Economic Security in Russia: Does Criminal Repression Play a Role?
Peter Nikolaevich Kobets
1a
, Kristina Aleksandrovna Krasnova
2b
, Yuri Yurievich Tishchenko
3c
,
and Anastasia Andreyevna Samoylova
3d
1
Center for organizational support of scientific activity, Federal public establishment «National Research Institute of the
Ministry of Interior of the Russian Federation», house 25 (bldg. 1), Povarskaya street, the city of Moscow, the Russian
Federation
2
Department of Criminal Law, The North Western branch of the Federal State Budget-Funded Educational Institution of
Higher Education «The Russian State University of Justice», house 5, Aleksandrovsky park, the city of Sankt-Petersburg,
the Russian Federation
3
Center for the Study of Security Problems in the Institutions of the Penitentiary System of the Federal State Institution "
Research Institute of the Federal Penitentiary Service", house 15а, Narvskaya the city of Moscow, the Russian Federation
Keywords: Criminal law, criminology, crime prevention, globalization, national economy, economic security, corruption,
crime counteraction, economic growth.
Abstract: The first step in systematically combatting economic crime is to understand its scale and nature. The processes
associated with the globalization of the economy seem to be irreversible natural evolutionary processes of the
development of modern society. Therefore, any of the economic systems of individual states in the third
decade of the 21st century becomes more dependent on foreign economies. Countering economic crime is the
most important component in ensuring the economic security of Russia. The purpose of the study is to present
the Strategy for Economic Security until 2030 and to study modern problems of combating crime in the
economic sphere. The methodological basis of the work was a systematic review of literature and content
analysis of documents of international organizations. The authors found that the growth of threats to economic
security in Russia is exacerbated by the continuous increase in the number of new ways of committing
economic crime and corruption. The most in demand is the prevention of such crimes and the intensification
of international cooperation in the field of their prevention. In the course of the research, the authors come to
the conclusion that, without denying serious successes in the study of crime prevention in the economic sphere,
the processes of scientific study of the problem in question are far from complete.
1 INTRODUCTION
At the beginning of the third decade of the 21st
century, the problem of crime prevention in the
sphere of the Russian economy has become especially
acute. For a long time, the state paid too little attention
to the legal aspects of economic security. Only in
2017, the President of the Russian Federation
approved a new Strategy for Economic Security of
the Russian Federation until 2030 (hereinafter
referred to as the 2017 Strategy), replacing the State
Strategy for Economic Security of the Russian
Federation of 29 April 1996. The 1996 Strategy did
a
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6527-3788
b
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1545-8025
c
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4032-8620
d
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3763-6371
not correspond to the economic realities of the second
decade of the 21st century after the turbulent
transformations of the economy, economic activity
and property, which lasted more than two decades
after the collapse of the USSR. The 2017 Strategy
identifies 8 priority areas of government policy. The
mission of the state in the field of ensuring economic
security is, in particular, to increase the economy's
resilience to the effects of external and internal
challenges and threats.
The persisting external threats to economic
security are due to the involvement of the Russian
economy in international economic relations
Kobets, P., Krasnova, K., Tishchenko, Y. and Samoylova, A.
Economic Security in Russia: Does Criminal Repression Play a Role?.
DOI: 10.5220/0010634500003152
In Proceedings of the VII International Scientific-Practical Conference “Criminal Law and Operative Search Activities: Problems of Legislation, Science and Practice” (CLOSA 2021), pages
233-235
ISBN: 978-989-758-532-6; ISSN: 2184-9854
Copyright
c
2021 by SCITEPRESS Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
233
(Fishman, 2016; Nasreen, Mahalik, Shahbaz &
Abbas, 2020). Any of the economic systems of
individual states in the third decade of the 21st
century is increasingly dependent on foreign
economies. Researchers from Iran conclude:
«Globalization and the expansion of foreign
economic relations along with the intervention of
each of the states through exercising their national
economic policies within the framework of economic
rules have led to serious complexities, both for states
and the private sector involved in the international
economic relations» (Adibi & Habibi, 2017). From
the experience of Russia, we see that integration into
the global economy, in the event of the introduction
of economic sanctions against certain Russian
companies and sectors of the national economy, has
become a serious risk to the country's economic
security (Krasnova, 2019).
