Problems of Liability for Separatist Actions Under the Criminal Law of the Kyrgyz Republic

The author studies the specifics of the legislative structure of the criminal law norm on liability for separatist actions in the criminal legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic. The object of this crime is public relations aimed at protecting and ensuring the territorial integrity of the state and the exercise of lawful state power on the whole territory of the state. The difficulty of defining the objective side of separatist actions is connected with the absence of a consistent and universal definition of separatism in national or international legislations. The criminal law of the Kyrgyz Republic stipulates criminal liability for violating the territorial integrity of the state with the use of force. All other methods of committing actions aimed at violating territorial integrity are not criminalized, which is a drawback of the current criminal legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic. Such a structure of the objective side of separatist actions renders this criminal law norm unviable and hinders the differentiation between separatist actions and a violent seizure of power, an armed rebellion, etc. In order to improve the protection of the territorial integrity of the state using criminal law means, the author suggests implementing the experience of the Russian Federation into the criminal legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic and criminalizing such non-violent methods of separatism as public appeals to violating the territorial integrity of the state and a public propaganda of separatism. One of the problems of criminal prosecution for separatist actions is a poor definition of the features of its subject when the crime is committed in a violent manner. Thus, establishing the features of the general subject in cases of violating the territorial integrity of the state does not only lead to the confusion of this crime with related crimes, but also makes it difficult to incriminate a specific person because violent separatist actions can hardly be performed by a separate person. The identified flaws in the structure of the criminal law norm and the suggested ways of eliminating them can be viewed as directions for the further improvement of ensuring the territorial integrity of the state by means of criminal legislation of the Kyrgyz Republic.