How debtors are punished now. Non-payment of maintenance entails administrative and criminal liability. If arrears accumulate for more than two months, this is an administrative offence under Article 5.35.1 of the Russian Code of Administrative Offences. Penalties include up to 150 hours of compulsory community service, administrative detention for up to 15 days, or a fine of 20,000 rubles.
What is proposed. In some cases courts currently interpret this provision as applying only to complete non-payment of maintenance, allowing negligent parents who pay only occasionally and incompletely to avoid liability. The amendments proposed by the bill would allow people required to pay maintenance to be held administratively liable for partial payment.
Criminal liability. Repeated evasion of maintenance payments without valid reasons entails criminal liability under Article 157 of the Russian Criminal Code—for example, if the debtor hides or conceals income. Penalties may include corrective labour, forced labour or imprisonment for up to one year.
Partial payment will also become a criminal offence. In addition to amendments to the Code of Administrative Offences, a second bill proposes amendments to the Russian Criminal Code. Repeated non-payment of maintenance without valid reasons may be treated as a criminal offence even if payments are made occasionally but not in full. The initiative also provides that criminal punishment can be avoided, but only if maintenance arrears are repaid in full.
Who is affected. These provisions of the Russian Code of Administrative Offences and Criminal Code, in both their existing and proposed wording, concern maintenance for minor children, children aged eighteen or over who are unable to work, and parents unable to work whom their adult, able-bodied children may be required by law to support.