Abstract: The article is devoted to the analysis of current international legal problems of international cooperation of the customs authorities of the Russian Federation in the law enforcement sphere. The paper analyzes the performance indicators of the Federal Customs Service of Russia in the law enforcement sphere during 2013-2021. As can be seen from the official statistics of the customs authorities of the Russian Federation, the share of indicators achieved using various forms of legal assistance is extremely small against the background of general indicators. At the same time, the quantitative effectiveness of the use of these methods remains, and even a slight increase is observed, however, against the background of an even greater increase in overall indicators, the share of results achieved with the use of forms of legal assistance has fallen significantly. Such a situation testifies to the insufficiently effective development of international customs cooperation in the law enforcement sphere and indicates the presence of significant unresolved problems in this area.

  The preservation and improvement of quantitative indicators of efficiency with a huge decline in the share among the general indicators, which indicates the insufficiently effective development of international customs cooperation in the law enforcement sphere, has been revealed. As a solution to the problem, recommendations on improving strategic documents defining the legal policy of the Russian Federation in the field of customs service development are presented. Taking into account the expansion of the tasks of international cooperation in the customs sphere, it seems advisable to expand the geography of this cooperation by prioritizing interaction with the customs services of the EAEU, BRICS, SCO member states - in this case, the geography of international customs cooperation will coincide with the priority areas of international cooperation of the Russian Federation as a whole, which, with the help of the existing legal and technical base of these organizations that will quickly create suitable conditions for international cooperation of customs authorities, including in the field of law enforcement.