Illegal turnover of special technical equipment intended for the unspected receipt of information (art. 138^1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation): state and actual qualification questions

The unlawful use of modern information technology contributes to the commission of a wide range of crimes that harm a wide variety of social relations. Among these crimes is the illicit trafficking of special technical means intended for secretly obtaining information, the criminal liability for which is provided for in Art. 138¹ of the Criminal Code. This crime violates the constitutional rights and freedoms of man and citizen. Due to the specifics of its commission, it is characterized by high latency and is beyond the scope of official statistics. Only a small part of them is registered. In the period from 2014 to 2018, their total number amounted to 1815 crimes. The article presents the results of studying the materials of judicial practice, examines the problems of law enforcement practice. Attention is focused on the importance of conducting a forensic technical examination, the most common types of special technical equipment intended for secretly receiving information, as well as their general species characteristics, are presented. The authors showed the specifics of alternative actions that form the objective side of the crime under investigation, examined the legal structure of its composition, outlined their position regarding the change in criminal law.