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Protection of public's ecological concerns:
current status and prospects for improvement
Ksenia Pitulko1
*
1St. Petersburg Institute (branch) of the All-Russian State University of Justice, 19, lit. А, 10 line
V.O., 199178, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
Abstract. The contemporary ecological situation in Russia is negatively
influenced by economic and sanitary-hygienic factors, which can be
defined as insufficiently prosperous. In addition, emergencies arising as a
result of accidental circumstances or insufficient compliance with
environmental safety requirements, violation of work rules, use of obsolete
or environmentally hazardous equipment make a certain "contribution" to
its deterioration. Provided that the national economy is characterized by a
varied diversity and optimistic growth rates, one cannot but notice that
most sources of formation of the state welfare are ecologically harmful,
contribute to the maintenance in an ecologically unfavorable condition of
industrial facilities and adjacent territories, the formation of a significant
mass of production and consumption waste. With the proclamation in
Article 42 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation of the right of
everyone to a prosperous environment, the state has the obligation to create
appropriate legal instruments to implement this right and to maintain
ecological safety at a high level. Nevertheless, due to the high degree of
natural resource exploitation that persists to the present day, the rate at
which these instruments are created is clearly inferior to the rate at which
the negative impact on the natural environment is increasing. In the article
a quantitative analysis of the risks and threats to the ecological interests of
society arising in connection with anthropogenic impact on the
environment and a qualitative analysis of the norms of the current
legislation aimed at maintaining their protected state are carried out. Their
results confirm the need for further improvement of legal instruments
adequately protecting the environmental well-being of the population.
1 Introduction
The environmental situation in Russia is not sufficiently favourable. The negative impact of
a whole set of factors significantly complicates the improvement of the quality of the
natural environment. Many developed countries have faced this problem, and most of them
have chosen the strategy of reducing industrial production [1], changing the general trends
of conditional settlement [2] and environmental risk management [3]. A more progressive
approach has become its ecologization, which is clearly illustrated by the experience of the
People's Republic of China [4], or the construction of "smart economy" practiced in some
*
Corresponding author: lokhi@yandex.ru
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© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
European countries [5]. In Russia, due to the economic turmoil that occurred after the
collapse of the Soviet Union, the implementation of the most expensive but undoubtedly
environmentally beneficial projects was impossible for a long time.
The negative impact of anthropogenic activities remains significant, even though
industrial production has decreased significantly compared to the 1980s, and many
industries have since gained modern equipment that causes less damage to certain natural
components. For example, such leading sectors of the Russian economy as trade (over 15%
of the volume), energy export (over 15%), manufacturing (about 14%), mining (about 10%)
and transport (about 7%) pose many environmental risks and cause supernumerary damage
to the environment (with only 11% of organisations whose activities are linked to potential
environmental impacts using environmental innovations). However, according to the World
Bank, the reorientation of part of the Russian economy toward the production of "green"
products (compliant with environmental requirements or intended for environmental
monitoring) may become an actual direction of its development (however, at the moment
the share of "green" goods sold by domestic producers does not exceed 1.7% of the total
structure). Foreign studies in this regard support such a vector, especially in connection
with the good faith compliance of Russia with international agreements of environmental
nature [6], however, it is obvious that the maintenance of environmental security requires
permanent efforts on the part of the society and the state.
The volume of waste generation from production and consumption, according to
Rosstat, of the most important types of economic activity for the period 2016 to 2020 tends
to increase, interrupted only in 2020. This intermediate outcome can rather be explained by
the general economic downturn, which took place against the backdrop of the Covid-19
pandemic, causing significant disruption to all sectors of the economy (in particular, Russia
had a long period of non-working days in 2020, when the activities of a number of
industries were halted). The slowdown in production naturally led to a reduction in the
amount of waste produced. Similar effects of the pandemic have been recorded in foreign
studies [7], especially in connection with climate change - one of the important components
of environmental security [8]. In any case, the increase in production and consumption
waste in 2019 compared to 2016 was 16.5%, in 2020, despite the decrease in production -
5.5%. At the same time, in such types of production and consumption as the production of
food, beverages, chemicals, and chemical products, as well as water supply; water disposal,
organisation of waste collection and disposal, pollution elimination activities, the upward
trend of production and consumption waste generation is characterised by consistency and
high rates.
