Criminal liability for illegal trafficking of methanol under the guise of alcoholic beverages

The problem of mortality from poisoning by surrogate alcohol has acquired huge proportions in recent years. The legislative initiative to establish criminal liability for the illegal trafficking of methyl alcohol (methanol), methanol-containing liquids under the guise of alcoholic beverages was supported by the Supreme Court of Russia and in May 2023 introduced Article 234² of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.

The purpose of the study is to predict the prospects for the implementation of Article 234² of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in practice.

The work uses general scientific and private scientific research methods. Based on the analysis of the implementation of related criminal law torts, the rules of competition with Article 234² of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation are determined. By means of the modeling method, it became possible to identify "bottlenecks" in the establishment of subjective and objective signs of the considered corpus delicti. The method of legal forecasting made it possible to formulate scientifically sound prospects for the implementation of the novel.

As a result, technical and legal errors of the novel were revealed, such as an excessive indication of "illegality" in relation to the use of methanol in food products; intentional sale of methanol as alcoholic beverages and causing serious harm to the health or death of the victim by negligence. The subjective and objective signs of this corpus delicti have been determined. It is suggested that art. 234²of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation will be a kind of "frightening" criminal law mechanism without the possibility of its implementation in practice due to the lack of control and supervisory measures in the production of methanol and the design features of the subjective side – intent to sell alcoholic beverages containing methanol.

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