A Crime Organizer in the General Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and Special Rules on Complicity of the Special Part
A paper provides a comprehensive study of the role of the organizer in crimes without compulsory complicity and in crimes prohibited by special provisions on complicity of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Under the special rules on complicity in this work we understand two types of norms of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation: 1) rules establishing responsibility for combining several persons into a criminal group - Art. 209, 210 and others; 2) establishing responsibility for instigators, organizers, accomplices and other accomplices directly in the Special Part of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - Art. 205.1, etc.). The paper considers the issues of distinguishing the role of the organizer from the role of the instigator to the commission of a crime and an accomplice in the commission of a crime. In judicial practice, errors are often encountered both in the form of excessive (when the instigator is recognized as the organizer) and in the form of insufficient qualifications (when the organizer is recognized only as an instigator or accomplice). Such a variant of over-qualification is also possible, when the organizer is recognized as both an accomplice and an instigator to committing a crime, although the role of the organizer should absorb these functions. The paper considers the issues of qualification of the actions of the organizer and other accomplices of the crime, when, in the process of directing the commission of the crime, the organizer changes the direction of the actions of the accomplices in comparison with the original plan of action. The Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in some decisions recommends not to take into account the role of the organizer when committing a crime as part of an organized group (to recognize him as a co-executor of the crime). In the educational literature, this is considered as a universal rule for qualifying crimes committed by an organized group. The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation does not provide grounds for such a qualification. In judicial practice, there is no uniformity on this issue. The role of the organizer in crimes without obligatory complicity distinguishes from the role of the organizer in organized groups and criminal communities (special rules on complicity) in that in the first situation the organizer is subject to responsibility only if preparations for a specific crime are started, and in the second situation, regardless of the crime preparation commencement, but from the moment the corresponding organized group or criminal community was created.