Modern Challenges and Threats to the Environmental Security of Russia: Criminal Law and Criminological Aspects

Abstract

Contemporary environmental situation in Russia experiences the negative impact of economic and public health factors, and can thus be defined as insufficiently healthy. Besides, it is considerably harmed by the «contributions» of emergency situations resulting from either random circumstances or insufficient observance of environmental safety requirements, violations of industrial safety standards, use of outdated or environmentally harmful equipment. It the situation when national economy is characterized by variety and shows optimistic growth indicators, it should be noted that most sources of the state’s prosperity are environmentally harmful, contribute to keeping industrial objects and adjacent territories environmentally unhealthy and yield a considerable volume of production and consumption waste. When Art. 42 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation declared a right of each person to a healthy environment, the state undertook a commitment to create due legal instruments for exercising this right and maintaining a high level of environmental safety. However, due to a high degree of exploiting natural resources that has been maintained so far, the rate of creating these instruments has been lagging behind the rate at which the negative environmental impact has been increasing. The author presents a quantitative analysis of the risks and threats to the environmental interests of the society arising in connection with the anthropogenic impact on the environment, and the qualitative analysis of the norms of current legislation aimed at protecting these interests. The obtained results prove the need for further improvement of legal instruments that can adequately protect the environmental safety of the population.