What commands the Supreme Commander in Russia?

7
What commands the Supreme Commander in Russia?

The President of the Russian Federation is entitled to exercise his powers of the Chief Executive Officer only in relation to the Armed Forces.

At first glance, the answer to the question put forward in the title of this speech on the pages of the newspaper "MIC" is, as they say, on the surface and it is contained in the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

Recall that Article 87 of the Basic Law states that the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is the President of our country. Consequently, he as Glavkover and commands the Russian Armed Forces.

Obvious contradictions
However, the following question arises: what are the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation? And it seems to be just a reply to it: it suffices to read the 10 article of the Federal Law 31 of May 1996 of the year No. 61-ФЗ “On Defense”, where it says: The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is the state military organization that forms the basis of the defense of the Russian Federation. They are intended to repel aggression directed against Russia, to protect the integrity and integrity of its territory, as well as to perform tasks in accordance with federal constitutional laws, federal laws and international treaties of the Russian Federation.

According to the 11 article of the same law, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation consist of the central bodies of military control, associations, formations, military units and organizations that are included in the types and types of troops of the Russian Armed Forces, in the Rear of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and in the troops that are not in the types and kind of troops RF Armed Forces

Based on these regulations, the overall composition of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and the system of their management in the modern period can be represented schematically as follows (Fig. 1).


At the same time, in accordance with Article 1 of Law 31 of May 1996 of the year No. 61-ФЗ, in addition to the Armed Forces, the Interior Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia are engaged in defense, and for performing certain tasks in the field of defense - engineering, road-building military units under federal bodies executive authorities and rescue military units of the federal executive body authorized to carry out civil defense tasks, the SVR of Russia, the federal security service bodies, Keep the federal authority to ensure the mobilization preparation of state power bodies of the Russian Federation, as well as created in wartime special formation.

From the literal interpretation of these regulations, it follows that the President of Russia can exercise his powers as Commander-in-Chief only in relation to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. As for the above-mentioned other troops, military formations and bodies, in their regard the President of the Russian Federation exercises only political leadership as head of state, since these organizations are not part of the Armed Forces, which he commands as Glavkover, these organizations are not independent entities.



A further analysis of the norms of the federal law “On Defense” reveals a number of related contradictions.

Thus, in paragraph 7 of Article 1 of the said federal law, the norm is fixed, according to which the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, other troops, military formations and agencies perform tasks in the field of defense in accordance with the Plan of Application of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. It turns out that although this fundamental document in the field of defense is called the Armed Forces Implementation Plan, its legal force fully extends to all other troops, military units and agencies that are not part of the Armed Forces.

Further. The 1 clause of Article 4 of the Federal Law “On Defense” reproduces the constitutional provision that the President of the Russian Federation is the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, and the 2 clause of the same article sets out in detail (in the 20 sub-clauses) the powers of the head of our state in the field of defense . At the same time, they equally apply to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, other troops, military formations, and organs. From the fact that the rule on the status of the president of Russia as Glavkoverhah and the rules on his powers in the field of defense are combined into one article of the federal law “On Defense”, it is quite logical that the legislator in this case implies that the head of the Russian state is Supreme Commander in relation to all state bodies and organizations involved in solving tasks in the field of state defense, and not only in relation to the Armed Forces, as is literally interpreted paragraph 1 article 87 of the Constitution of Russia. Thus, the spirit and the letter of the law in this case do not match.

This contradiction requires its own regulatory resolution (its possible variants will be discussed in the third part of this material).

Soviet model

An interesting question is: what are the origins of the considered legal and terminological inaccuracy of the current Russian legislation on defense?

To search for an answer, it is very instructive to refer to the recent past.

For the first time after the end of the Great Patriotic War, the post of Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces in our country was restored in 1990, when the Head of 14 supplemented the Constitution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (March 1990) by the USSR Law of 1360 March according to which was introduced the post of the President of the Soviet Union. Article 1977 of the Basic Law of the USSR established that the president is the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the country.

Which Armed Forces commanded the head of the time? An analysis of the military legislation of the USSR shows that the content of the concept of "Armed Forces" in the Soviet period stories was completely different than at present. To verify this, we turn to article 4 of the USSR law of October 12, 1967 No. 1950-VII "On universal military duty", which says: "The Armed Forces of the USSR consist of the Soviet Army, the Naval fleet, Border Guard and Internal Troops. ”

The control system of the Armed Forces of the USSR included:

the control bodies of the Soviet Army and Navy, subordinate to the USSR Ministry of Defense;
the command and control bodies of the Border Troops subordinate to the USSR State Security Committee;
control bodies of the Internal Troops subordinate to the USSR Ministry of the Interior.
All of the above mentioned military command and control agencies locked themselves on the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the USSR.

