Customs Control in the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation

The modern legal regulation of entrepreneurial activity clearly reflects two approaches: status and spatial. The status approach is represented in the generation and development of certain privileged statuses of subjects in terms of entrepreneurial and other economic activities, which are provided with various kinds of preferences and simplifications. Representatives of small and medium-sized businesses are a good example of this status in the modern period. The second approach is associated with the designation and establishment of spatial or territorial limits with special jurisdiction, which allows reducing the managerial impact on business entities. Within the framework of this approach, scientists operate with the category of the administrative regime of territories, which is understood as a special procedure for the activities of subjects of law in a special territory, created for the purpose of accelerated socio-economic development of this territory, ensuring comfortable conditions for the life of the population, protection of the foundations of

• ^∗ © Agamagomedova S.A., 2023

the constitutional order, rights and legitimate interests of citizens. At the same time, scientists refer to special territories those ones, where a legal regime for carrying out entrepreneurial or other activities is different from the usual procedure for territorial management [1, Glushko E.K., p. 9].

One of the varieties of such special territories is, in our opinion, the territory of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. Such a zone is considered by scientists as a special object of state management [2, Chistobaev A.I., Malinin P.Yu.]. The peculiarity of such a territory consists, among other things, in the specifics of customs control as one of the types of state control within its boundaries. Let us try to reveal this specificity, which is of particular importance from the point of view of the current situation in the world. Scientists are actively researching the trends of national policy transformation in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, taking into account external challenges and threats faced by Russia. In their opinion, the sanctions adopted by the EU and the US against Russia are accompanied by ever-increasing state support for Arctic projects, the development of import substitution policy and further liberalization of access to the Arctic shelf [3, Shapovalova D., Galimullin E., Grushevenko E., p. 20]. The management policy of Russia in the Arctic over the past few decades has changed depending on the current geopolitical situation, which has led to an increase in scientific interest in transformations in the national management of natural resources of the Russian Arctic, the development of relatively new models of public administration in the region to level Western sanctions [3, Shapovalova D., Galimullin E., Grushevenko E.].

Under these conditions, the stimulation of entrepreneurial and other economic activities by public authorities within the Arctic zone, including by reducing the control and supervisory impact on business, is of particular importance. All this has determined the relevance of the proposed research topic.

The legal regime of the Arctic zone, measures of state support and the procedure for carrying out entrepreneurial activities

According to Part 2 of Article 2 of Federal Law No. 193-FZ of July 13, 2020 “On state support for entrepreneurial activities in the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation” (hereinafter referred to as Law 193-FZ), the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as the Arctic Zone) includes the land territories and adjacent internal sea waters and the territorial sea of the Russian Federation, areas of the continental shelf of the Russian Federation, as well as lands and islands that may be discovered in the future, which are not territories of foreign states located in the Arctic Ocean north of the coast of the Russian Federation to the North Pole in within the limits between the meridian thirty-two degrees four minutes thirty-five seconds east longitude from Greenwich, passing along the eastern side of Vaida Bay through the triangulation mark at Cape Kekurskiy, and the meridian one hundred sixty-eight degrees forty-nine minutes thirty seconds longitude west from Greenwich, passing through the middle of the strait, separating the Ratmanov and Kruzenshtern Islands of the Diomede Islands group in the Bering Strait, on which, in accordance with the Law 193-FZ and other federal laws, measures of state support for entrepreneurial activity are established 1.

Law 193-FZ defines the legal regime of the Arctic zone, measures of state support and the procedure for entrepreneurial activity in this zone. Its goals are: economic development of the Arctic zone; stimulation and intensification of investment and entrepreneurial activity within its limits; creation of an economic basis for advanced social development and improvement of the quality of life in the Arctic zone. Less than two years after the adoption of Law 193-FZ, representatives of public authorities presented a number of significant indicators as the results of the development of this territory, including the growth of new projects in the Arctic zone, which exceeds the Far East indicators by 20–25%. More than 460 projects are being implemented in the region with state support, and the volume of investments under agreements exceeds 1.3 trillion rubles 2.

