Abstract: This article examines the criminal law nature of bullying and torture as qualifying elements of crimes against state power involving an attack on the life and health of an individual. The relevance of this work stems from recent amendments to criminal law (Federal Law No. 307-FZ of July 14, 2022) related to the introduction of a legal definition of torture in the note to Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, a new qualified element of abuse of power—Part 4 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation—as well as ongoing theoretical debates and contradictions in judicial practice. The author critically analyzes the legislative construction of torture, pointing out a methodological error – the confusion within a single definition of objective (method), consequences (severe pain, suffering), and subjective (goals, motives). The article substantiates a proposal to amend the wording of the note, specifically replacing the disjunctive conjunction "or" between pain and suffering with a conjugating conjunction, which will allow severe pain to be considered an integral element of physical or mental suffering. Particular attention is paid to the distinction between torture and bullying: the author concludes that bullying is exclusively a psychological influence that degrades an individual's dignity and cannot include elements of physical violence. Based on an analysis of specific court decisions, practical criteria for distinguishing torture from other forms of violence are developed – based on the intensity and duration of unlawful actions (inactions), as well as the specific subject and purposes. The proposed approaches can be used by law enforcement to uniformly classify acts under Part 4 of Article 286 and Part 3 of Article 302 of the Russian Criminal Code.

Keywords: torture, abuse, officials, coercion to testify, abuse of power, severe pain, moral suffering, case law, qualification of crimes, criminal legislation