During any major reform, the problems of ensuring the rule of law and order become relevant. The field editors of Orientir magazine learned about how they are being solved in the vast territory of the new Siberian Military District from conversations with the heads of military justice bodies.

Colonel of Justice Alexander SAVENKOV, Military Prosecutor of the Siberian Military District, Candidate of Law:

- Alexander Nikolaevich, after the merger of the two districts, the corresponding legal field has also expanded geographically. How does the military Prosecutor's Office of the SibVO solve its tasks?

- After the merger, we have 29 prosecutor's offices and the prosecutor's office of the Siberian Military District itself in Chita. More than 350 people serve here, which is more than 10 percent of all officers of the military prosecutor's office in all the Armed Forces of Russia. The scope of the district is known: it covers 16 subjects of the Russian Federation in 4 time zones. We border the Kurgan Region to the west and the Amur Region to the east. To date, the scope of tasks performed by the military prosecutor's office bodies within the framework of the implementation of the Federal Law "On the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation" is being implemented at all levels. They are solved both at the level of criminal prosecution of persons who have committed crimes and offenses, and at the level, so to speak, of eliminating those violations of laws that contribute to the commission of a crime or offense. For example, when an act is not yet a crime, but an offense has been committed, the main emphasis is often placed on compensation for damage caused to federal property by, let's say, negligent military officials, and high-ranking ones at that. Together with the command, we are working out measures to avoid these violations in the future.

Perhaps it would be correct to say that the main concern is caused by the territory of the former Siberian Military District, since the former ZabVO maintained a more well-established system: it was less reformed in terms of governance, which may have helped to avoid many of the shortcomings, including those of a legal nature, that we have on the territory of Siberia.

- You mentioned offenses involving damage to the state...

- We are talking, for example, about the sale of military property, when prices for military facilities and individual towns are underestimated. Other military officials during the reform period, taking advantage, perhaps, of some organizational confusion, abusing their official position, illegally received, for example, additional housing and land plots. In the Novosibirsk Garrison alone, we are currently preparing 10 lawsuits for eviction of people from those residential premises that they illegally received-with multiple exceeding of social norms of living space. Since the law does not allow them to be simply evicted from there, we will select housing for them that they have the right to apply for. And at the same time, taking into account everything that has been done, we will resolve the issue of their responsibility.

- Today, the military prosecutor's office also faces the task of crime prevention. How feasible is it, in particular, in the Siberian Military District?

- We have developed a multi-stage prevention system. In particular, I have given instructions to use Saturday as a day of legal propaganda, legal prevention and "prosecutor's landing", primarily in dysfunctional military units. This work is planned taking into account the manifestations of crime in each specific military unit. The garrison prosecutor's office draws up a plan, a theme, and together with the command, the question of how it will be organized is decided, and people leave and work. Individual interviews with offenders are also conducted. For military officials, the new version of the Law "On the Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation" provides for a return to the form of response that we had before.

This warning about the inadmissibility of violating the law is quite a serious prosecutor's document. Many scientists and practitioners called for its return, and it was done.

The second stage of preventive work is carried out when the offense has already been committed. From each investigator, prosecutor's employee, I demand that the results of a criminal case investigated by the military prosecutor's office be brought to the attention of the army public through the investigator's speech in that military collective or in a number of military collectives where there are similar offenses. That is, in a specific criminal case, the investigator provides information to the personnel.

The third stage of preventive work is carried out jointly with the command and military courts. This is the consideration of criminal cases in a military unit with the participation, as a rule, of public prosecutors. Court sessions are also held here, and the defendant is also here. Here, the public prosecutor's officer, who provides public prosecution in court, also takes part in the debate with an assessment of the public danger of the crime committed. After the verdict is passed, we try to use the results of the trial precisely for preventive purposes. In this case, we do not limit ourselves to such a form as informing the personnel of information in the orders of the district commander. Suffice it to say that the offices of the Military Prosecutor's Office of the districts have been operating a service for interaction with the public and the media for about a year. I also have a media relations assistant. In general, the military mass media provide us with invaluable assistance in terms of preventing offenses and crimes. In particular, we are happy to read the magazine "Orientir". And we hope for further close cooperation.

I believe that cooperation with our district newspaper Na Boevoy Postu is already a good and historically established tradition. There are practically no closed topics, except for cases stipulated by law. In other words, the transparency of our work is quite high.

- Now there is a lot of talk about the fact that the military prosecutor's office stands guard over the rights and interests of a serviceman. How is such social and legal protection implemented? Do you cooperate with the district's legal service in this regard?

- Here the interaction is inseparable. Currently, the economic conditions in which the Armed Forces are placed are such that, in general, due to a number of circumstances, we are even forced to help the legal service, especially in defending the interests of the Ministry of Defense, either in civil proceedings or in arbitration courts. Our mutual understanding is complete. And most importantly , I see both our task and the task of the district's legal service as follows: by all available means, to exclude any encroachments on federal property and military property, and if this has happened, to seek compensation for damages. The second-in order, but not in the highest importance-is the protection of the rights and freedoms of military personnel, their interests in all cases when they are violated.

The course of military reform does not always correspond to the realities of the day. For example, it is assumed that military personnel are discharged from the reserve due to organizational events. They must make all monetary payments that are provided for by law. In addition, they must be provided with housing. Often, when it is difficult to meet the deadlines set for disbanding military units, commanders exclude from the lists of personnel people in respect of whom the state, represented by the command, has not fully fulfilled its duty. In such cases, we are forced to challenge the decisions taken, seek the reinstatement of these people in military service and pay them a salary, raise the issue of providing housing or issuing them state housing certificates.

- And what are the areas of cooperation with military courts?

- We cooperate with the military courts in organizing legal training and preparing the legal assets of military units. In all cases, we have the most friendly and constructive business relations with all courts in the district. It's not just an interaction. This is, by and large, the solution of a single national task to ensure the criminal prosecution of persons who have committed offenses, to prevent offenses in order to strengthen military discipline and law and order, and the rule of law in the territory of the Siberian Military District.

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