Criminal Liability for Terrorist Financing: Prerequisites for the Establishment and Problems of Implementation

Purpose. Special regulatory prescriptions on liability for terrorist financing appeared in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation over twenty years ago. However, despite the rather long existence of this criminal law prohibition, its critical perception prevails in the legal doctrine. Many experts believe that if there is an institution of complicity in a crime, the criminal law prohibition in question is excessive. The main purpose of this publication is to prove the existence of an objective need to establish responsibility for the financing of terrorism at the level of a special part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, and to identify reserves for improving the relevant criminal law norm. Methodology: general scientific (abstraction, analysis, synthesis, deduction, induction) and special methods characteristic of legal research (historical-legal, comparative-legal, formal-logical). Conclusions: The conducted research confirms the existence of socio-legal grounds for the construction of a special norm on liability for financing terrorism in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. First, the criminalization of terrorist financing is predetermined by Russia›s international obligations. Secondly, a significant prerequisite for the criminalization of terrorist financing was the apparent insufficiency of the institution of complicity in crime. The limited scope of the institution of complicity, built mainly on an accessory basis, does not cover many manifestations of terrorist financing, which forces the use of new criminal law structures to criminalize the relevant acts. In this regard, an independent norm on responsibility for financing terrorism looks more advantageous — its scope of application is much wider in comparison with the norms of the institution of complicity in crime. Finally, thirdly, the obvious purpose and at the same time a positive result of the allocation of a special norm on responsibility for the financing of terrorism was to increase the educational and preventive impact of the mechanism of criminal law protection. The scientific and practical relevance. The results of the research presented in the article allow us to identify promising areas for improving the criminal law norm on responsibility for financing terrorism and the practice of its application.