Development of Russia’s Criminal Policy in Combating Modern Hybrid Threats

The Special Military Operation served as a catalyst for large-scale changes in Russian legislation aimed at adapting the legal framework to new complex challenges. This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the dynamics of legislative activity in the Russian Federation under the SMO, examining international experience and discussing key legislative changes, their systematization, and effectiveness in the context of protecting national interests. Particular attention is given to three main aspects: the systematization of legal norms by areas and spheres of public relations; the utilization of the structure of complex criminal offenses dispositions with positive law enforcement experience in combating terrorism, which includes basic models of participation and behavior identified by the author as a matrix; and the necessity of consolidating disparate signs of criminal offenses into separate articles to eliminate legal gaps. The study explores significant innovations such as the expansion of articles on treason and espionage, the criminalization of support for the enemy, and the tightening of liability for disseminating false information regarding the activities of the Russian Federation Armed Forces. Particular emphasis is placed on proposals for improving legislation, including the expansion objective side of the Russian Federation the Criminal Code Article 275 (transfer of information to organizations acting in the interests of foreign intelligence services), the delineation of dispositions from Article 281.1 (information complicity), and the subjective side of Article 276.1 (extraterritoriality). Additionally, suggestions are made for amending legislation in the area of protecting the State’s information and economic sovereignty, along with a matrix approach to the criminalization of unlawful acts derived from existing experience, and the expansion of the list of aggravating circumstances. The article is of interest to lawyers, political scientists, specialists in national security and public administration, as well as anyone engaged in legislative regulation in the context of contemporary geopolitical challenges.