On September 26, the All-Russian Academic and Research Conference "Criminal law issues of combating environment crimes ", in which the Amur Tiger Center employees took part, was held in Omsk. One of the important topics for discussion was the problem of illegal use of wildlife, including particularly valuable species, such as the Amur tiger, whose population in the wild today is estimated at about 500.
Ilya Kuznetsov, Deputy Director General of the Amur Tiger Center, spoke on the “Problems of law enforcement of Article 258.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation". The report analyzed the judicial practice of bringing citizens to criminal responsibility for crimes related to the illegal production and trafficking of particularly valuable wild animals and aquatic biological resources belonging to the species listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation since Article 258.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation came into force in July 2013 to the present. The analysis carried out by specialists showed that courts sentence perpetrators to insignificant forms of punishment, which do not correspond to the degree of public danger. In this regard, in order to ensure the implementation of the preventive criminal law, the question of adding amendments to this Article is acute.
The Conference discussed such questions as: directions of improvement of Chapter 26 of the Russian Criminal Code (Environmental Crime), the specifics of conducting expert examinations in the investigation of environment crimes, the specifics of criminal proceedings on illegal deforestation, animal smuggling and many other issues.
As a result of the conference, the participants were asked to formulate specific proposals for improving the legislation regulating the use of wildlife objects.
"One can not underestimate the importance of such events. The discussion of topical issues of law enforcement in the sphere in question will allow us to formulate proposals for improving the legislation of the Russian Federation in the near future and to strengthen measures to combat environment crimes," commented Kuznetsov.
For reference. On July 14, 2013, amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation entered into force (articles 226.1 and 258.1), which provide toughening of penalties for the illegal extraction and trafficking of particularly valuable wild animals and aquatic biological resources belonging to species listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation and / Protected by international treaties of the Russian Federation (Federal Law "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation" of June 2, 2013 N150-FZ). The list of these animal species for the purposes of application of Articles 226.1 and 258.1 is approved by the Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of October 31, 2013 N978.