Schematically, the overall composition of the Armed Forces of the USSR and the system of control in the Soviet period on the eve of the collapse of the Soviet Union had the following appearance (Fig. 2).


Comparison of modern (Fig. 1) and Soviet (Fig. 2) models of the composition of the domestic Armed Forces shows that the military organization, which today is called the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, in the Soviet period was called the Soviet army and the Navy, which was an integral part State military organization of a higher order - the Armed Forces of the USSR. Therefore, the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces commanded not only the army and navy, as is legally the case today, but also other so-called security forces - the Border and Internal Troops.

Apparently, when the Constitution of the Russian Federation (1993) was written, formulating a constitutional provision that the President of the Russian Federation is the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Russia, the authors of the Basic Law meant that the Soviet model of the Armed Forces structure, albeit in a modified form, but will be preserved and in the post-Soviet period.

However, in practice, everything turned out differently. In the same way as the 15 of the union republics at the beginning of the 90s of the last century “ran up to national apartments”, so the united Armed Forces of the USSR split up into independent national armies. In turn, within Russia, the part of the Soviet Armed Forces, as well as other security agencies, which it had inherited, split up into separate independent troops, military formations and bodies, many of which even acquired an independent legislative base.

On the basis of the Soviet Army and Navy, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation were formed. On the basis of the rest of the Soviet Armed Forces, as well as the abolished State Security Committee and other state bodies of the former USSR, at least a dozen different state bodies were established that perform certain functions in the field of defense (Table 1).

1 table. Troops, military formations and bodies established in the Russian Federation at the beginning of the 90 of the XX century
№№ PPNameLegal basis of creation and activityNotes
1The Armed Forces of the Russian FederationDecree of the President of the Russian Federation of 7 of May 1992 of the Year No. 466 “On the Establishment of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”
2Border troops (later - Border Service) of the Federal Border Service of the Russian Federation (Federal Border Service of Russia)Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of 30 December 1993 of the Year No. 2318 “On the Establishment of the Federal Border Service - the Main Command of the Border Troops of the Russian Federation” Federal Law of 4 of May 2000 of the Year No. 55-ФЗ “On the Border Service of the Russian Federation”Federal Border Guard Service of Russia was abolished from 1 July 2003 of the year in accordance with the decree of the President of the Russian Federation of 11 in March 2003 of the year No. 308 and on its basis the Border Guard Service of the Federal Security Service of Russia was established
3Troops of the Federal Agency for Government Communications and Information under the President of the Russian Federation (FAPSI)Law of the Russian Federation dated February 19 1993 4524-1 “On Federal Government Communications and Information”FAPSI abolished from 1 July 2003 of the year in accordance with the decree of the President of the Russian Federation of 11 in March 2003 of the year No. 308 and on its basis the Special Communication and Information Service was created as part of the Federal Security Service of Russia
4Railway troops of the Russian FederationFederal Law of 5 of August 1995 of the Year No. 126-ФЗ “On the Railway Troops of the Russian Federation”Railway troops abolished by Federal Law 29 of June 2004 No. 58-ФЗ and transferred to the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation
5Civil defense troopsFederal Law of February 12 1998 of the Year No. 28-FZ "On Civil Defense"Civil defense troops in accordance with the Federal Law of July 27 2010 223-FZ converted into rescue military units EMERCOM of Russia
6Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia)Federal Law of February 6 of 1997 No. 27-ФЗ “On the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation”
7Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB of Russia)Federal Law of April 3 of 1995 of the Year No. 40-ФЗ “On the Federal Security Service”
8Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation (SVR of Russia)Federal Law of January 10 of 1996 No. 5-ФЗ “On Foreign Intelligence”
9Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSO of Russia)Federal Law of 27 of May 1996 of the Year No. 57-ФЗ “On State Protection”
10General Directorate of Special Programs for the President of the Russian Federation (GUSP)Decree of the President of the Russian Federation of 7 of September 2004 of the Year No. 1146 “Questions of the Main Directorate for Special Programs of the President of the Russian Federation”Performs the functions of a federal body providing mobilization training for state authorities of the Russian Federation
11Federal Agency for Special Construction (Spetsstroy Russia)Presidential Decree of 16 of August 2004 of the Year No. 1084 “Issues of the Federal Agency for Special Construction”Under Spetsstroy of Russia, engineering, technical, and road-building military units are established and function.