The information provided above clearly demonstrates that environmental problems are
not always adequately addressed. The latter, in turn, should involve government funding of
industrial modernisation with priority given to the use of environmentally neutral or safe
equipment, the establishment of a system of environmental payments taking into account
the risk of environmental damage, and management decisions aimed at preventing harm to
the components of nature and public health. In 2019, environmental protection costs
amounted to 37441.1 million roubles, an increase of 8.4% compared to 2018 – 34546.4
million roubles. In 2019, enterprises belonging to the economic activity "manufacturing"
made the largest contribution to the total amount of running costs - RUB 14986.6 million,
or about 40% of the total. The second place according to this indicator was held by the
enterprises belonging to the type of economic activities "water supply, sewerage,
organization of waste collection and disposal, activities on liquidation of pollution" –
113495.8 million rubles or 30.3% of the total volume. The least expenses were incurred by
types of economic activities "mining and quarrying" – 57036.8 million rubles or 15.2%,
"provision of electric power, gas and steam; air conditioning" – 24581.1 million rubles or
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6.6%, "agriculture, forestry, hunting, fishery and fish farming" – 2339.2 million rubles or
0.6%, "transportation and storage" – 10570.2 million rubles or 2.8% (Fig. 1).
0
0,05
0,1
0,15
0,2
0,25
0,3
0,35
0,4
0,45
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
обрабатывающие производства
водоснабжение, водоотведение,
организация сбора и утилизации отходов,
деятельность по ликвидации загрязнений
добыча полезных ископаемых
обеспечение электроэнергией, газом
и паром; кондиционирование воздуха
сельское, лесное хозяйство, охота,
рыболовство и рыбоводство
транспортировка и хранение
Fig. 1. Total environmental protection expenditures, contribution by sectors of the Russian economy.
In the offered article the attempt is undertaken to estimate the condition of protection of
the ecological interests of a society in interrelation with the given above rather negative
indicators characterizing an ecological situation in Russia, volumes of the anthropogenous
influence on environment and quality of the norms of the operating legislation, directed on
protection of ecological safety. This is of both theoretical and practical interest, since this
issue has not received a detailed understanding in the scientific literature, while the
constitutional right to live in an environmentally safe environment is guaranteed to
everyone. The indicators of the protection of society's environmental interests are
considered on the basis of statistical data, the results of sociological measurements, the
materials of law enforcement practice and legal instruments that exist in various branches
of Russian law. Using the formal-legal method, an attempt is made to assess the
effectiveness of the state's maintenance of environmental security as one of the foundations
of Russia's development strategy and the conservation of natural resources for future
generations.
2 The state of the protection of society's ecological concerns
When analysing the state of protection of society's environmental interests, it is necessary
to pay attention to the fact that on 14 November 2017. Rosstat approved a Comprehensive
System of Statistical Indicators of Environmental Protection of the Russian Federation,
taking into account international recommendations. It takes into account various sources of
information, including data from Rosstat, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the federal
services it coordinates (Rosprirodnadzor, Roshydromet, Rosvodresursy, Rosleskhoz, etc.),
Rospotrebnadzor, the executive authorities authorized to perform legal regulation in the
sphere of transport services provision. In addition, UN and OECD indicators are reflected
in the Integrated Framework. The total number of indicators is 84; they are systematised
according to 12 items: atmospheric air pollution and ozone layer depletion, climate change,
water resources, biodiversity, land resources, agriculture, energy, transport, waste, natural
disasters and catastrophes, environmental offences, environmental funding. However,
records of the number of environmental offences are not fully organised in the Integrated
manufacturing industries
water supply, wastewater disposal,
waste management, pollution
abatement activities
mining and quarrying
electricity, gas and steam supply;
air conditioning
agriculture, forestry, hunting,
fishing and fish farming
transportation and storage
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System: the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs provides information on the status of
environmental crime by type of environmental crime, while Rosreestr provides information
on the number of detected violations of land legislation (actually, the results of
administrative practice). Accordingly, administrative offences in the field of environmental
management are not included in the single array of offences, which somewhat impoverishes
the overall picture of environmental well-being.
