The article features an analysis of the legislation, doctrinal guidance, and case-law, which enables the authors to draw conclusions as to the content of particular constitutive elements of the illegal crossing of the state border of the Russian Federation (Article 322 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), to determine the limits of such constitutive element as the objective side of the crime, and to outline the difference between the illegal crossing of the state border of the Russian Federation and the legal one. The article is of particular relevance in the light of the adoption, by the Plenary Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, of a ruling clarifying, inter alia, the issues of legal qualification of the crime provided for in Article 322 of the Criminal Code.