As the further development of events showed, the indicated multiplicity and fragmentation of the structure of the state’s military organization did not at all contribute to strengthening the country's defense capability and created significant difficulties in the state administration of military construction. In particular, this found expression in the problem in question in this material: legally, the status of the President of the Russian Federation as Supreme Commander today extends only to one state military organization - the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, since other military structures are not part of them.

It is impossible not to note the fact that so far, despite the fact that, legally and in fact, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation constitute the basis of our country's defense, there is no single law in Russia regulating their composition, functions, procedure for applying and manning , comprehensive provision, management, etc. The legal regulation of these issues is “scattered” in many other legislative acts. At the same time, the activities of most other troops, military formations and bodies are regulated by special federal laws.

It should be noted that this problem is not the first time. Almost ten years ago, attempts were made to solve it. The draft law “On the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation” was drafted and submitted to the State Duma on November 14 of 2003 and was included in the Model program of legislative work of the lower house of the Federal Assembly for May 2004. However, after many months of discussion of the draft law in committees and commissions of the State Duma, it was withdrawn from further consideration (Minutes of the State Duma Council meeting on September 28 of 2004 No. 44). This decision is dictated by the fact that in accordance with the Federal Law 29 of June 2004 of the year No. 58-ФЗ, the 5 clause 10 of the Federal Law “On Defense” excluded the provision stipulating that the activities of the armed forces are governed by the Federal Law “On the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”.

We offer the following

An analysis of the data in the 1 table shows that a decade after the formation of the new Russia — from the beginning of the 2000-s, there is a gradual awareness of the need to overcome the multiplicity and fragmentation of the structure of the military organization of the Russian state, and improve its management system. Thus, in 2003, the border agencies that gained autonomy for several years returned under the wing of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, the Federal Agency for Governmental Communication and Information (FAPSI), separated from the KGB of the USSR, was liquidated, and its functions were transferred to the Federal Security Service and partially to the RAF. In 2004, the Railway Forces of the Russian Federation were liquidated as an independent organization and were incorporated into the Armed Forces (they currently operate under the direction of the Main Directorate of the Railway Forces and are subordinated to the Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation, Army General D.V. Bulgakov).

What are the prospects for further improvement of the state governance system of the country's defense, optimization of the structure of the state’s military organization, including its basis - the Armed Forces?

In order to overcome the contradiction discussed in the first part of the material related to the legal status of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, the experience of legislative regulation of this issue in Belarus, in which, according to the constitution, the President of the Republic of Belarus would be acceptable, , is also the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of the country (but without the adjective “Supreme”). However, the Law of the Republic of Belarus on 3 in November 1992 of the year No. 1902-XII “On Defense”, unlike the Russian Federation, contains a very significant clarification of the status of the president as commander-in-chief (table 2).

2 table. Comparative analysis of the legislative regulation of the powers of the president as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces under the laws of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus
P. 1 Art. 4 federal law "On Defense":Abs 1 Law of the Republic of Belarus "On Defense":
The President of the Russian Federation is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.The President of the Republic of Belarus - the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces exercises overall leadership in the preparation and use of the state’s military organization in order to ensure the military security of the Republic of Belarus


From the above provision of the law of the Republic of Belarus “On Defense” it is clear and unambiguous that the Belarusian President as the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus exercises general leadership in the preparation and use of the military organization of the state as a whole, and not just its integral part - the armed forces. From the meaning of the similar provision contained in paragraph 1 of the article 4 of the federal law “On Defense”, such an unequivocal conclusion, as already indicated above, cannot be made.

In this regard, in order to eliminate the existing contradiction and bring the “spirit” of the federal law “On Defense” into conformity with its “letter”, it seems appropriate to paragraph 1 of Article 4 of this legislative act to read as follows: “The President of the Russian Federation is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Of the Russian Federation and in order to ensure the defense of the country carries out the general leadership of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, other troops, military formations and agencies. ”

As a promising direction for improving the structure of the Armed Forces and improving the efficiency of public administration, we could become a definite return to the model that existed during the Soviet period (of course, on a completely different political and legal basis). It seems appropriate to return to the concept of "Armed Forces" the meaning and content that they had previously, that is, to understand not only the Russian army and the Russian Navy, but also other bodies and organizations that have weapons and military equipment and are involved in providing the country's defense. This is indicated by the etymology of the word "armed" - having weaponequipped with defensive weapons.

