Peculiarities of countering legalization of criminal income with the help of virtual assets: legislative regulation and practical implementation

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to define and characterize peculiarities of countering the legalization of criminal income with the help of virtual assets. Design/methodology/approach The analysis of the legislative delineation and the realities of the practical implementation of the features of combating the legalization of criminal proceeds with the help of virtual assets in Ukraine was carried out with the help of general scientific methods of cognition. The systematic method helped identify the main ways to legalize criminal proceeds with the help of virtual assets. Using legal techniques, proposals will be formulated to amend draft legislation on legislative regulation of the concept of “virtual assets”. The generalization method was used to develop ways to combat the legalization of criminal proceeds with the help of virtual assets. The method of legal forecasting was used to substantiate the proposed areas of combating money laundering with the help of virtual assets. The method of extrapolation will be used to determine the possibility of implementing foreign experience in domestic practice to combat money laundering with the help of virtual assets. Findings One of the relatively new and increasingly popular ways of money laundering is to commit this act with the help of virtual assets. Methods of money laundering through virtual assets include services for the conversion of virtual assets, P2P exchange, gambling sites, virtual asset mixers and the use of fictitious internet sites selling digital goods. The difficulty of counteracting the legalization of criminal proceeds with the help of virtual assets is primarily due to the lack of legislative regulation of the concept of “virtual assets” in Ukraine. Yes, the draft law is currently being finalized. Besides, even the current edition is not evaluated by the authors as perfect. After all, the issue of the content of the concept of “virtual assets” and its relationship with virtual securities, cryptocurrency and virtual property remains unresolved. Originality/value One of the relatively new and increasingly popular ways of money laundering is to commit this act with the help of virtual assets. Methods of money laundering through virtual assets include services for the conversion of virtual assets, P2P exchange, gambling sites, virtual asset mixers and the use of fictitious internet sites selling digital goods. It is essential to intensify financial monitoring by financial control bodies over the activities of conversion service centers. Moreover, given the transnational nature of legalizing criminal proceeds, especially those committed through virtual assets, international cooperation in combating this crime is vital. The authors have proposed specific measures to ensure that a coherent consolidation of efforts can be built.

Legal problems of use of compulsory psychiatric treatment in Russia and Belarus

The subject of the research is the problems of legislative regulation of compulsory psychiatric measures in the criminal legislation of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation.The purpose of the article is to confirm or refute the hypothesis that there are defects in legislative regulation that prevent the effective use of compulsory psychiatric treatment. They are not eliminated in the Criminal Codes of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus. Research methodology. On the basis of a system-integrated approach on an interdisciplinary basis, a scientific analysis of special legal and forensic psychiatric scientific literature and interpretation of the criminal legislation of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation were carried out.Main results. An analysis of the Criminal Codes of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation showed that compulsory psychiatric treatment is an independent institution of criminal law, which is regulated in sufficient detail in the national criminal legislation. The article includes a comparative legal analysis of the norms of the criminal legislation of both states (Chapter 14 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus and Chapter 15 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) that regulate psychiatric coercive measures applied to persons with mental disorders who have committed illegal acts. Based on the results of the study, a number of problems were identified in the legislative regulation of psychiatric compulsory measures in the criminal codes of both states, the authors propose directions for further improvement of the current criminal legislation.Conclusions. The Criminal Codes of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation contain only general criteria for choosing the type of psychiatric measures of a coercive nature, in the most general form, the procedure for their change and termination is provided, they need editorial clarification of their purpose. There is no legislative definition of the concepts of “coercive security measures and treatment” (Chapter 14 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus) and “compulsory measures of a medical nature” (Chapter 15 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), etc., which causes serious difficulties in law enforcement practice and indicates the need to continue work to improve the current criminal legislation.The terminology used “coercive and security measures and treatment” (Chapter 14 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus) and “coercive measures of a medical nature” (Chapter 15 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) does not reflect the specifics of these measures, which in their essence and content are exclusively psychiatric measures. The identified problems of legislative regulation of psychiatric compulsory measures in the criminal legislation of both states require their further resolution, and based on the interdisciplinary medico-legal nature of the problems involved, with the obligatory involvement of forensic psychiatrists in their solution.

