Legal Aspects of Arms and Defense-Related Products Transfer between the EAEU Member States: Towards the Formation of an Arms Market?

Abstract

Treaties do not directly regulate the functioning of a single arms market in the post-Soviet space. However, an analysis of the provisions of the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union and agreements adopted within the framework of the Collective Security Treaty Organization leads to the conclusion that, in general, the existing legal framework contributes to the formation of similar (comparable) and the same type of regulatory mechanisms in this area based on market principles and application harmonized or unified legal regulations. The EAEU Treaty predominantly forms a general framework for the movement of goods and its possible restrictions, while detailed rules aimed at creating harmonized norms that exclude the need to resort to exceptions to the free movement of goods are created already at the CSTO level. In fact, the CSTO plays the role of an "agent" of the EAEU in terms of regulating economic issues of military integration, creating conditions for the opening of arms markets. The legislation of the Russian Federation uses two competing approaches to the functioning of arms markets. A restrictive one allows closing the national market for public safety reasons without any additional justification (it is used in the legislation on arms export and on state defense orders). A broad one, allows the market to be closed in exceptional cases (applies when the supply of goods is not directly related to defense and security issues).