Russia has adopted a number of strategic planning documents to protect the national interests of the Russian Federation in the Arctic 3. In fact, in relation to the Arctic zone, it is a practice of granting certain regions within the borders of the state with “customs extraterritoriality”, which aims to revive the economic situation, enhance foreign trade, invest national and foreign capital [4, Kozyrin A.N., p. 50]. At the same time, improving the quality of life of the population of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation is a priority issue of domestic national policy, including: the development of social, transport and digital infrastructure, ensuring favorable environment, increasing wages and solvency of northerners, improving the availability and quality of medical services, life expectancy, etc. The issue of national security, integrity of land and sea borders, protection of the population, shipping routes is the main issue for the implementation of the Fundamentals of the State Policy of Russia [5, Vopilovskiy S.S., p. 34]. In fact, issues of security, territorial and technological sovereignty, as well as economic, social, ethnic, military and cultural development intersect in the Arctic zone. In 2022, Russia continued to implement the program of its two-year chairmanship of the Arctic Council, the cross-cutting theme of which is “Responsible governance for a sustainable Arctic”. 43 events were held in such key areas of cooperation as supporting the population of the Arctic, including the indigenous peoples of the North, protecting the environment and adapting to the effects of climate change, promoting the socio-economic develop-

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Saniyat A. Agamagomedova. Customs Control in the Arctic Zone … ment of the region, as well as strengthening multilateral interaction and scientific cooperation in the Arctic ⁴.

Features of customs control in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation

According to Part 1 of Article 18 of Law 193-FZ, control of persons, vehicles, cargo, goods and animals at checkpoints across the state border of the Russian Federation located in the Arctic zone is carried out by border and customs authorities, federal executive authorities carrying out federal state sanitary and epidemiological supervision.

The peculiarities of customs control, carried out within the Arctic zone, allow to attribute it to a certain type (variety, direction) of customs control, distinguished by the specificity of administrative and procedural property [6, Agamagomedova S.A.]. In this case, the criterion for differentiating customs control is not only the space where administrative control procedures are implemented, but also the special legal status of persons controlled by customs authorities, registered within its boundaries and having a number of preferential characteristics (residents of the Arctic zone).

The first feature of customs control in the Arctic zone is its legal regulation, which is carried out through both traditional sources of customs regulation and specialized legal acts of the national level, primarily the Federal Law “On state support for entrepreneurship in the Arctic Zone of the Russian Federation”. This is confirmed, in particular, by Part 2.1, Article 214 of Federal Law No. 289-FZ of August 3, 2018 “On customs regulation in the Russian Federation and on amendments to certain legislative acts of the Russian Federation”, introduced by Federal Law No. 194-FZ of July 13, 2020 ⁵. The legislator recognizes the presence of peculiarities of customs control in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation and establishes the complexity of its legal regulation, which includes acts of customs legislation on the principle of functionality (Customs Code of the EAEU, Federal Law No. 289-FZ), and Law 193-FZ on spatial principle. In essence, we are dealing with the regulation of customs control with territorial specifics, conditioned by the public objectives of managerial influence in specific spatial limits.

According to Part 1 of Article 21 of Law 193-FZ, customs control in the Arctic zone is carried out by customs authorities in accordance with the acts constituting the EAEU law and (or) the legislation of the Russian Federation on customs regulation, taking into account the specifics established by this Federal Law.

At the same time, in recent years, the departmental regulatory framework for the considered direction of customs control has been actively formed 6. Such departmental support of customs control in the Arctic zone at the level of the Ministry of Finance of Russia and the Federal Customs Service of Russia exacerbates the administrative and legal independence (isolation) of this type of control, due to state priorities in this territory.

We believe that in the conditions of using customs control as a public law regulator, mainly (but not entirely) in the field of entrepreneurial activity, one should agree with the statement of V.A. Vaypan about two levels of normative regulation of entrepreneurial activity in the conditions of Eurasian economic integration (supranational and internal) and the problem of legal or law “levelling” [7, Vaypan V.A.]. With regard to the Arctic zone, we can talk about the goal of “levelling” from the viewpoint of the extremely diverse regions of Russia in terms of natural, climatic and other conditions.

The tax part of the “preferential status” of an entrepreneur registered in the Arctic zone is reflected in a number of articles of national tax legislation, for example, Part 1.8 of Article 284 of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation establishes a zero rate for tax to the federal budget by residents of the Arctic zone, and Article 284.4 of this Code provides a preferential procedure for taxpayers 7. Along with residents of the Arctic zone, the legislator includes residents of the territory of advanced socio-economic development and residents of the port of Vladivostok among the latter.

