Review: The subject of this research is the notes to the Article 178 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and the Article 14.32 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses; foreign antimonopoly legislation on exemption and mitigation of liability for cartels; decisions of the plenums of higher judicial instances of the Russian Federation regarding the grounds and procedure for exemption from liability for cartel agreements; draft of the federal law on introducing amendments to the Article 178 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and antimonopoly practice on cartels. The article aims to examine the grounds for exemption from criminal liability for cartel agreements, including in comparative-legal and interdisciplinary aspects. The novelty of this research consists in establishing extension of the grounds for exemption from liability in the Russian legislation to all cartel participants (unlike foreign legislation, according to which the cartel facilitator is not exempt from liability). This article is firs to provide interpretation to scantily studied questions of the procedure for realization of the conditions of exemption from criminal liability: the instance, when the cartel participant is still able to declare the restriction of competition to law enforcement agencies, and other measures of reparation of the inflicted damage. The author proposes a method for unification of the the grounds for exemption from liability stipulated by the Article 178 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and the Article 14.32 of the Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses. The acquired results can be applied in the activity of law enforcement agencies.

Keywords: leniency programmes, discharge, limiting competition, competition, cartel agreements, antitrust law, conspiracy, Criminal law prohibition, criminal law, criminal liability

Review: The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the critical vulnerability of modern society to the risk of respiratory disasters – situations of mass destruction of people by biological, chemical or radioactive agents with the development of respiratory failure that requires mechanical ventilation. This is substantiated by extremely high cost of conventional mechanical ventilation technology, which currently has no alternative, and implies “anti-physiological” (dangerous to health) pressure-targeted ventilation. Due to high cost of such equipment, no country is currently able to provide substantial mobilization reserves of ventilators, which in case of respiratory disasters, entails high mortality rate among population. The solution of this problem, the authors see the “catching-up” development of inexpensive, easy to use, and relatively safe method of mechanical ventilation with negative pressure ( the so-called tank ventilator or “iron lungs”), which encloses most of a person's body, and varies the air pressure in the enclosed space, to stimulate breathing. Due to the lower price, safety and ease of use of this method, the authors consider it essential in the instance of mass victims with respiratory failure caused by infectious, chemical or radiation agents. The conclusion is made on the importance of advancement of the mechanical ventilation technology based on the method of negative pressure for ensuring mobilization readiness of the Russian Federation to respiratory disaster, as well as the current need of the healthcare system.

Keywords: mass production, respiratory disaster, mobilization readiness, economic affordability, technological affordability, medical affordability, negative pressure ventilation, positive pressure ventilation, maintenance costs, COVID-19 pandemic