The results of environmental monitoring, based on public environmental activity, are
also not reflected in the Comprehensive System of Statistical Indicators of Environmental
Protection in the Russian Federation.
According to sociological surveys, in the modern period, less than 15% of the Russian
population are concerned about environmental degradation, and according to averaged data
for 1998-2020, the proportion of people who are concerned has halved. At the same time,
about 90% of the Russian population do not see any improvement in environmental issues;
more than half of Russians assess the environmental situation negatively. In other words,
the share of negative information in the media is decreasing, but the share of appeals to the
state authorities is increasing (for example, in 2020 the prosecutor's office revealed more
than 282000 violations of environmental legislation, most of them as a result of checking
citizens' appeals), which can be concluded about the crisis in public awareness of
environmental problems [9].
The increase in public activity, strange as it may seem, has accompanied important
environmental protection transformations aimed at improving environmental security. In
2017 the introduction of new systems of production and consumption waste management
began in the Russian regions. The importance of this initiative is hard to dispute: according
to the Accounts Chamber of the Russian Federation, landfill capacity in 17 Russian regions
will be exhausted by 2022, and in another 32 by 2024. But more than 90% of waste is
accumulated on their territories. According to Rosprirodnadzor, when the National Ecology
Project was formed, there were 8323 landfills in the regions, including 916 landfills in
urban districts. At the same time, the federal project "Clean Country" envisages the
elimination and reclamation of only 191 landfills, i.e. more than 700 of them will continue
to be exploited in the future. In this context, social protests took place in 2019-2020,
involving more than 36,000 participants in regions such as Moscow, the Moscow region,
the Arkhangelsk region, the Komi Republic and St. Petersburg. In most cases, the protests
were triggered by the lack of legal assessment of the overconsumption of landfill capacity
and the lack of verification of complaints about possible violations of production and
consumption waste management rules. Although, for example, in the Moscow Oblast
protests resulted in the closure of 24 out of 39 landfills, in the towns near Moscow mass
appeals of citizens for medical care in connection with poisoning by fumes from landfills
were recorded many times (for example, in late March 2018 such complaints were made by
more than 240 residents of Volokolamsk [10], and regional authorities actually admitted
criminalization of "rubbish" business [11], the necessary legal assessment was not given to
this. The negative sentiments of citizens could not find any other explanation except
environmental illiteracy, "swaying" of the situation, "unpatriotism", etc. [12], and proper
procedural actions, through which evidence of crimes could have been identified, were not
carried out. According to the results of the monitoring of publications in the media we can
conclude that the information received from citizens, in more than 90% of cases, contained
data on criminal activity in the field of production and consumption waste handling.
However, none of the reports resulted in the initiation of criminal proceedings and
subsequent investigation.
While the two main sources of assessment of the state of environmental protection are
the information provided by business entities regarding its conditionally permitted
pollution, and the results of field observations selectively carried out by various controlling
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and law enforcement agencies, it is possible to note their potential incompleteness (the
former may be interested in hiding information about the real pollution volumes or, as it
was seen in the "Norilsk Nickel case", not provide it at all, the latter may be interested in
hiding the real pollution volumes or, as it was seen in the "Norilsk Nickel case". Public
outcry may lead to subsequent legal reviews of environmental emergencies. For example,
in February 2021 the Arbitration Court of Krasnoyarsk Region ordered Norilsk-Taimyr
Energy Company (NTEC) to compensate for damage to the environment caused by the
accident at Heat Power Station 3 in Norilsk in May, 2020, in the total amount of 146,177
billion rubles. Criminal cases have been instituted against some officials of CHPP under
Art. 246, 250, 254 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, two of them were
arrested. However, restoration of the ecological balance in the disaster zone will take about
ten years, and during this period the state will allocate substantial budgetary funds for this
purpose. This is a collateral consequence of the irreparable damage potentially caused by
the negative impact on the environment, which destroys the ecological security of society
and the state.