Thus, the regulation of customs and tax control in the Arctic zone is an integral part of customs and tax legislation, business legislation, as well as the legal framework that regulates a variety of social relations within the land and sea borders of the Arctic. In this regard, we support the position of scientists who deny the distinguishing the so-called “Arctic law” as a branch of law, a system of law or other traditional legal formation [8, Zvorykina Yu.V., Teteryatnikov K.S., p. 30]. We believe that in this regard it is appropriate to talk about a special polysystemic legal formation, including national legal and international legal means of regulating natural resource and environ- mental, humanitarian and socio-economic, political and legal issues of Arctic development [9, Arctic Law, p. 6].

The second feature of this type of customs control is its implementation in close interrelation with other types of state control, primarily sanitary and phytosanitary control. Representatives of the FCS of Russia pay attention to this feature as a factor in accelerating the total time for passing state control ⁸. It should be noted that the specifics of these types of state control do not concern the objects of control themselves (they are the same as in other regions), but their departmental support. Thus, for example, on August 11, 2021, Government Decree No. 121 dated February 6, 2021 “On amendments to certain acts of the government of the Russian Federation” came into force, which amends the Rules of state quarantine phytosanitary control (supervision) at checkpoints through the border of the Russian Federation ⁹.

According to the provisions of the latter, the authority to carry out phytosanitary supervision at checkpoints across the state border of the Russian Federation located in the Arctic zone are transferred to customs authorities, whose officials conduct phytosanitary supervision at various checkpoints in the Republic of Karelia, in the Arkhangelsk and Murmansk oblasts.

In addition, the above-mentioned tax privileges for residents of the Arctic zone indicate a targeted preferential customs and tax impact within the considered regulation zone.

The third feature of customs control in the Arctic zone is its temporal specificity: it is carried out around the clock at checkpoints (Part 3 of Article 18 of Law No. 193-FZ).

The fourth feature of this type of customs control is the special status of a person under the control of customs authorities — a resident of the Arctic zone. The latter is understood as an individual entrepreneur or a legal entity being a commercial organization, the state registration of which is carried out in the Arctic zone (with the exception of state and municipal unitary enterprises), which, in accordance with Law 193-FZ, have concluded an agreement on investment activities in the Arctic zone and are included in register of residents of the Arctic zone (Paragraph 2, Part 1 of Article 1 of Law 193-FZ). The presence of such, to a certain extent, privileged status allows us to speak about the combination of both territorial and status instruments of stimulating socioeconomic, investment and other development in the Arctic zone. At present, 564 residents are

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Saniyat A. Agamagomedova. Customs Control in the Arctic Zone … included in the register of residents of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation ¹⁰, the largest of which are NOVATEK, Gazpromneft, Rosneft, Severnaya Zvezda and many others.

The application of the customs procedure of the free customs zone is, in our opinion, the fifth feature of the considered type of customs control in the Arctic zone. Within the framework of customs control, a checkpoint regime is provided in port and logistics areas, other territories of the zone under consideration.

The procedure for ensuring a control and pass regime in port areas or logistic areas of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation determines the rules for ensuring a control and pass regime in a separate area (areas) of seaports open for international traffic and the entry of foreign ships, including the water area of the seaport, and (or) in separate airport areas, open for receiving and departing aircraft carrying out international air transportations, located in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, as well as on area adjacent to road or railway checkpoint (logistics site), where the procedure of a free customs zone, provided for a port or logistics special economic zone, is applied: import (export) of goods; entry (exit) of vehicles; entry (exit) of people 11.

The application of this customs procedure determines the use of such varieties of customs control zones as the area of the Arctic zone and (or) the section of the Arctic zone resident, where the customs procedure of the free customs zone is applied. At the same time, these areas are subject to special requirements for arrangement and equipment for customs control 12.

These requirements are related, in particular, to the nature of the boundaries of the port and logistics areas of the Arctic zone, as well as the section of the resident of the Arctic zone and the designation of their borders; determination of the composition of buildings, premises, structures necessary for customs operations and control (customs infrastructure facilities) on the territories of the port and logistics areas of the Arctic zone, as well as the sites of residents of the Arctic zone, and their locations in the territories of the corresponding sections of the Arctic zone; providing and equipping customs infrastructure facilities with material and technical means.

