Information security in the Union State: the universal legal dimension

Duben' Andrei Kirillovich Scientific Associate, Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences; Assistant, Department of Civil and Administrative Proceedings, Russian State University of Justice 119019, Russia, Moscow region, Moscow, Znamenka str., 10 k.duben@mail.ru Other publications by this author

In the context of the development of the information and communication space and the geopolitical changes taking place in the world, information security is becoming one of the priorities in international law, representing a complex, dynamic system with natural connections between its elements and the processes of organization and self-organization. Strategic planning of information security in modern conditions needs scientific and legal understanding from the perspective of law in order to develop new approaches to solving priority tasks.

It is worth noting that the methodological basis of this study is a system of modern general scientific and private law methods. The study of the formation, development, place and role of legal information security in the system of international law was conducted using the following general scientific methods: analysis and synthesis, observation, generalization, description, etc. In the course of the research and the construction of the author's judgments and conclusions, the most important provisions were dialectics, systemic and risk-oriented approaches for the study of the legal system of information security.

The Russian Federation pursues an active State policy, including legal regulation in the field of information security. In this regard, it seems advisable to develop strategic documents in the field of information security covering interstate cooperation. Russia is an active participant in various integration associations: BRICS, CSTO, SCO, EAEU, CIS, Union State.We will focus separately on the legal regulation of the information security of the Union State.

It is worth noting that within the framework of interstate cooperation, agreements are concluded concerning the protection of information and other issues in the field of information security. This approach was not chosen by chance, since the resolution of issues related to the information space requires not only the search for common ground on the part of states and the formation of common approaches, but also a certain trust. Only when interacting with countries with which Russia has partnership and allied relations, one can hope for strict observance of common goals and objectives in the information space.

It draws attention to the fact that each State primarily cares about its own national information sovereignty, including digital and technological aspects. The information security of other states often concerns other participants in the geopolitical struggle only to the extent that information threats affecting the interests of one State may affect the national interests of another State. Such a situation is also possible with close integration cooperation between States, which involves mutual protection of information. Building partnership and allied relations is possible only with mutual responsibility for the information security of each of the participants, which plays a significant role in the interaction of states on the platforms of various integration associations, including the Union State.

Strategic regulatory legal acts have been adopted in order to ensure information security in the member States of the Union State. In 2016, the Information Security Doctrine of the Russian Federation was approved. This normative legal act regulates part of public relations, through which the protection of the state in the information sphere is purposefully achieved and vectors of further improvement of legal institutions are determined in order to balance the interests of the individual, society and the state in this environment. It is important to note that the comparative legal analysis of the Information Security Doctrines of the Russian Federation in 2000 and 2016, respectively, indicate an increase in the importance of the studied sub-sector in Russian legislation. These doctrines are of a strategic nature and are aimed at improving legal norms in the field of information security. Thus, one of the main innovations in the Information Security Doctrine of the Russian Federation in 2016 is the obligation to monitor the implementation of the provisions of the Doctrine and submit an annual report to the President of the Russian Federation. This provision is aimed at improving the effectiveness of public authorities and non-governmental organizations within their powers.

In 2019, the Concept of Information Security of the Republic of Belarus was approved. According to this document, the State acts as a guarantor for the protection of citizens' information rights by guaranteeing human and civil rights to the storage and dissemination of information. Meanwhile, the state is developing information security standards and on their basis, state systems will be regularly audited. It is worth agreeing with the position of T.Z. Shalaeva, who notes that the Concept of information security of the Republic of Belarus is based on the geopolitical interests of the country, based on international relations based on cooperation within the framework of integration associations ^{[1, p. 184]}.

It is worth noting that within the framework of cooperation between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus, plans are being adopted to implement the main directions of Belarusian-Russian cooperation in the field of international information security, providing for the identification, coordination and implementation of necessary joint measures to ensure information security, conducting bilateral interdepartmental consultations, information exchange, analysis and assessment of emerging threats in this area, coordination measures to respond to these threats ^{[2, p. 11]}. In our opinion, these regulations lack a theoretical, legal, scientific and methodological orientation for the development and implementation of unified approaches to the formation of legislation regulating the sphere of information security of the Union State.

