A.A. Kazakov

In the science of criminal law and law enforcement practice, there are many controversial issues of the qualification of illegal acts of officials in the field of criminal justice. Special attention should be paid to the problems of interpreting the signs of the elements of crimes that provide for responsibility for falsifying evidence in a criminal case. In particular, the list of subjects specified in Part 2 of Art. 303 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation causes complaints from lawyers. The absence of clarifications about the mentioned element of the composition in Part 3 of Art. 303 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation creates confusion on the question of who should be held accountable for committing the acts contained in this norm. In search of a solution to these problems, the authors conduct a legal analysis of the theoretical and practical aspects of the content of the category “person conducting an inquiry” and the powers of the operative officer to carry out investigative actions. The article illustrates the discrepancy between the provisions of the criminal procedure legislation on participants in the prosecution proceedings and the signs of the subject of falsification of evidence in a criminal case. Based on the results of the study, the authors proposed an interpretation of the concept of “person conducting an inquiry”. The article recommends to qualify the actions of the operative officer who falsified evidence at the time of the investigative action on behalf of the investigator as abuse of official authority. These conclusions can serve as a guide for law enforcement officers until the highest court clarifies the disputed positions or makes changes to the dispositions of Part 2, 3 of Art. 303 of the Russian Criminal Code.