Russian Journal of Legal Studies (Moscow)

The transformation of extremist threats, new sources and advocates, modernized extremist ideology, and changes in the criminal tactics demand updating the counter-extremism doctrinal framework and improving the national counter-extremism system in the Russian Federation. The paper discusses the improvement of the counter-extremism doctrinal framework and legal regulation system. The authors review the counter-extremism concepts and categories and urgent issues, areas, and actions to implement the national counter-extremism policy. The paper proposes to improve the definitions of extremism and counter-extremism and include the signs (criteria) of an extremist organization in the Federal Law On Counteracting Extremism and electoral commissions in the list of entities responsible for counteracting extremism. The changing content, types, and methods of terrorist and extremist activity; new technologies, communications, and weapons; the widespread support of anti-Russian national separatist forces and subversive terrorist movements, and neo-Nazi groups by countries unfriendly to Russia; forced incitement of protest sentiments and extremist manifestations in our country by foreign intelligence services; and the improper classification of some terrorist organizations as extremist by the court highlight the need for ongoing monitoring of strategies and adjustments to the counter-extremism legal regulation system. Updating doctrines and anti-extremist laws is a strategic protection of the Russia’s constitutional order determining the development and operation of the state mechanism, the institution of human and civil rights and freedoms, and other foundations of civil society.

The paper examines the Russian cultural heritage protection policy in the context of contemporary socio-economic and managerial transformations. Cultural heritage is considered as a set of tangible and intangible assets that have protection, identification, social, and integration roles. An analysis of international and national regulations and the scientific approaches of national and international researchers demonstrates the development of the understanding of cultural heritage from a protected site to a resource for sustainable development and a national identity factor. The paper focuses on issues of public policy, including segmented legal regulation, insufficient definition of the subject of protection, discrepancy between the scope of protection and capabilities, and the limited performance of national monitoring systems. It is shown that the formal protection system does not always ensure the actual preservation of sites due to the gap between regulatory requirements and their application. The paper substantiates the need for a transition to the management model of cultural heritage protection based on the principles of adapted use, digitalization, and intersectoral communications. It is concluded that the public policy could be effective, provided that there is active participation of the professional community, business, and civil society and the integration of heritage protection into the socio-economic development of territories.

The paper presents a comprehensive philosophical and legal study of the legal nature of strategic planning acts, which are considered as special legal acts, or an uncommon source of law. On the one hand, a strategic planning act contains a forecast and plan for the further development of society and the state, i.e. doctrinal provisions, and on the other hand, it is has the form of a regulation. The paper proposes a new concept of a strategic planning act, revealing both the formal legal and the philosophical legal nature of this phenomenon. The subject of regulation of strategic planning acts is unique; it covers relations mediated by different branches of law. These acts contain mainly special standards—principles, purposes, definitions—and descriptions of possible conditions for the development of future relations and ways of solving relevant issues at the legislative level. Regulations are not very common for strategic planning acts and mainly relate to the powers of authorities. The studied acts are entirely determined by policy, including the political elite’s ideas about the paths for the further development of society and the state, and define the future boundaries of lawmaking and law enforcement. This demonstrates their contribution to the social construction of reality as the expected circumstances have consequences, including legal, if they are considered real.

The paper examines existing types of the relationship between tax and civil law. It is emphasized that this relationship is multifaceted and most clearly manifested in the harmonization of tax and civil law. The Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation was the first to indicate this. It is highlighted that the harmonization of these two legal phenomena provides for the full acceptance of private law documents specified in the laws when resolving tax disputes. However, in some cases, the circulation of documents provided by civil law may be restricted for tax purposes. Such restriction should be mandated and based on tax purposes. The existing relationship between tax law and civil law is manifested by the fact that the former may be applied to the latter. This issue is controversial and has not yet been accepted in practice. Recently, a new relationship between tax law and civil law has developed. This relationship allows for amendments to civil law in response to tax law amendments related to the VAT rate. The paper analyzes Resolution No. 41-P of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation dated November 25, 2025. It is noted that, for the first time in science, court practice raised the issue of civil law consequences of tax law amendments.

Today, financial and legal regulation of recognizing bad debts is actively developing. The range of social relations that constitute the institution of bad debts is very wide. Legislators are actively expanding and clarifying the grounds for assigning the status of bad debt to debts to the budget. These facts indicate the need for a detailed research of the content of financial and legal rules of the bad debt institution. The paper analyzes the mechanisms for recognizing outstanding payments to the budget of the Russian Federation as bad debts. The general provisions on bad debt recognition are set out in the Tax Code of the Russian Federation, the Budget Code of the Russian Federation, Federal Law No. 125-FZ On Compulsory Social Insurance of Industrial Accidents and Occupational Diseases, dated July 24, 1998, and Federal Law No. 289-FZ On Customs Regulation in the Russian Federation and Amendments to Individual Laws of the Russian Federation, dated August 3, 2018. The author uses the comparative legal analysis to identify common features of and differences in the legal regulation of bad debt recognition. The paper proposes initiatives to improve and systematize the financial and legal rules of the bad debt institution.

The paper analyzes the court’s authority aimed at solving the issue of mediation at the stage of preparing a case for trial. The author notes that the list of actions that a judge can take to solve it is rather limited. These actions are reduced to explaining to the parties their right for mediation and a settlement agreement; the essence and advantages of mediation, and the mediation formalization procedure, including its consequences. The paper supports and further substantiates the opinion that, should the attempted mediation fail, the judge, who will hear the case, cannot be a mediator. However, the author argues that the impossibility of combining the roles of the court and the mediator refers only to the substantive law aspects of the dispute and it is entirely acceptable to resolve controversies and/or determine that there are no procedural controversies. In the premises, the paper proposes the basic principles of a court-led mediation procedure aimed at determining indisputable facts of civil cases and some other measures aimed at solving the issue of mediation by the court at the stage of preparing a case for trial.

In the review of the analytical report on the ideology of state and civil service (possibility, necessity, and realities of historical choice) by Doctor of Sciences in Sociology, Professor E.V. Okhotsky, the author indicates the deep relevance of the studied topic to research and practice and generally describes the presented work as a systemic empirical analysis of the issue of ideology and ideological activity of the modern state. The author emphasizes the comprehensive nature of the study, which seamlessly reflects various aspects of ideology as a social phenomenon, including state (official) ideology, and notes that the development of an ideological concept should be considered the most important task of modern Russia as it is determined by the urgent needs of Russian reality and is one of the main conditions for the successful political and socio-economic development of our nation in the context of crisis, Western sanctions, and Russophobia.