Criminal Code establishes the fundamental principles and framework of criminal law. It defines the objectives of criminal legislation as the protection of individuals, society, and the state, as well as the prevention of crimes. The Code is based on key legal principles such as legality, equality before the law, justice, and humanism. It outlines the general conditions of criminal liability, including age and mental capacity, forms of guilt (intent and negligence), and the classification of crimes by severity.
The General Part of the Code sets out the system of punishments and the rules for their application. Sanctions include fines, deprivation of certain rights, compulsory or corrective labor, restriction or deprivation of liberty, and life imprisonment. It also regulates mitigating and aggravating circumstances, recidivism, complicity, and stages of criminal activity (preparation and attempt). The Code provides for circumstances that exclude criminal liability, such as necessary defense or extreme necessity, and includes provisions on exemption from punishment, parole, and special measures for juveniles and persons requiring medical treatment.
The Special Part contains detailed definitions of specific offenses and their corresponding penalties. These include crimes against the person, property crimes, offenses against state security, economic crimes, environmental violations, and offenses against public administration and justice. Each category specifies qualifying elements, aggravating factors, and sanction ranges. The Code also includes interpretative provisions to ensure consistent application of legal terms and concepts.
This Criminal Code punishes the following criminal offences: (a) violation of the right to work, knowingly illegal dismissal from work, use of minors in work that may cause harm to their health, safety or morals; (b) violation of veterinary, veterinary-sanitary rules and regulations, resulting in the spread of epidemic diseases of animals or birds (epizootics), their mass death or other serious consequences, violation of sanitary legislation or rules for combating epidemics; (c) violation of the conditions for the use of waters; (d) violation of the conditions for the use of lands, subsoil or requirements for their protection, failure to take measures to prevent the unauthorized seizure (expropriation) of irrigated lands, unauthorized seizure (expropriation) of land plots, including the use of land plots without legal rights to them, violation of the procedure for the provision of land, illegal seizure (expropriation) of a land plot, sale or other illegal alienation (expropriation) of the right to an irrigated land plot or part thereof; (e) violation of the rules of hunting or harvesting of other wild flora species, violation of the established procedure or conditions for harvesting rare and endangered species of animals or collecting or procuring wild species of medicinal, alimentary and ornamental plants, as well as the procedure for using animals or plants in protected natural areas, causing significant damage, cruelty to animals; (f) illegal fisheries, including the use of prohibited fishing gear and prohibited fishing methods; (g) cultivation, that is, the illegal sowing or growing of opium or oil poppy, cannabis plants or other plants containing narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances, illegal production or trafficking of products obtained from cotton seeds, damaging or destruction of crops, violation of rules for combating weeds; (h) damage or destruction of forests, trees or other plants; (i) violation of environmental security standards and requirements, deliberate concealment or distortion of information about environmental pollution, failure to take measures to eliminate the consequences of environmental pollution, pollution or damage to land, pollution of water or atmospheric air, resulting in mass illness of people, death of animals, birds or fishes, or other serious consequences; and (j) illegal use of another's trademark, service mark, geographical indication, name of place of origin of goods, illegal circulation or production of ethyl alcohol and liquors.