3 Assessment of the law enforcement and judicial system's
effectiveness in protecting the environmental interests of
society
A reliable assessment of the effectiveness of law enforcement and the judiciary in
protecting the environmental interests of society requires the development and subsequent
implementation of a multidimensional strategy based on integrated processing of data on
negative environmental impacts from governmental and independent sources. Financial
support for the implementation of the National Ecology Project involves the allocation of
over RUB 4.1 trillion from 2019 to 2024, while the Accounts Chamber of the Russian
Federation has recorded no information on the actual achievement of 29% of indicators and
no dynamics for more than one third of the indicators. Under these circumstances, a change
in the principles for recording and estimating data on the number of environmental offences
and crimes is justified.
Targeted programmes to prevent the spread of mass non-communicable diseases occupy
an important place in the structure of management decisions and subsequent law
enforcement activity. Thus, in 2019, the level of estimated actual prevented damage to
public health was about 312.8 billion roubles, exceeding the 2018 value by more than 7.3%.
The projected value for 2019 was 2.2% higher than the actual value. The estimated level of
prevented economic damage from mortality, morbidity and disability as a result of actions
and measures for health risk management applied by Rospotrebnadzor in the constituent
entities of the Russian Federation reflects its increase by 2024 by more than 2 times against
2017, which is about RUB 369.0bn annually.
The above data characterize the activities of regulatory bodies and economic entities as
quite effective and confirm their interest in maintaining environmental well-being.
Nevertheless, every year in Russia, environmental disasters of various proportions occur,
whose genesis is a predatory attitude towards nature, the gross negligence of users of
natural resources, or the poor performance of public authorities in terms of prevention of
such situations. For example, in 2020 Russia will witness two environmental disasters (a
fuel spill at a Norilsk nickel plant and a mass extinction of marine fauna in the Kamchatka
region) and a number of smaller-scale disasters (coal dust and smog pollution in the
Krasnoyarsk and Chelyabinsk Regions, and the Kemerovo Region). In 2021 the focus of
public attention was the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) where wildfires spread, destroying
vegetation and threatening the life, health and property of the citizens (as of early July 2021
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more than 300 blazes with uncontrollable spread; in August 2021 smoke from fires reached
not only some Siberian cities, but also the Arctic region).
According to the Russian EMERCOM, in 2020 the main types of emergencies were
man-made, natural and bio-social. Man-made emergencies accounted for 50.5% of the total
number of emergencies, while natural emergencies accounted for 31.4% and biological and
social emergencies for 18.1%. The total material damage from ES in 2020 amounted to 163
778,093 mln rubles of which: technogenic ES - 151 116,791 mln rubles (92,3%); natural ES
- 12 389,434 mln rubles (7,6%); bio-social ES - 271,868 mln rubles (0,2%). However it is
difficult to estimate potential long-term damage (delayed damage caused by the
consequences of emergencies).
In this connection, it becomes necessary to use legal instruments to ensure
compensation for damage caused to natural objects, life and health of citizens.
Depending on whether damage to the environment is caused under legal or illegal use of
natural resources, what parameters it has and what its consequences can be eliminated and
which are unrecoverable, legal protection is covered by the framework of chargeable
natural resource use, administrative or criminal liability. A well-developed system of law
enforcement and supervisory bodies should ideally maintain a protected state of society's
environmental interests.
4 Qualitative analysis of legislation protecting the environmental
interests of society
In the system of sources of legislation to ensure the proper protection of the environmental
interests of society, the constitutional and legal norms enshrined directly in the Basic Law
and in the regulations of various levels of legislation that develop it take precedence.
