Regulating Liability for Crimes Against Monetary Systems in the Context of Digitalized Economic Relations

A monetary system is a historically established model of organized monetary circulation that includes the national monetary unit (legal tender), the types of banknotes, and the order of their issue and circulation. This model is normatively fixed, since it is a core component of the national economy. At the same time, the security of a monetary system is a primary strategic goal in the economy of a nation. The achievement of such a goal is possible by solving specific tasks related, inter alia, to the prevention of criminal actions in the analyzed area.

As key elements of crimes against the monetary system, national criminal legislation should highlight property obtained by criminal means, including laundering of funds (Articles 174 and 1741 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), counterfeiting (Article 186), and the illegal turnover of payment funds (Article 187). Given the dynamics of changes taking place in society and the state, the structures of criminal elements are likewise subject to transformation, especially with regard to the development of digital financial technologies.

The legal vacuum of the new sphere of public relations, its subordination to algorithms and programs on the one hand, and the blank nature of these norms of criminal law, on the other, as well as the imperfections of procedural mechanisms focused on regulating “analog” public relations, as opposed to digital, on the other, form barriers to legal influence. This article is devoted to the analysis of these and other problems of the legislative regulation of crimes that encroach upon the monetary system via digital economic relations.