Features of the implementation of international anti-corruption standards for financing of election campaigns (on the example of Russia)

Abstract

For the development of Russian constitutional law, international anticorruption standards are of great interest, which are beginning to spread their influence on the ideas of national governments about modern requirements for regulating power relations. A good example of a traditional topic for constitutional law, which is affected by the anticorruption conventions of the United Nations and the documents of the “soft law” of the Council of Europe, are the issues of electoral law. Specialized international legal standards that try to curb corrupt practices during the electoral process have been developing since the early 2000s. The most well-known group of such standards is related to guaranteeing transparency in the financing of election campaigns and political parties. This article examines the Russian experience of implementing Part 3 of Article 7 of the 2003 UN Convention against Corruption through participation in a specially created “Mechanism for reviewing the implementation of the Convention”, and also analyzes the specifics of implementing the Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe “On Common Rules for combating corruption in the financing of political Parties and election campaigns” 2003 through the mechanisms of GRECO — A special organization of the Council of Europe, designed to monitor the progress of States in improving national legislation in the spirit of pan-European anti-corruption ideals. Despite Russia’s formal withdrawal from the Council of Europe in 2022, the European anti-corruption conventions and mechanisms of this international organization continue to be an interesting object for study.

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