Characteristics of information and psychological threats based on the analysis of judicial practice in cases of crimes provided for in Articles 205.1, 205.2, 207.1, and 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

The subject of the research is strategic documents aimed at identifying threats to national security, recognized by the state as threats to informational and psychological security, as well as judicial practices related to crimes associated with destructive psychological impact on individual or mass consciousness. In particular, the study examines the Doctrine of Information Security of the Russian Federation from 2000 and 2016, and the Military Doctrine of the Russian Federation from 2000 and 2010. The judicial practice is represented by 131 sentences in cases of crimes provided for by Articles 205.1, 205.2, 207.1, and 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, issued by the Southern District Military Court and the district courts of the city of Rostov-on-Don from 2014 to 2023. The methodological basis of the research is the general scientific dialectical method of cognition. General scientific (systemic, induction, deduction, classification, generalization, analogy, analysis, and synthesis) and specific scientific (formal-logical) methods were also applied during the research. The document analysis method was used while working with strategic documents and studying sentences and criminal cases for specific crimes. The main conclusions of the conducted research include a generalized list of threats to the informational and psychological security of the population of Russia, as well as a description of threats concerning the population of the Southern Federal District related to involvement in terrorist activities, propaganda and justification of terrorism ideology, and the spread of false information about socially significant events. Thus, the study of strategic documents revealed three types of threats to informational and psychological security: distortion of key historical facts and the image of Russia; dissemination and justification of criminal and non-criminal destructive ideas; militarization of the information space. The analysis of judicial practice shows that the social danger of crimes provided for by Articles 205.1, 205.2, 207.1, and 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is heightened by such features as the virality of the disseminated information, its apparent justification, and targeting, which are aimed at increasing the audience and persuasive power.