Problems of the Legal Basis of Operational Investigative Activities and Ways to Improve Legislative Activity in This Area (To Mark the Anniversary of the Adoption of the Federal Law “On Operational Investigative Activities”)

The article analyzes the problems of legal regulation of operational investigative activities and identifies some ways to improve it. Proposals to amend, supplement, and redact certain provisions of the Federal Law “On Operational Investigative Activities” are constructive. At the same time, there are ongoing disputes about the degree and nature of the impact on the improvement of legislation in this area of the operational units of the subjects of operational investigative activities in the Russian Federation, which have not stopped for more than 30 years – since the adoption of the law. Despite this, the relevance of this study is determined by the low implementation of the proposed results of scientific analysis and proposals that can improve the legal basis of operational investigative activities and may be in demand in the legislative process. During the specified period, 38 amendments and additions were made to the law. The purpose of the study is aimed at analyzing the real state and modern theoretical and applied approaches to improving the Federal Law “On Operational Investigative Activities”, the totality of its legal foundations and the views of their authors. Based on this analysis, the author's judgments on this area of activity and its improvement are formulated. For a more complete understanding of the research topic, a comparison was made between the results of a number of scientific publications and federal legislation (the formal legal method). In the course of the work, methods of analysis and synthesis, statistical method, expert assessment method, formal-logical, comparative-legal and others were also used. The use of a combination of these and some other methods allowed us to gain new knowledge about the issues and problems of the research topic, which confirmed not only its scientific, but also its interdepartmental and intersectoral nature. This underlines the need for all subjects of operational investigative activities in the Russian Federation to participate in the improvement and mutual cooperation in law-making activities to regulate it. It is concluded that based on the analysis, recommendations can be made on ways and directions to improve the content and structure of the Federal Law “On Operational Investigative Activities”.