On the issue of criminal responsibility for defamation

Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to examine the current problems of criminal responsibility for defamation, i.e. the crime stipulated by Article 128.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Methodology: The formal-legal, comparative-legal and systematic methods of research were used. Results: Main and qualified corpus delicti of crimes, the responsibility for which is stated in five parts of clause 128.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in its updated version were analyzed. The proposals for more precise qualification of the act and its delimitation from the adjacent crimes are formulated. Originality/originality/value: The article has a certain scientific value and is devoted to consideration of a topical problem.