Military Police – a New Stage: Reflections on the Textbook "Organization of the Activities of the Military Police of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation"

Bol'shakova Valentina Mikhailovna PhD in Law Associate professor,  Department of Constitutional and Administrative Law, Nizhny Novgorod Institute of Management – branch of the Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration under the President of the Russian Federation 603950, Russia, Nizhny Novgorod region, Nizhny Novgorod, Gagarin Avenue, 46 valentinabolshakova@rambler.ru Other publications by this author

Utyuganov Aleksei Anatol'evich ORCID: 0000-0001-9641-7174 Doctor of Psychology Deputy Head of the Military Institute for Scientific Work - Head of the Research and Editorial and Publishing Department, St. Petersburg Order of Zhukov Institute of the National Guard Troops of the Russian Federation 198206, Russia, Leningrad region, Saint Petersburg, Pilyutov Pilot str., 1 outioganov@mail.ru

Crisis trends in the development of modern civilization, the redistribution of spheres of influence and the existing world order form threats to the sovereignty of countries whose influence on world processes may weaken ^[1]. The military-political and sanctions pressure on our country actualizes the presence of a trained and well-trained army and law enforcement agencies in Russia ^[16]. The need to protect territorial integrity, human and civil rights and freedoms, and to maintain the rule of law, including within law enforcement agencies, determines the presence of officials authorized to prevent and suppress offenses in the structure of these bodies ^[17].

The training of cadets in military educational institutions of higher education within the framework of military-legal specialization in the specialty "Legal support of national security" involves a detailed study of the legal foundations and organization of the activities of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, other troops, military formations and bodies ^[3]. The solution of this problem requires appropriate pedagogical support, educational and methodological complexes and convenient literature for studying.

In this aspect, the textbook "Organization of the activities of the military police of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation" under the general editorship of V.V. Ershov, S.V. Kuralenko, S.V. Surovikin ^[13], published in 2022 at the Russian State University of Justice is an excellent illustration of the successful solution of this problem. One educational publication reflects methodological, theoretical, practical, legal and educational-methodical components that reveal various aspects of the organization of the activities of the military police.

The Military Police is a relatively "young" body in the structure of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, designed to protect the life, health, rights and freedoms of military personnel, civilian personnel, ensuring law and order in the Armed Forces, military discipline, road safety, protection of objects of the Armed Forces, as well as within its competence to counter crime and protection of other legally protected legal relations in the field of defense ^[2]. The central management body of the military police is the Main Directorate of the Military Police of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.

For a short period of its existence, the military police has managed to establish itself as an effective tool of the state in preventing and combating offenses among military personnel, civilian personnel and citizens called up for military training ^[11]. The military police received high praise from the leadership of the country for the fight against terrorism, ensuring international peace and security in the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic.

The organizational and legal foundations of the activities of the military police of the Armed Forces, its tasks, functions, rights and powers have been repeatedly studied in the scientific literature [4-10; 12, 14, 15], this was a prerequisite for the accumulation of legal knowledge about the military police in the textbook under consideration.

The main legal document regulating the activities of the military police, in addition to the Federal Laws "On Defense", "On Military Duty and Military Service", "On the status of military personnel" and the general military Charters of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, is the Decree of the President of Russia dated March 25, 2015 No. 161 "On approval of the Charter of the Military Police of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and amendments to some acts of the President of the Russian Federation". In the textbook under consideration, special attention is paid to these normative legal acts, comments are given to their most complex and important prescriptions, methodological and educational materials on the study of these norms in the pedagogical process of a military university are presented.

The textbook describes in detail and studies the tasks, principles of the organization and activities of the military police. The role of the military police in organizing work in the military police to strengthen the rule of law, the rule of law in the state, the detection and prevention of crimes and other offenses was particularly noted. On the positive side, the fact that the textbook extensively examines the systemic characteristics of the legislation regulating the official activities of the military police should also be highlighted. The publication also reflects the peculiarities of the organization of the official activities of the military police in the main areas and certain issues of working with personnel in the military police.

Structurally, the textbook consists of an appeal to readers, a preface, 15 chapters, the contents of which are presented in 52 paragraphs, literature, questions for self-control, a list of countries in which the military police has been established and operates, a workshop on the academic discipline "Organization of the military police of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation", as well as a list of diagrams, tables, drawings. The following issues are reflected in the chapters of the textbook: the main activities, functions and powers of the military police; general issues of the organization of its activities; organization of its legal education activities; features of military service in it; activities of the military police to ensure legality, law and order and military discipline in the military; organization of its activities in the field of criminal justice; organization of proceedings on cases of administrative offenses, participation in the consideration by the courts of materials on gross disciplinary offenses; organization of its activities on search, detention, escort and application of criminal penalties to military personnel; security functions of the military police and functions to ensure state protection; functions to ensure road safety and other issues.

The content of the textbook must be recognized as necessary and sufficient in describing and justifying the issues of organizing the activities of the national military police. A wide range of established spheres of activity of the military police in the field of criminal, administrative, disciplinary proceedings, conducting urgent investigative actions, fixing traces of offenses in the textbook is reflected accordingly fully.

It is impossible to ignore the critical analysis of the reviewed textbook. Thus, the book clearly lacked a detailed comparative analysis of the legal foundations of the activities, rights, powers and genesis of the Russian military police and the military police of other countries, although the chapter on the military police of foreign countries is available in the textbook. The textbook also did not reflect the comparison of the powers of military police officials with officials of other law enforcement agencies who also have the status of military personnel (FSB of Russia, FSO of Russia and Rosgvardiya).

Returning to highlighting the positive aspects of the educational publication, we note that its reading, study and consideration forms not only a stable knowledge of the legal and organizational foundations of the military police, but also allows us to propose certain measures to improve domestic legislation. Thus , Article 9 of the Statute of the Military Police of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is proposed to be stated in the following wording: "9. The military police in its activities is guided by the Constitution of the Russian Federation, generally recognized principles and norms of international law and international treaties of the Russian Federation, federal constitutional laws, federal laws, this Charter and other regulatory legal acts of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.". The introduction of these amendments will clarify the legal basis for the activities of the military police, taking into account their concretization and references to federal constitutional laws (for example, "On martial law", "On the state of emergency") and regulatory legal acts of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, which, of course, the military police is obliged to be guided in their activities.