With reference to the court cases of teachers being prosecuted for bribetaking

Objective: Review of current laws and past court cases in order to conclude on the matter - if the event of taking money by a teacher from the students for exam and test marks without actually passing those constitute elements of a crime. Methodology: The comparative and technical law methods were used. Results: The research revealed that law enforcement authorities and courts have no uniform legal treatment of the facts of teachers’ giving good marks to the students in return for money without actual assessment of their knowledge and proficiency. The author’s opinion is that in many cases the courts had unjustifiably convicted some teachers, who could not be considered as subjects of crime qualified as bribetaking by implication of Explanatory note No.1 to Article 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, Decree No. 19 of Plenum of Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated 16.10.2009 on Court practice with regard to the cases of abuse of office and power and Decree No. 24 of Plenum of Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated 09.07.2013 on Court practice with regard to the cases of bribetaking and other corruption-related crimes. Novelty/originality/value: The article provides reasons to support opinion of unjustifiable court practice of convicting teachers under Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.