Taking into account the fact that in the current legislation, the customs procedure is understood as a set of rules defining for the purposes of customs regulation the conditions and procedure for the use of goods in the customs territory of the Union or outside it (Subparagraph 34,

Paragraph 1, Article 2 of the Customs Code of the Eurasian Economic Union 13), which, in fact, corresponds to the understanding of the administrative and legal regime (in the legislation of the previous period, this concept was called the customs regime), one can talk about the presence of a special customs regime in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation.

In this unique regime of the territory, we can also observe other overlaying regimes (“regime in regime”): for example, a checkpoint regime at port or logistics areas of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation 14; special economic regime, operational regime in the Arctic zone; regime of special protection of natural areas 15 and others. Moreover, according to the Strategy for the development of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation and ensuring national security for the period up to 2035, a special economic regime is designed to facilitate the transition to a circular economy 16. It offers fundamentally new approaches to production, consumption and economic activities based on the principles of renewable solutions and business models, is based on the cyclical processing of natural resources and their return to circulation, is designed to solve fundamental problems in the field of waste management and provide an environmental agenda.

Ensuring the administrative and legal regime of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation, established by the legislation, naturally acts in modern conditions as an important guarantee of long-term socio-economic development of Russia, preservation of its territorial sovereignty and security.

Conclusion

The features of customs control in the Arctic zone reflect the selectivity of managerial organizational and legal influence there. The peculiarity of the administrative procedures of control and supervisory activities in the considered zone is designed to promote the development of entrepreneurial and investment activities in this region. On the basis of the analysis, it can be concluded that, firstly, customs control in the zone under consideration is an integral part of the control and supervisory activities of state bodies in the Arctic zone as a whole, and, secondly, this control is a reflection of combination of spatial and status approaches in the regulation of entrepreneurial and other economic activities in modern conditions.

Ibid.

The Arctic zone is an area of intersection of a wide variety of interests: transport, geopolitical, military, socio-economic, environmental, tourist, national and others. Scientists draw attention to the need to take into account the interests of the indigenous peoples of the Far North in the economic development of the Arctic [2, Chistobaev A.I., Malinin P.Yu., p. 124], explore various aspects of the ethno-social situation in the region in the context of state national policy, conclude that there are no socio-economic, demographic and cultural prerequisites for the growth of ethnic tension in the region under study, but, at the same time, emphasize the need for a certain rethinking of the idea of ethnic and cultural diversity in the conditions of the Arctic zone [10, Zaykov K.S., Maksimov A.M., Tamitskiy A.M., Troshina T.I.].

The development of the Arctic zone is a national priority for the socio-economic development of the country, while the main focus of the documents is on the development of resources, ensuring security and stability, Northern Sea Route (NSR) and sustainability. The NSR is seen by scientists as the most important tool for further development of the Arctic zone [8, Zvorykina Yu.V., Teteryatnikov K.S.].

The national maritime policy in the Arctic regional direction is conditioned, among other things, by the transformation of the Arctic into a region of global competition not only from the economic, but also from the military point of view. Taking into account these factors, the priorities of the national maritime policy in the Arctic regional direction are to ensure the specified operational regime in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation by strengthening the combat potential of the forces (troops) of the Northern and Pacific Fleets, as well as the federal security service in accordance with the existing and predicted nature of military dangers and threats to the Russian Federation in the Arctic 17. It should be noted that scientists traditionally pay attention to the connection between state security issues and environmental changes, but the latter (in particular, climate change) are not considered as a threat, but rather as a second-level risk that contributes to the existing instability [11, Zellen B.S.].

Scientists note that national priorities in the resource policy and development policy of the NSR were established long before the imposition of sanctions and remain relevant today. At the same time, the sanctions caused some changes in resource management, namely the establishment of import substitution priorities through the development of domestic technologies and cooperation with Asian countries [3, Shapovalova D., Galimullin E., Grushevenko E.], which ultimately requires a certain transformation in terms of customs regulation. The implementation of projects in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation with the participation of foreign partners has a positive multiplier effect on the development of the NSR, the main economic highway of the Russian Arctic [5, Vopilovsky S.S., p. 33]. We believe that from the perspective of customs regulation in the future, it will be necessary to systematically regulate the administrative procedures of customs control, ensuring the full functioning of the Northern Sea Route.