Inequality of children’s opportunities in extracurricular education in post-Soviet countries

The article considers the problem of inequality of opportunities for children’s participation in extracurricular education in the countries of the former Soviet Union. The differences in the general coverage of extracurricular education and the peculiarities of participation due to the territory of children’s residence (urban and rural) are presented and analysed. There is also a discussion of the trends and causes of changes in extracurricular education’s availability in the post-Soviet period. The article analyses the legislative regulation of the issues of extracurricular education’s accessibility and the content of national policies to ensure the fair and inclusive nature of extracurricular education. An attempt is made to correlate the level of institutionalisation of national regulation of extracurricular education with the participation rate. The article is based on quantitative and qualitative data collected during a two-year study of the institutional transformation of the extracurricular education sector in the countries of the former Soviet Union.

The current threatening trends in the use of Telegram channels to the damage of state interests

The principles, conditions and features of Telegram messenger operation are revealed. The state interests in the information sphere in the conditions of spreading of social Internet services and Telegram channels are defined. The tendencies of using anonymous messengers, especially pro-Russian Telegram channels, are outlined. Ukraine’s rating of resilience to Russian misinformation has been determined. The possibilities of Telegram channels for manipulating public opinion and spreading misinformation are detailed. Threats of the functioning of anonymous Telegram channels in Ukraine have been identified. The state’s achievements in blocking banned content are highlighted. The directions of the improvement of the level of media literacy and digital awareness of the population are summarized. The necessity of legislative regulation of the Telegram channel activity in Ukraine is substantiated.

Legislative regulation of publishing in Ukraine

Keywords: creative industries, publishing, book publishing, copyright, IP rights,copyright infringement, IP legislation Publishing is animportant element for the development of many areas of human activity. The impactof publishing on culture, education and tourism in any country cannot be underestimated.Publishing is of great importance for the development of literature, both withinone country and in the world as a whole.Today, publishing faces many challenges, including piracy, the difficulty of distributingdigital copies of literary works and insufficient funding, along with a relativelylow interest in legal publications. However, publishing is defined in Ukraine as a creativeindustry and now the state's position on strengthening publishing as an industryin Ukraine is becoming more active. That is why the issues of legislative regulationof activities in this area, as well as its connection with intellectual propertyrights, are relevant. The creation of the list of economic activities that belong to the creative industries in Ukraine indicates the government's intention to graduallytransfer Ukraine's economy to a more modern model, where industries related to thecreative industries are of the greatest importance for the economy and the developmentof the state as a whole.The article is devoted to the issue of publishing legislative regulation in Ukraine.The author analyses the most important laws in this area, considering publishing primarilyas a creative industry. The state policy in this sphere is considered, which isdirected first on development of publishing and on support of publishing the Ukrainian-language editions.The author points out the existence of certain differences in the legislative regulationof book publishing and publishing of the periodicals in Ukraine.The article considers the data of the Ukrainian Book Institute on the current stateof publishing in Ukraine. According to these data, one of the biggest problems in thepublishing is the significant number of copyright infringements and IP rights infringementsin general.Given the high rate of copyright infringement and IP rights in general in the publishing,it is necessary to review the mechanism of influence on combating them, aswell as increase liability for such infringements.

Grounds and methods of systematization of legislation of Ukraine in the field of intellectual property

