Protection of property by criminal legal means in the digital age

Today public relations are significantly influenced by technological progress. Despite of undeniable advantages digitalization of public relations generates new ways of committing criminal acts. The reaction of the legislator to the indicated circumstances is a change in the wording of Articles 158, 159.3, 159.6 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. These novels caused a lot of difficulties for law enforcement officers, discussions in the scientific community and errors in judicial practice. In this article the author presents an analysis of these norms of criminal legislation taking into account the provisions of the resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation N 22 of 29 June, 2021. The analysis showed that the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation changed its position in the opposite direction during the period of validity of the legal norms under consideration. The act according to the resolution of November 30, 2017 N 48 was recommended to qualify as fraud using electronic means of payment, now in accordance with the provisions of the resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of December, 2002 N 29 in the new edition, should be qualified as theft from a bank account, as well as in relation to electronic money. In addition, there is no clarity as to what acts are criminal in accordance with the disposition of Article 159.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. These circumstances are due to the current contradictory judicial practice on bringing to justice for the acts in question, which affects the most important principles of criminal law - justice and the inevitability of punishment. Taking into account the above, the article suggests solving these and other issues related to the theft of “electronic” funds.