The analysis of normative legal acts of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus shows that the processes of digital transformation necessitate the "modernization of legal approaches to the regulation of new public relations" ^{[3, p. 4]}. As A.V. Minbaleev rightly notes, in the modern digital era, methods of legal regulation should be flexible enough and ensure the prompt development of a system of ways and means of responding to new threats and challenges ^{[4, p. 62]}. We believe that this position of the author largely determines the international legal regulation of information security, where traditional legal sources of regulation in the form of international treaties are still insufficiently developed. In this regard, the adoption and implementation of other international acts in this area, including political declarative documents and acts of "soft law", is of great importance for integration associations.

The harmonization of the laws of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus, which are members of this integration association, undoubtedly contributes to the strengthening of allied and partnership relations between these states in the field of building a secure information environment, while it will allow us to develop common principles of legal information security, compliance with which will be mandatory for all members of the integration association.

In order to reduce the vulnerability of information security from political and economic sanctions, the Union State promptly takes measures to regulate information security, in 2023 the Concept of Information Security of the Union State was approved, which provides for the protection of the digital and information space of Russia and Belarus. The concept defines the basis for the formation of a coordinated state policy and the development of public relations in the field of information security, as well as the development of measures to improve the information security systems of Russia and Belarus.

One of the urgent tasks within the framework of the Concept for the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus is the legal regulation of information security aimed at creating a system of legal awareness of all subjects of society. Within the framework of the Information Security Concept of the Union State, the main directions of the development of the state policy of the Union State can be identified: the formation of a union program to create a Belarusian-Russian scientific expert and analytical infrastructure (for example, an expert or scientific council based on modern scientific research) in order to implement a systematic mechanism for operational decision-making by the bodies of the Union State on security priorities; the implementation of a set of urgent measures to harmonize the legislation of the states in order to form a unified legal framework of the Union State for ensuring security in the information sphere (including the integration of information systems, distributed registry technologies, digital identification, including biometric, etc.), ensuring not only the formation of a unified information and legal space, but also the creation of a unified information a system that ensures legal awareness of all subjects of the Belarusian-Russian society, its reliability and effective counteraction to any disinformation; the formation of measures for the legislative registration of the independent information infrastructure of the Union State on the basis of sovereign information platforms, critical information security facilities that ensure the national interests of the Union State, including in the field of customs, tax, financial and other institutions ensuring the vital activity of the population ^{[5, p. 309]}.

It is important to note that in international law, to date, there is no basic and universal international agreement in the field of information security, despite active interstate cooperation in this area and positive experience in the development of international acts within the framework of integration associations. In this regard, there is a need to promote the Russian initiative to adopt a Convention on ensuring international information security at the United Nations ^[6]. In addition, in the absence of legally binding international legal acts in this area, a significant role is assigned to other regulatory mechanisms, in particular documents of a political nature and acts of "soft law" ^[7].

Consequently, the strategic legal acts of the Union State in the field of information security are dynamic in nature due to changes in social and political relations, including at the international level. There is a growing tendency to perceive the information space not only as an area requiring the use of exclusively protective measures of influence, but also involving active offensive measures to the extent necessary to protect national interests. We believe that the existing experience of the Union State has largely determined for the state the new conceptual foundations of the information security doctrine with its further improvement.

Thus, at the interregional level, cooperation in the field of information security is becoming more active and the activities of interstate organizations are gaining key importance. The member States of the Union State emphasize that the information security of each State forms the general security and directly affects the state of collective security. In this regard, further cooperation is necessary in order to develop and approve the conceptual foundations of the legal provision of information security of the Union State. This is important for solving the tasks of ensuring national and international information security, implementing the agreements of the Union State and further forming a system of universal public law mechanisms for ensuring information security.