Criminal responsibility for false of voting results in the Russian Federation

Elections are the most important institution in a democratic state, because through them the population determines the leadership of the state. The participation of the population in the management of state affairs allows one to take into account the views of society on the peculiarities of the formation of elected bodies of state power and officials. Russian electoral legislation regulates all the details of the organization and conduct of elections, from the moment of preparation for them and ending with challenging the voting results. The electoral process in Russia is a set of stages, each of which is characterized by the performance of certain procedural actions within the legislatively fixed terms. The process of determining the voting results is of particular importance for the electoral sphere and for the electoral institution as a whole. The purpose of this article is to analyze the criminal liability for falsifying the voting results in the Russian Federation. The author comes to the conclusion that the wording of the current criminal law norm is incorrect, which negatively affects the effectiveness of its application. Based on the research carried out, the most promising seems to be the improvement of Art. 142.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation by separating individual elements of a crime from the existing disposition, fixing qualifying signs, as well as determining proportionate punishments for each act, taking into account their public danger.

falsification of voting results, electoral process, crimes in the field of electoral law and process, criminal liability, Russian criminal law