According to the results of some studies, it can be concluded that this approach is an
established standard in modern times and is used in many countries. Already in 2010 in 142
of the 198 states of the world the acts of constitutional value contained a reference to the
environmental rights, and in 125 such norms had a fundamental significance [13], and the
kind of juridical technique used was recognized as socially useful [14].
Thus, the Preamble to the Constitution of the Russian Federation contains the principle
of responsibility to future generations; it proclaims the need to ensure the welfare and
prosperity of the inhabitants of the country. By virtue of article 7 of the Constitution of the
Russian Federation Russia is a social state, in which the activities of public authorities are
focused on maintaining the welfare of the population. However, it follows from Article 7
(1) of the Russian Constitution that State policy is directed towards the creation of
conditions that ensure a decent life and the free development of the individual. This
provision is fully consistent with the international legal tradition according to which it is
impossible to realize human rights separately from the state's provision for ecological well-
being. The essence of the social state is interpreted in the legal doctrine rather narrowly,
based on the recognition of the importance of developing legal instruments that guarantee
the implementation of labor, pension and other social rights of citizens [15]. However, in
the context of the obligation of the state to create conditions for a decent life of the
population, environmental protection measures, environmental improvement, control over
the activities of economic entities that can cause damage to natural components, quite
logically appear to be an integral part of social policy. Moreover, as in many countries
around the world, the environmental agenda in Russia serves as a means of social
consolidation.
With its qualitative, informational and compensatory components, the provisions of
Article 42 of the Russian Constitution take on the appearance of a fundamental
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constitutional value. It is not absolutised by the Constitutional Court of the Russian
Federation (it recognises only the universality of duties in terms of nature protection, e.g. in
Ruling No. 5-P of 5 March 2013), so scientific views on its absolute nature [16] seem to be
disputable. For example, the informational component may be narrowed in connection with
the implementation of state decisions aimed at increasing the state defense capability;
uniform qualitative parameters of the environment are actually an ideal construction; the
presumption of damage compensation in the constitutional norm is not disclosed by means
of specific binding norms. It is quite interesting to recognize article 42 of the Constitution
of the Russian Federation as a normative model that characterizes the modern features of
ensuring the environmental well-being of people in the context of globalization [17].
Developing this thesis we can pay attention to the following.
Art. 7, 42, 58 and 75.1 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation can be considered
as the constructive parameters determining the configuration of the protection of the
ecological interests of the society. To a certain extent they are reflected in federal laws and
some strategic documents. Between 1999 and 2021 the constitutional review body referred
to the provisions of the Russian Constitution that supported the protection of the public's
environmental interests 34 times, but in more than 90% of cases it did not address the
merits of constitutional claims, refusing to accept them for consideration.
Article 114 of the Russian Constitution holds a special place among the constitutional
provisions protecting environmental interests of society. It obliges the Russian government
to take measures for the conservation of natural wealth and biodiversity. This duty is
organically linked to Article 9 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, which
recognises natural resources as the basis of human life and activity. P. e5 of Part 1 of
Article 114 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation is a regulatory prerequisite for
establishing a system of state bodies responsible for controlling activities of economic
entities which may have a negative impact on the environment.
Of the provisions of federal legislation, it is relevant to mention Federal Law No. 52-FZ
of 30 March 1999 "On Sanitary and Epidemiological Welfare of the Population". Its
regulatory role increased significantly during the Covid-19 pandemic and it can be
perceived as an additional instrument detailing constitutional provisions (including Articles
42, 58 of the Russian Constitution).
Among the strategic acts, it is logical to cite as an example the Environmental Security
Strategy of the Russian Federation for the period until 2025, approved by Presidential
Decree No 176 of 19 April 2017, which states that up to 15% of the state's territory is
characterised by environmental disadvantage, and proposes a number of solutions to this
problem at municipal, regional and federal levels. Challenges and threats to environmental
security can have different origins (be a consequence of a man-made disaster or unfriendly
activities of foreign states, arise in connection with the accidental coincidence of
circumstances, have a natural origin). The strategy sets an important task of liquidation of
accumulated environmental damage, which can also be considered as an additional
guarantee of implementation of the constitutional right, stipulated by Article 42 of the
Constitution of the Russian Federation.
