Economic Security in Russia: Does Criminal Repression Play a Role?

Peter Nikolaevich Kobets

, Kristina Aleksandrovna Krasnova

, Yuri Yurievich Tishchenko

and Anastasia Andreyevna Samoylova

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

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

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

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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

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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