The presidential administration has prepared a package of anti-corruption measures, among which it is proposed to introduce a fine multiple of the bribe. Fines imposed under four articles of the Criminal Code vary from 10 to 100 times the bribe itself. The upper limit of a possible fine is 300 million rubles. As is known, not all corruption is expressed in monetary terms. How will bribes in the form of any material objects and non-material corruption be fined?

Elena Panfilova, Director of the Russian branch of the Center for Anti-Corruption Research and Initiatives at Transparency International:

The introduction of fines for bribes can be called a camouflaged confiscation. Often, those who take them immediately register the acquired property in the name of their wife, son, etc. Accordingly, according to the documents, our corrupt officials are as poor as church mice, and according to current laws, there is practically nothing to confiscate from them, and it is pointless to imprison them - they sit their parole terms and rub their hands, knowing that their property awaits them in freedom, untouched. The fine is in no way connected with who the property is registered to, the fine is imposed based on the fact of the crime. This package of anti-corruption measures, in my opinion, is aimed primarily at the average and above average levels of corruption. It has two main goals - to intimidate and somehow financially punish criminals.

But not every bribe can be easily valued in money: for example, an appointment to a position, a government order, placing a child in a university, and much more. I talked about this with our president - he is inclined to consider both material and non-material gifts as bribes. He does not differentiate between them and believes that everything can be reduced to a monetary denominator, even if the bribe itself does not have this rustling component. In principle, any material object can be converted into a monetary equivalent, but here a trail of questions immediately follows - who will evaluate, how will they evaluate this car or house, with which the bribe was given.

Meanwhile, the problem with this package is buried deeper and lies in the enforcement of these measures. Firstly, there are forks here, and everyone will try to agree to bring the punishment closer to the lower limit. Secondly, our corrupt officials fight to the death during the investigation. And if the crime is reclassified from corruption to fraud or abuse of power, it will no longer be possible to impose a fine. Thirdly, we talk a lot about corruption in the Ministry of Internal Affairs itself, in the courts, but at the same time we introduce new sanctions. This idea will not start ruining corrupt officials tomorrow, one idea is not enough. We need to change the system itself so that these measures operate everywhere. For now, they can work chaotically in relation to particularly high-profile cases. And so this package of measures is for growth.

Georgy Satarov, President of the Foundation for Applied Political Research “Indem” (“Informatics for Democracy”):

This package of anti-corruption measures is an imitation of the fight against corruption. There is a banal legal truth - the level of crime is affected not by the measure of punishment, but by its inevitability. No matter what laws we adopt, the problem is that they are not implemented.

Introducing fines is an effort in the wrong direction. The main thing is to combat the conditions that give rise to corruption. According to statistics, about 70 million corrupt transactions are made in Russia every year, of which several thousand end up in court. The likelihood of punishment for corruption, and therefore a fine, is negligible. It is unrealistic to scare corrupt officials.

Moreover, not all types of corruption are limited to bribes. There is a concept of political corruption, which, as specific examples, includes the illegal use of authority and official position to strengthen one's own power or obtain material benefits.

Kirill Kabanov, Chairman of the National Anti-Corruption Committee:

These changes to the law are extremely important - this is a systemic continuation of what the president spoke about in the summer. The legal basis for the fight against corruption is being formed.

But here we need to distinguish between two things - the fight against corruption and the fight against corrupt officials. Laws are not enough to fight corrupt officials; large-scale changes are needed: the emergence of political competition and a change in public consciousness. An infantile society will continue to be governed by bureaucracy - or more precisely, cryptocracy, the so-called internal bureaucracy, which now has great influence in our society.

A fine multiple of bribes is being introduced to combat low-level corruption. Not bribes taken by doctors and teachers, but those cases that can lead to very negative consequences in the future. For example, 500 rubles to a traffic police officer on the road can cause an accident in which people are hurt, 1000 rubles to a fire inspector can lead to a weakening of vigilance and new fires.

The definition of corruption is obtaining benefits in material and non-material forms. It is extremely important to separate responsibility for material and non-material corruption. The stipulated fines concern corruption in material form. But there is no procedure for bearing responsibility for corruption in non-material form in our laws. Not yet, let's hope. Responsibility for non-material corruption should be different depending on the consequences - from dismissal to imprisonment.

In this regard, it is very important to ratify paragraph 20 of the UN Convention against Corruption [which introduces the concept of "illicit enrichment"]. Our country has so far ratified the international document without this paragraph. So for us, this convention is like a show cat - it seems beautiful, but it is neutered. Recently, the communists Kulikov and Gudkov tried to carry out this project, but failed. I advised them to say next time that everyone who is against paragraph 20 is an intermediary in corruption.

How to fine for non-monetary bribes?