The law provides for criminalization of bribery if a bribe (money, securities, other property, services of a property nature, other property rights) is transferred not directly to an official, but to another individual or legal entity at the direction of the official, making relevant amendments to Articles 184. Unlawful influence on the result of an official sports competition or spectacular commercial contest, 204. Commercial bribery, 290. Receiving a bribe, 291. Giving a bribe.

In addition, the notes to Articles 184, 204, 290, 291 of the Criminal Code of the RF specify the conditions of exemption from criminal liability for committing the crimes provided for by them: a person actively contributed to the disclosure and (or) investigation of the crime and either there was extortion of the object of bribery, or this person voluntarily reported the committed crime to the body having the right to initiate criminal proceedings.

The normative act also changes the concept of commercial bribery, specifying that the unlawful act may be carried out not only in the interests of the bribe giver, but also in the interests of other persons, and that illegal actions (inaction) on the part of the bribe taker may fall within his official powers or by virtue of his official position he may facilitate their realization.

At the same time, the law introduces into the Criminal Code a new type of crime - mediation in commercial bribery (article 204.1), providing for the criminalization of direct transfer of the object of commercial bribery (illegal remuneration) on behalf of the person transferring the object of commercial bribery or the person receiving the object of commercial bribery, or otherwise assisting these persons in reaching or implementing an agreement between them on the transfer and receipt of the object of commercial bribery. The law also criminalizes the direct transfer of the object of commercial bribery (illegal remuneration) on behalf of the person transferring the object of commercial bribery or the person receiving the object of commercial bribery.

Liability for commercial bribery and mediation in commercial bribery under the new wording is differentiated depending on the size of the object of bribery (by analogy with the size of a bribe - significant, large, especially large).

The normative act also singles out as separate types of crimes petty commercial bribery (Article 204.2) and petty bribery (Article 291.2), the size of the object of bribery (bribe) for which does not exceed 10 thousand rubles. For the commission of such crimes, a milder punishment is provided compared to the sanctions for other types of bribery and commercial bribery (in particular, a fine of up to 200 thousand rubles or imprisonment for up to 1 year), but for repeated commission of these crimes, increased liability is established (a fine of up to 1,000 rubles).

The Law will enter into force on July 15, 2016. The need to introduce the relevant amendments is due, among other things, to the recommendations made earlier by GRECO during the third evaluation round of Russia's implementation of the provisions of the Council of Europe Criminal Law Convention on Corruption:

• Ensure that the provisions on bribery in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation are unambiguously interpreted so as to unambiguously cover all cases where the advantage is intended not for the official himself/herself but for a third party, whether physical or legal;
• introduce the concepts of offer, promise and request for an advantage and acceptance of an offer or promise into the provisions of the Criminal Code on active and passive bribery in line with the Council of Europe Convention on the Criminalization of Corruption;
• bring the criminalization of commercial bribery under Article 204 of the Criminal Code in line with Articles 7 and 8 of the Council of Europe Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (ETS 173), in particular with regard to the category of persons covered by the law, various forms of corrupt behavior, indirect forms of committing crimes, cases involving third party beneficiaries and recipients of non-material benefits.