Philosophical and Legal Aspects of Criminal Liability Measures in the Sphere of Expression of Religious Beliefs and Attitudes towards Religion in Russia

The study correlates the norms of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and the norms of the Constitution of the Russian Federation governing relations as to the expression of religious beliefs and attitudes towards religion in the context of the socio-cultural foundations of the processes to which these norms apply. It is shown that over the past 30 years, legislation in this area has undergone changes in the direction from a literal interpretation of the principles of a secular society to confessional-oriented preferences. The paper presents the arguments of supporters and opponents of these transformations of law in the articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, designed to protect believers and their shrines from attacks. It is proved that this measure, which distinguishes subjects of religiosity and objects of their veneration into a specially protected group, only partially corresponds to the stated goal. In fact, state coercion measures are being introduced into the system of interaction between subjects of religious life, representatives of religion and secular society in order to strengthen government control over the sphere of religious relations. The ideas of overcoming excesses in this area are criticized not only by means of multi-stage legal regulation of the sphere of religious relations, but also by improving the norms of law in the direction of «positive» or «negative» censorship (discrimination). Each of these methods has its own significant drawbacks and can be regarded as a dead end. Perhaps a balanced state policy in this area lies apart from the tightening of punitive measures for the expression of religious beliefs, and from condoning permissiveness of forms of expression of attitudes towards religion, fraught with social conflicts.