Keywords: intellectual property law; systematization of legislation, codification,copyright, industrial property law The article is sanctified to researchof the modern state of the legislative regulation of intellectual property relations inUkraine and the ways of its improvement in the direction of systematizing the relevantlegislation. Scientific approaches to determining the place of intellectual propertylaw in the legal system of Ukraine are considered. It is shown that now in Ukrainethere is a unique model of legislative regulation of these relations, which includes 3levels: the Civil Code of Ukraine, the Economic Code of Ukraine, special laws regulatingthe protection of rights to inventions, utility models, industrial designs, trademarks,and other objects. Such division of legislative acts is based on different volumeand subject of regulation of legislative acts. As a result of undertaken a study andtaking into account foreign experience two alternative ways of codification of legislationare certain in the field of intellectual property: within the limits of operating theCivil code of Ukraine and Economic code of Ukraine taking into account the differentiationof the subjects of its regulation, or in the direction of individual codifications ofcopyright and industrial property law as institutions intellectual property law. It issubstantiated that the second way has significant advantages over the unified (general)settlement of relations in the field of spiritual and scientific and technical creativitysince it takes into account the essential specifics of these two components of intellectualproperty law, which is due to the difference in the subjects of their regulation.Guidelines for choosing the appropriate direction of codification are proposed.

THE TOPICAL ISSUES OF LEGISLATIVE REGULATION OF CRIMINAL OFFENSES AGAINST SEXUAL FREEDOM AND PERSONAL INVIOLABILITY

The article is devoted to the study of topical issues of legislative regulation of criminal offenses against sexual freedom and sexual integrity of the person, provided for Articles 152–1561 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. In the process of research the author identified a number of shortcomings and gaps in their legislative regulation, namely: 1) contradictions in terms of «the child» (the Criminal Code does not specify which age group is included in this concept), «the minor» (a person aged 14 to 18 under Article 32 of the Civil Code of Ukraine) and «the person under 16 years of age». These contradictions arise between the content of the dispositions and the titles of Articles 156 «Corruption of minors» and 1561 «Solicitation of children for sexual purposes» of the Criminal Code of Ukraine; 2) it lack of legislative concretization of the concept of «indecent assault» in Art. 156 «Corruption of minors»; 3) dualism and competition of legal norms in the application of Part 4 of Art. 152 «Rape» and Art. 155 «Committing acts of a sexual nature with a person under the age of sixteen», associated with the presence in both articles of the possibility of «voluntary consent» of «the person under 14 years of age» to commit sexual intercourse; 4) clarification of the possibility of practical application of Art. 1561 «Sexual harassment of a child». The author proposed the following changes and additions to the provisions of the Criminal Code of Ukraine to eliminate these shortcomings: 1) to formulate the name of Art. 156 as «Corruption of a person under the age of sixteen» and Art. 1561 as «Solicitation for sexual purposes of a person under the age of sixteen»; 2) to define the concept of «lecherous acts» in Art. 156 «Corruption of minors», for example, as «acts related to the physical and/or intellectual depravity of the victim in the sexual sphere», including those related to «exposure or touching the genitals, incitement to natural and unnatural sexual intercourse, conducting cynical conversations on sexual topics»; 3) to exclude from the text of the disposition part 4 of Art. 152 the concept of «voluntary consent» and supplement Art. 155 by the part 3, that provides the next: «The acts provided in part one of this article, committed against a person under the age of fourteen, – will be punishable by imprisonment for a term of ten to fifteen years». It is the presence of legible, consistent and justified criminal law norms in criminal offenses against sexual freedom and integrity of the person will ensure reliable legal protection of moral values of the child and society in Ukraine and proper implementation of criminal law policy of the Ukrainian state.

From “Troll Factories” to “Littering the Information Space”: Control Strategies Over the Russian Internet

This article explores aspects, transformations, and dynamics of the ideological control of the internet in Russia. It analyses the strategies of actors across the Russian online space which contribute to this state-driven ideological control. The tightening of legislative regulation over the last 10 years to control social media and digital self-expression in Russia is relatively well studied. However, there is a lack of research on how the control of the internet works at a structural level. Namely, how it isolates “echo chambers” of oppositional discourses while also creating a massive flood of pro-state information and opinions. This article argues that the strategy of the Russian state to control the internet over the last 10 years has changed considerably. From creating troll factories and bots to distort communication in social media, the state is progressively moving towards a strategy of creating a huge state-oriented information flood to “litter” online space. Such a strategy relies on the generation of news resources which attract large volumes of traffic, which leads to such “trash information” dominating the internet.