal Code, a bribe is understood as the receipt by an official of any state or municipal body (the bribe-taker) of remuneration in the form of funds, valuables, material goods or the provision of services for the performance of specified actions or refusal to perform them (inaction) in favor of the person who provides this reward (the bribe giver).

The action or inaction performed for this remuneration must necessarily be within the official competence of the official, and may also consist of patronage or connivance in the service, as well as in providing assistance in resolving other issues that are not within the competence of the bribe taker, but in making decisions on which he may influence.

✔ What amounts are considered a bribe?

Punishment under the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation directly depends on the size of the bribe and a number of circumstances, for example, whether the bribe was a payment for illegal actions or was a kind of “gratitude” for the performance of one’s duties by an official.

Bribes are also distinguished by their amount, which is of particular importance for the qualification of the crime. The amount of a bribe is determined in rubles not only when it is given or received in the form of cash or payments to an account, but also when securities, material assets are transferred to the bribe recipient, or services are provided. The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (note to Article 290, also valid for other “corruption” articles) distinguishes:

• Bribes in a significant amount, i.e. exceeding 25 thousand rubles.
• Bribes on a large scale, i.e. more than 150 thousand rubles.
• Bribes on an especially large scale, i.e. exceeding 1 million rubles.

Contrary to a common misconception in disputes about what amount is a bribe , there is no minimum amount of a bribe in the legislation - in fact, any amount can be considered a bribe if the bribe is given in the form of money. The investigation or the court has the right to terminate the criminal prosecution due to its insignificance, when the bribe, for example, does not exceed 500 rubles, but in practice such cases are extremely rare.

The situation is a little different with material goods and values. Art. 575 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation establishes a direct ban on donating various valuables to officials in connection with the performance of their assigned duties, excluding ordinary gifts. Ordinary gifts are understood as items and valuables whose price does not exceed 3,000 rubles.

The history of Russia is directly related to many corruption abuses dating back to the times of Tsarist Russia. Even the famous guardsman of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, Malyuta Skuratov, was seen in regular attempts to extort citizens who came under his orders from the Detective Affairs. Punishment, however, did not befall him - he died during the Livonian War, while in those same years the tsar's servants who stole were punished very severely - their heads were cut off from their shoulders.

The famous “friend and lover” of Catherine II, Grigory Potemkin, was seen in a number of different corruption rewards, taking them from almost everyone - including foreign nationals. Despite regular investigations, thanks to the empress’s favor, Potemkin remained in status and even distinguished himself during the annexation of Crimea.

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○ How to distinguish a bribe from commercial bribery?

Commercial bribery refers to the receipt of money or material assets by a person working in a commercial organization and having managerial authority in exchange for performing some action in favor of the person offering the reward.

The main difference between a bribe and commercial bribery: a bribe can only be given to an official working for state or municipal bodies, while bribery can only be committed in the commercial sphere.

Responsibility for commercial bribery, both for receiving and for committing it, is spelled out in Art. 204 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. The conditions for exemption from liability are similar to bribery - voluntary surrender to the authorities and assistance in the investigation of the case.

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Signs of extortion of a bribe

Having suspected the fact of bribery or faced with corruption in the service, you will need to find out whether we are really talking about giving a bribe? To recognize fraudulent schemes, you should be guided by the following signs of a bribe:

1. The official avoids directly communicating the need to give money, but only “hints” at this action. As a rule, this is expressed in monosyllabic sentences with a hidden, but generally understandable meaning to another subject;
2. The official hints in every possible way that the conversation about “promotion” can take place outside of working hours;
3. The amount of the extortion may not be announced, but the numbers appear in a conversation with an official, are typed on a phone, computer, or written on paper;
4. The official leaves his workplace, leaving the visitor alone in the office with the door open. There may be places in the room that are intended for the transfer of a bribe (an open folder, briefcase, desk drawer, box, etc.);
5. The person asking for a bribe can forward the question to another official or his acquaintance.

Why don’t they talk about bribery openly and don’t extort it with direct subtext? The whole point is the criminal liability of such acts, which the attackers are well aware of.

○ Giving a bribe: article of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

Giving a bribe to officials (including foreign officials) is prohibited by the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and liability for this act is prescribed in Art. 291 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. In this case, liability occurs regardless of the method of transferring the bribe - it can be either personal contact with the bribe recipient or the transfer of illegal remuneration through third parties (intermediaries).

✔ Responsibility and punishment for giving a bribe.

According to the sanctions of Part 1 of Art. 291 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, a simple bribe that does not have signs of significance or large size is punishable by a fine of 15 to 30 times the amount of the bribe or a prison term of up to 2 years with a simultaneous fine of no more than 10 times the amount of illegal remuneration. The sanctions for qualified types of this crime are presented in more detail in the table below:

Established in Part 3, the deliberate illegality of the actions for which a bribe is given implies that the bribe-giver understands and is aware of the illegality of the behavior that he demands from an official: a police officer, a doctor, a teacher, a government employee. institutions, etc.

Example 1: Citizen A., when visiting a doctor, asked to expedite his admission as a patient, supporting his request with a 1000-ruble bill. This act will be qualified under Part 1 of Art. 291 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - that is, a “simple” bribe.

Example 2: Citizen B., having been stopped by a traffic police inspector for not fastening his seat belt and lack of MTPL insurance, offered the inspector for 1000 rubles “not to notice” these traffic violations and not to draw up a report. This act will be classified under Part 3 of Art. 291 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation – i.e. giving a bribe for obviously illegal actions of an official.

Example 3: Citizen Z. appealed to the head of the department of the military commissariat with a request to assist him in evading military service and offered to give him a deferment on grounds that did not actually exist. In exchange for assistance, the citizen offered 160,000 rubles. The act will be qualified under Part 4 of Art. 291 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, since here there is a large amount of bribe and its giving for a knowingly illegal action of a military registration and enlistment office employee.

✔ How to avoid responsibility?

The footnote to the article under discussion states that the bribe-giver is exempt from liability if he meets one of the following conditions:

— Voluntarily reported giving a bribe to the police.

— Active assistance was provided in solving the crime.

— The official who received the bribe was extorting it and himself offered to commit this act.

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○ What to do if you are accused of giving a bribe?

If you come to the attention of law enforcement agencies on charges of giving a bribe, the first thing you should do, regardless of the circumstances of the incident, is to enlist the help of a lawyer - with legal assistance you will be reliably protected from abuse, false accusations and arbitrariness.

In cases where you actually gave a bribe to an official for committing a deliberately illegal act and the bribe was given on your initiative, all that remains is to provide maximum assistance to the investigation, admit guilt and hope for a reduction in punishment.

When, in your opinion, there was extortion of a bribe by an official, it is necessary to prove this at any cost - with witness testimony, audio-video recordings, testimony and explanations.

Remember that charges of bribery can only be brought by law enforcement agencies according to their competence. Unsubstantiated statements, for example by an opponent in a dispute in court, that you gave a bribe to someone are void and can be punished under the article “Slander”.

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