ISSUES OF DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN EXTORTION, VIOLENT ROBBERY, AND DANGEROUS ROBBERY: PROBLEMS OF QUALIFICATION
A currently topical problem for criminal law doctrine and law enforcement agencies, namely, that of distinguishing between such legally similar violent encroachments on property as extortion, violent robbery, and dangerous robbery is analysed in the paper. A need to investigate the problem is justified, in the opinion of the author, by existing differences in the positions of courts in qualifying the actions of the perpetrators of the said criminal encroachments. The author gives a special attention to the “future” nature of extortion as the main criterion for differentiating it from violent robbery and dangerous robbery. It is this distinguishing feature that is contained in the recommendations of the Plenum of the Supreme Court in Resolution No. 56 of the 17th of December 2015 “On Judicial Practice in Extortion Cases (Article 163 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation)”. The author also draws attention to other distinguishing features of these violent encroachments on property, describes the attitude of the doctrine to them as well as their implementation by courts of general jurisdiction. After having investigated the doctrinal understanding of the problem mentioned in the paper as well as the complexity of its law enforcement the author makes a conclusion for this article as a whole pursuing the goal of a uniform understanding and application of the law.