The 2017 Strategy classifies a high level of
criminalization in the economic sphere and
corruption as internal threats to economic security.
This problem has been widely studied by now, both
in domestic and international literature. Many
previous studies (1995-2020) emphasize the
relationship between economic crime and state
institutions, as a result of which “some elite actors
accept the use of violence as a tool in political and
economic competition(Belokurova, 2018). Studies
of the economic security of the subsequent period of
the country's economic development reveal the
general issues of combating economic crime
(Suhodolov & others, 2017) and corruption (Iliy,
2016; Suhodolov and others, 2018; Bytko, 2019),
give various definitions of the concept of "economic
security" (Klimonova, 2014). In particular, they
define economic security as the basis for ensuring
national security and its other constituent elements
(Hoffman, 2021). Economic security can be
characterized as an activity to protect state economic
interests (Venkatachalam & Kumar, 2021).
Criminologists note the emergence of new forms
of illegal activity carried out using information,
communication and other advanced technologies
(Sukhodolov, Ivantsov, Borisov & Spasennikov,
2017; Kobets & Krasnova, 2018). Although in recent
years a sufficient number of studies have been
published on the legal regulation of the fight against
certain economic crimes (Ponomareva, 2019;
Markuntsov & Wassmer, 2020), it should be
recognized that there is insufficient coverage of the
specifics of preventing crimes of this type.
In this article, we will consider in detail a set of
measures to prevent economic crime and corruption.
The purpose of our research is to present the 2017
Strategy and explore the possibilities of criminal law
and codes of business ethics in the fight against
economic crime.
2 MATERIALS AND METHODS
We present a systematic review of the literature that
investigates economic crime and criminal law
measures to combat it, identifying the factors of
economic crime. To search for relevant studies,
published literature was identified from Scimagojr,
Research Gate, Science Direct, Google Scholar, Sage
Open. A content analysis of the content of documents
of international organizations was also carried out in
order to identify various facts and trends in ensuring
economic security and combating corruption.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Analysis of scientific literature and content analysis
of documents of international organizations, allowed
to establish an effective measure of countering
economic crime and corruption in the private sector.
The review shows that anti-corruption compliance
programs are universal and can be part of any national
strategy to combat economic crime. Experts argue
that the inclusion in company policy of a ban
prohibiting employees or agents from participating in
any act of corruption, with strict sanctions up to and
including termination of employment for various
violations, including non-compliance with anti-
corruption behavior, will help close the supply side of
the corruption equation (Ferris & others, 2021). We
have established that multinational companies are
guided by the Anti-Bribery Business Principles
(Business Principles for Countering Bribery, 2021).
For example, ENKA's Code of Corporate Conduct
states that the company follows the principle of “zero
tolerance for bribery” and is committed to abide by
the relevant laws, rules and principles (Combatting
Bribery and Corruption, 2021). However, the
inclusion of anti-corruption provisions in local acts of
companies does not remove the issue of measuring
the changes that occur as a result of the introduction
of anti-corruption rules into business practice.
Research on various indicators of economic security
becomes the basis for the preparation and
implementation of various strategies for economic
security (Shafieva, 2019).
The system of indicators of economic security is
based on measuring: the effectiveness of the country's
CLOSA 2021 - VII INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC-PRACTICAL CONFERENCE “CRIMINAL LAW AND OPERATIVE SEARCH
ACTIVITIES: PROBLEMS OF LEGISLATION, SCIENCE AND PRACTICE”
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international economic policy; gold and foreign
exchange reserve of the country; shadow economy;
environmental and other problems. Economic
security indicators identify its main threats.
Currently, experts are discussing a variety of
indicators. The most complete is the system of 19
indicators proposed by V. Plotnikov, reflecting the
financial sector of the economy, the real estate sector
and the social sphere (Plotnikov, 2018).
4 CONCLUSIONS
Without denying serious successes in the study of
economic security, we argue that the processes of
scientific research of the problems under
consideration are still far from complete. Such studies
do not lose their relevance due to the growing
globalization, world, economic problems and their
complications by the COVID-19 pandemic. The
priority direction of ensuring the country's economic
security is the creation of all the necessary conditions
for the prevention of crimes in the economic sphere.
It is advised to continue the work of all interested
international organizations to develop threshold
values for the main indicators of economic security.
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