INTERROGATION OF AN OPERATIONAL OFFICER ON THE LEGISLATION OF RUSSIA AND TAJIKISTAN
Authors:   Kuban State University, SEMENTSOV V.A. 
Published: November 2024

The article presents the results of a comparative legal study of the criminal procedure and operational investigative legislation of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Tajikistan in terms of regulating the basis, possibility and rules for conducting interrogation as a witness of an operational officer and other persons carrying out their activities on a confidential basis. The interest in the results of this comparison is due to the fundamentally different approach of the Russian and Tajik legislators to determining the possibility of carrying out the specified investigative action, when the operational investigative law of the Republic of Tajikistan establishes such a possibility, unlike the corresponding law of the Russian Federation. By itself, the possibility of such an interrogation actualizes a number of problems related to both the procedural status of the interrogated person and the order of his interrogation. Equally significant is the fact that interrogation may not be the only investigative and other procedural action in which it is permissible to involve an operational officer and persons cooperating with him. It is substantiated that the permission of the legislator of Tajikistan to interrogate an operative officer necessitates further improvement of special rules for both interrogation and the production of other investigative and procedural actions against these persons, up to giving the entire criminal case or part of it a secrecy regime. The purpose of the study is to formulate and substantiate the importance of the problem of interrogating an operational officer and persons cooperating with him on a confidential basis in order to find optimal ways to solve it, as well as to determine a conscious and responsible approach to classifying criminal case materials when presenting the results of operational investigative activities. The objectives of the study are to conduct a comparative legal analysis of the operational investigative and criminal procedural legislation of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Tajikistan to determine the similarities and differences in the legal regulation of the interrogation of an operational officer; to form an author's position on the admissibility of the interrogation of an operational officer as a witness; to identify promising areas for improving special rules of interrogation, production of other investigative and procedural actions in relation to operational staff, agents, secret employees, and other persons who carry out their activities on a confidential basis. Research methods: dialectical, general scientific methods (logical, systemic, structural, functional, generalization, etc), special methods (comparative legal, formal legal).The results of the conducted research - the author's vision of the problem is formulated, due to the absence of any formal rules of interrogation, production of other investigative and procedural actions against operational staff, agents, secret employees, other persons carrying out their activities on a confidential basis, as well as legally defined grounds for applying (if necessary) the procedure for classifying criminal case materials.