Criminal Law in the National Security System of Russia

The article defines that criminal law plays a special role in the system of legal support of national security, since it is the criminal law that is aimed at minimizing (neutralizing) the most dangerous manifestations of deviant behavior. Therefore, it is important to find ways to further increase the effectiveness of criminal law instruments for ensuring national security. After analyzing the processes of criminalization-decriminalization, the practice of sentencing, the positions of domestic researchers assessing the current trends, it was found that: firstly, in Russia there are no conceptual foundations of state policy in the field of combating crime, and the strategy and tactics of counteracting it are formed spontaneously to please momentary desires of power structures; secondly, in our country, the processes of criminalization dominate the processes of decriminalization, while the judicial practice followed the path of de-penalization, trying to mitigate the excessive severity and breadth of criminal repression through the use of the institutions of exemption from criminal liability, exemption from punishment, probation, as well as by imposing a punishment corresponding in size to a milder category of crime; thirdly, laws that amend the criminal law, for the most part, only lead to its destabilization, which does not contribute to the fulfillment of the function of ensuring national security by the criminal law. Most of the articles newly introduced into the Criminal Code have no practical applicability. Based on the study, in order to overcome the current crisis situation, the authors consider it necessary, firstly, to develop and adopt the conceptual foundations of the criminal policy of the Russian Federation, and secondly, to adopt a new version of the Criminal Code, taking into account the changed social relations, the real needs of the population and judicial practice.