Irkutsk region, Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Introduction: The importance of the forest, individually, and the entire forest sector, in particular, for society is extremely high. Russia has huge reserves of this valuable resource, its protection is one of the priorities of the state. Article 260 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which protects forest plantations from illegal logging, is one of the most relevant in the modern period, this is explained by the need to understand not only the composition of this crime, but also the special rules under which logging of forest plantations is carried out. Materials and methods: normative basis of this study was formed by such legal acts as the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Article 260), the Federal Law "On Environmental Protection", the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation "On the application by courts of legislation on liability for violations in the field of environmental protection and nature management", etc. The paper uses official up-to-date statistical data characterizing environmental crime. The key research methods were the method of description, the comparative legal method, the method of statistical data analysis, etc. Results of the study: the legislator defines forest plantations from two positions, as an integral component of the natural environment and a valuable natural resource. A careful approach to the definition of this concept is explained by the importance of forests for society as a whole, since forests directly affect the ecological situation, the export of forest materials also forms the state budget to a certain extent. Qualification problems, difficulties in initiating a criminal case, determining the range of circumstances to be clarified, choosing the necessary investigative actions often take place in investigative practice when it comes to the application of Article 260 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Also, in practice, there is a problem of qualification of an act containing several qualifying signs at the same time, established by parts 2 and 3 of Article 260 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the problem is due to the unsuccessful construction of the article. The need for a full understanding of the interaction schemes of regulatory authorities, sufficient knowledge from related branches of law, the nature of the occurrence of crimes related to illegal logging only complicates the activities of the investigator or the bodies of inquiry. Findings and conclusions: the authors considered not only theoretical, but also practical issues of criminal law protection of forest plantations in Russia. At the end of the study, the authors emphasize that qualification problems, difficulties in initiating a criminal case, determining the range of circumstances to be clarified, choosing the necessary investigative actions often take place in investigative practice when it comes to the application of Article 260 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Also, in practice, there is a problem of qualification of an act containing several qualifying signs at the same time, established by parts 2 and 3 of Article 260 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the problem is due to the unsuccessful construction of the article.
illegal logging of forest plantations, forest, criminal protection of forests, Article 260 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, ecology
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