Summing up the intermediate result, we can conclude that constitutional-legal
prescriptions and normative-legal acts developing them are balanced between each other
and create conditions for imposing various kinds of responsibility on persons who have
committed environmental offences and crimes.
The next set of normative sources is united within the branch of environmental
legislation. In Russia it was isolated only in the post-Soviet period; at the same time the
scientific discussion about the place of environmental law in the national legal system
ended with the statement of its independent dominant role in the legal regulation of social
relations associated with the use of natural resources [18]. Environmental legislation
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establishes a general list of harmful actions of physical and legal persons, as a result of
which may be caused damage to the environment. This list can be adapted to different types
of liability, which depends on the amount of damage caused and the scale of costs to
eliminate its consequences. Article 77 of the Federal Law "On environmental protection"
contains a presumption of full compensation for damage to the environment, establishing a
corresponding obligation. The sources from which compensation may be made do not
include state expenditures; however, in fact, financing of restoration of the protected state
of the environment from the federal budget is necessary, as compensation from the property
of the person causing the damage may not be sufficient.
The structure of socially unacceptable activities causing damage to components of
nature is reflected in Article 77 of the Federal Law "On Environmental Protection" as
follows:
- pollution;
- depletion;;
- deterioration;
- unsustainable use of natural resources;
- degradation and destruction of natural ecological systems, natural complexes and
natural landscapes;
- other violations of environmental legislation.
The given list has a serious defect: most of the terms have a similar meaning, which
makes it difficult to impose legal liability on the offender.
To the maximum extent the incompleteness in disclosure of legal characteristics of
environmental offences is compensated by the legal positions of the Plenum of the Supreme
Court of the Russian Federation, which addressed environmental problems more than 50
times and formulated about 150 explanations, used by law enforcers in qualification of
environmental offences and crimes. This situation was made possible by the considerable
complexity of environmental legislation and its complex nature. The legal positions of
courts are not a source of law in Russia, but serve as a certain standard used in qualifying
crimes and other offences. At the same time, when interpreting legal provisions, the Plenum
of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation resorts to an open list approach, i.e. cites
specific situations forming the objective side of a deed, but leaves it to the discretion of law
enforcers the cases similar in a number of features to those given in the list (for example,
the category of other grave consequences in the crime provided for by Article 246 of the
Criminal Code is revealed in paragraph 5 of the Plenum Resolution of the Supreme Court
of the Russian Federation of October 18, 2012 № 21).
The provisions of the legislation on administrative offences are effective tools to
maintain the protection of environmental interests of society. Scientists rightly argue that in
Russia unlawful encroachments on public relations in the field of environmental protection
and nature management in most cases are recognized as administrative offences [19].
Administrative offences encroaching on the established order of nature management and
environmental interests of society constitute a significant array of illegal acts committed in
the implementation of economic and other anthropogenic activities.
In total, the CAO RF contains a description of more than one hundred administrative
offences involving violations of the rules of nature management or environmental
protection. Turning to Chapter 8 of the CAO RF as the foundation on which the
administrative-legal protection of environmental interests of society is based, it can be
noted that it includes 61 independent articles, many of which include the legal
characteristics of compositions of several offences, united by the similarity of the
infringement object. The list of administratively punishable environmental offences is quite
broad: in addition to Chapter 8 of the CAO RF, some related compositions are also found in
its other chapters (for example, articles. 7.3, 7.6 of the CAO RF - offences in the field of
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property protection; Art. 19.4, 19.4.1 of the CAO RF - offences against the order of
administration). It appears that in such cases, public relations in the field of nature
management serve as an additional object of administrative offence. The presence of a
significant number of administrative-legal prohibitions provides a protected state of
environmental interests of society. In many cases, administrative practice becomes a
criterion for subsequent approbation of criminal-law norms that establish responsibility for
environmental crimes.
