Criminal-legal provision of counter-intelligence measures when documenting collaborative activities

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of certain issues of increasing the effectiveness of counterintelligence activities, which are carried out when documenting collaborative activities, that is, a criminal offense provided for in Art. 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The authors have analyzed certain problematic issues of covert counter-intelligence activities in the occupied territories and substantiated the need to expand the criminal-legal toolkit, which would allow obtaining new opportunities to fight against representatives of the aggressor state, which implement the occupation administration in the temporarily occupied territories and form illegal authorities, and as well as illegal judicial and law enforcement agencies.On the basis of scientific analysis, the authors proposed the introduction of a special basis for exemption from criminal liability for certain forms of collaborative activity, which, in their opinion, will allow organizing covert counterintelligence measures in uncontrolled territory, obtaining the necessary operational information and influencing the operational situation. The conditions for exemption from criminal liability for collaborative activity related to the occupation of positions defined by the disposition of the specified article include the subject’s voluntary appeal to the state authorities of Ukraine with a notification of their collaborative activity in the form of taking a position in illegal authorities, illegal judicial or law enforcement bodies established in the temporarily occupied territory, including in the occupying administration of the aggressor state; further participation of the subject in the performance of a special counter-intelligence or intelligence task; the absence of particularly severe consequences caused by the subject as a result of the performance of the duties of the position held.Taking into account the need for the subject to comply with the specified conditions in order to further resolve the issue of exemption from criminal liability for certain forms of collaborative activity, proposed changes in Art. 111-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine in the form of a separate part, which would provide for a special basis for exemption from criminal liability. The hypothesis of the article is based on the assumption that similar changes to the criminal law on responsibility for collaborative activity will increase the effectiveness of counterintelligence activities in the territories occupied by the aggressor state.