Lacunae in legal regulation of responsibility for destruction or damage to other property and forest plants (art. 168 and part 1-2 of art. 261 of the Criminal Code of Russia)

Introduction: the article reveals lacunae in the legal regulation of criminal liability for destruction or damage of forest plantations by careless handling of fire or other sources of increased danger that caused death of wild animals died. Materials and Methods: the methodological basis of the study was general scientific and special methods of cognition: dialectical, analysis, synthesis, comparative legal, legal modeling method. Results: the article analyzes the patterns of criminal liability for crimes under Art. 168 and 261 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. It was revealed that these norms have a lot of the same - a socially dangerous act, socially dangerous consequences, a method of committing, a subjective side. It has been established that they correlate as general and special compositions, differing in the subject of the crime. It is concluded that criminal liability for these crimes should be based on similar approaches and be carried out in an equal volume. Moreover, in Art. 261 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, the subject of the crime is unjustifiably less - wild animals are excluded from it. This is a violation of the principles of justice and inevitability of punishment, entails a violation of the differentiation of criminal liability. Discussion and Conclusions: this article substantiates a proposal on a criminal law reform that would eliminate a gap in the criminal law regulation of criminal liability for the destruction or damage of forest plantations through careless handling of fire or other sources of increased danger, that caused death of wild animals. The text of amendments and additions to the text of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is proposed.