There is an intrinsic relation between the norms of administrative and criminal law, by
virtue of which criminal liability may arise when the public danger of an act increases. It is
also important that fines levied administratively on legal entities for committing
environmental offences and fines established as the main punishment for environmental
crimes are significantly different. For example, Article 8.2 of the CAO RF and Article 247
of the RF Criminal Code have similarities in the description of the prohibited act (violation
of the rules for handling production and consumption waste). For comparison, the fine
established by part 1 of Article 247 of the Criminal Code of the RF as the main punishment
is 200 thousand rubles. The maximum similar to this norm of part. 3 of Article 8.2 of the
CAO RF provides for a fine in respect of a legal entity in the amount of up to 500 thousand
roubles.
Socially dangerous encroachments on ecological interests of the society are dispersed in
several sections of the criminal law, have a complex structure and specificity of types,
conditioned by the variety of forms of nature management, which require criminal law
protection.
First of all, it is necessary to highlight the criminal law prohibitions contained in
Chapter 26 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, which characterize the majority
of socially dangerous encroachments committed while carrying out legal or illegal use of
natural resources. In addition, criminal legislation establishes liability for ecocide (a
particularly dangerous crime against the peace and security of mankind). The order of legal
regulation of criminal liability in terms of its differentiation according to the generic object
underwent some changes in 2014, when Article 191.1 was added to the criminal law, which
criminalised illegal trafficking in timber. This was an important legislative decision, since
the environmental crime of "illegal logging" does not fully characterize illegal forest
management [20]. Concerning the combined application of these norms we have obtained
interesting criminological data (including those that have established coinciding territorial
dynamics of the prevalence of crimes under articles. 191.1, 260 of the Criminal Code of the
RF [21]). Illegal timber trafficking refers to crimes in the sphere of economic activity,
encroaches on the normal order of forest management, which constitutes a significant part
of the budget system revenues (49% of the territory of Russia is covered with forests,
commercial forest management is quite demanded as a type of business activity). At the
same time illegal exploitation of forests creates a threat to the environment (valuable
species of wood are cut down, technologies are used that are known to cause damage,
neighbouring areas are damaged, and to conceal traces of crime the cut areas may be set on
fire). In addition, competitive relations are violated, the interests of legal forest users are
harmed, and the budget system receives less tax revenue.
Environmental interests of the society are criminally protected in three chapters of the
Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, characterizing different generic and species
objects. This approach seems fair, but requires some expansion and justification of the
system of environmental crimes, many of which are beyond the provisions of the Chapter
26 of the Criminal Code.
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5 Conclusions
The ecological situation is always an object of heightened public interest, so detailed
information about its condition should be an essential part of the activities of authorities at
all levels. Departing from this requirement violates the ecological interests of society.
A multifaceted legal mechanism is therefore a justified step in order to keep the public's
ecological interests protected. This mechanism has a mixed legal nature and includes
environmental-legal, administrative-legal, and criminal-legal instruments. Their effective
combination guarantees the environmental welfare of the population, a relatively stable
protected state of the environment from harmful anthropogenic impacts, and the good faith
of economic entities in carrying out economic activities.
Legal protection of the environmental interests of society has become complex, on the
basis of which the following legal regimes can be distinguished.
- basic, containing the basic rights and obligations characterising the spectrum of
environmental interests of society;
- standard, describing permitted forms of natural resource use, taking into account
restrictions dictated by the potential negative impact of anthropogenic activities on the
environment;
- administrative-legal, describing consequences of environmental damage in the absence
of signs of crime;
- criminal and legal, providing liability for committing socially dangerous
encroachments in the sphere of nature management;
- control and supervisory, reflecting the totality of powers of state bodies and their
officials in terms of ensuring compliance with the requirements of current legislation on
permissible environmental impact in the implementation of economic and other
anthropogenic activities.
The diversity of legal regimes is due to the fact that the environmental interests of
society have a complex and complex structure that requires the establishment of extensive
legal regulation.
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