Fines for economic crimes will be sharply increased in Russia.
The draft of the corresponding amendments to the Criminal Code has already been approved by the government commission on legislative activity, Vedomosti reports. The changes will affect dozens of articles, from fraud to tax evasion.
“The fines established in the current articles have lost their incentive effect,” — the explanatory note states. According to the amendments' authors, increasing fines will help more effectively prevent crimes and provide additional funding to the federal budget.
So, copyright infringement will become more expensive 200 thousands up to thousands up to 1 million rubles, causing particularly large-scale damage - with 500 thousands until 2,5 million. The fine for fraud will be from 150 until 500 thousands (now - from 120 и 300 thousand), and tax evasion - from 500 thousand to 1,5 million rubles instead of the current ones 200 until 500 thousand.
According to the Chairman of the Board of the Association of Lawyers of Russia Vladimir Gruzdev, This is done taking into account inflation to ensure that the punishment is commensurate with the real cost of the damage caused.
At the same time, a number of experts disagree with the sharp increase in fines and point out that any indexation only makes sense with a systematic review of all sanctions simultaneously; otherwise, the legislation remains illogical and selective.
"It's like the Soviet joke about a traffic cop: 'My family can't wait for you to break traffic rules.'" "What happened, I wonder? What's the context for the shortage? With trillions being spent on war every year? No, Russians have probably just gotten too greedy." "Small business support in Russia is in full swing." — social media users react to the news.
Earlier, the Russian Ministry of Finance increased the expected budget deficit for 2025 from 1,17 trillion rubles until 3,79 trillion Total expenses will be 42,3 trillion rubles - this is on 829 billion more than planned when preparing the budget.
NeMoskva reported that they plan to compensate for the deficit not only through a sharp increase in fines, but also through higher regional taxes.