These organizations include primarily the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, which, in accordance with Article 2 of the Federal Law “On Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation”, participate in the territorial defense of the Russian Federation and assist in protecting the state border of Russia, as well as the border agencies of the FSB RF, which, in accordance with the articles 11.1 and 12 of the Law “On the Federal Security Service”, perform the functions of protecting and guarding the state borders of our country. In this case, it is not about the inclusion of these structures in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, as happened, for example, with the Railway Troops, but about the formation of the Armed Forces on a fundamentally different basis. Schematically, the structure of this new Armed Forces could look like this (Fig. 3).


The purpose, main tasks, structure and composition, bases of activity, order of leadership, control and comprehensive support of the Russian Armed Forces should be determined by the federal law “On the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation”.

Based on the provisions of the federal law “On Defense” (Article 10) that the Armed Forces of Russia form the basis of the defense of the Russian Federation, it is advisable to establish in the Law “On the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation” that the head of the Russian military department as the head of the federal executive body authorized in the field of defense, he is the First Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. At the same time, the chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation should have the status of deputy commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Russia.

The implementation of these measures will allow to create a single centralized management system for the military organization of the Russian Federation, eliminate the existing legislative contradictions in the legal framework for the defense of our country.
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  1. L. konstantin
    0
    1 February 2012 11: 28
    GAS PIPE!
  2. Desert Fox
    0
    1 February 2012 11: 29
    The article is called, What is commanded by the Supreme Commander in Russia? But what are the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation? So let's see. I think this question can be answered by reading the costitution of the Russian Federation. And realizing what the supreme commander is, and where did this post come from.

    The Supreme Commander is the highest leader of the armed forces of a country or a coalition of states. Usually this post is introduced in wartime, less often in peacetime. The Supreme Commander-in-Chief is vested with the broadest powers of planning military operations, preparing and conducting them, in accordance with the country's constitution or other legislative acts that have the highest legal force. In addition, the Commander-in-Chief has extraordinary power in relation to the civilian population (and civilian institutions) located in the theater of war.

    In the modern world, the supreme commander, as a rule, is the head of state. Therefore, it is simultaneously entrusted with the obligation to develop and approve the country's military doctrine. He appoints the supreme command in the regular troops. Of course, this state institute is derived from the medieval governor, who served under the princes. However, monarchist Russia throughout its long history dispensed with the post of supreme commander in chief.
    As a result of such abstinence, the post of Supreme Commander-in-Chief was first introduced in the Russian Empire only with the outbreak of World War I. On July 20, 1914, by order of the Senate, Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolayevich, cavalry general, took it. In Russia of the XNUMXst century sample, this position in accordance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation is occupied by the President of the Russian Federation.

    And the question is, what are the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation? I think you can make it as an independent article feel
  3. Igaryok
    +2
    1 February 2012 11: 31
    Today’s commander is not real lol
    1. L. konstantin
      +1
      1 February 2012 11: 58
      he is not real! he just can’t make any comparison with STALIN! dmit. anatol. to Stalin like me cancer to China!
  4. predator
    +1
    1 February 2012 16: 35
    people who have not served in the army for days are the supreme commander and minister of defense!
    1. +5
      1 February 2012 17: 40
      In general, I consider it necessary to amend the Constitution of the Russian Federation - the post of president and chairman of the government and his first deputies can be held by persons who have served in the armed forces or have a military education - so that these officials have an idea of ​​military service, an independent opinion and not from the words of any tips from managers in addition, this provision should apply to the heads of the subjects of the federation and their deputies and to the chairman of the State Duma and his deputies and chairmen of the Duma committees. This is my personal opinion. of
  5. 9991
    +1
    1 February 2012 16: 52
    The main thing is not an unknown case with a button am
  6. suharev-52
    +1
    1 February 2012 22: 23
    opium 21. I fully support and this must be approved at the legislative level. And then they recruited "effective" managers and are thrown from place to place. In one position he ruined everything, you are welcome to another chair.
  7. Siberian
    0
    2 February 2012 18: 35
    Predator.
    Serdyukov has served the "urgent".
    And the current Commander-in-Chief commands his iPad!

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