Criminal liability for drug trafficking without a marketing objective: qualification issues

The current work is aimed to review the key controversies, that are being raised while assessing the functioning of the Article 228 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Primarily, these are the controversies that appear at the level of law enforcement - the problematic issues of the qualification of crimes under Article 228 of the Criminal Code in relation to the object, subject and intent of the crime (described in the Chapter 1), and the problem of the compliance of the Article 228 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation with the international law. The Chapter 2 provides the interpretation of the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (December 20, 1988) including the norms of the “soft law”, as well as the description of the approaches in the national law (taking into account the position of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation and doctrinal interpretations). The Conclusion presents a possible solution to the issue of establishing liability for possession of drugs with no intent to sell.