Using the potential of territories with a special regime of entrepreneurial activities for the needs of the Russian military-industrial complex

Chereshneva Irina Anatol'evna PhD in Law Junior Researcher; Institute of State and Law of the Russian Academy of Sciences 10 Znamenka str., Moscow, 119019, Russia iachereshneva@gmail.com Other publications by this author

Modern challenges (of various orientations) require timely and clear responses from the Russian state ^[1,2,3,4], which make it possible to adequately respond to an external "irritant", mitigate it or even eliminate it altogether. At the same time, overcoming these challenges lies not only in the political, but also in the economic plane. The economy, being a field within which there is a constant rivalry of economic agents, is not alien to military affairs in this perspective ^[5] (in a broad sense); therefore, the use of an arsenal of economic means for the development of the Russian military-industrial complex seems reasonable to us. From this point of view, it is advisable to present an entrepreneurial and legal view of the development of the Russian military-industrial complex, which is based on a combination of private law and public law principles ^[6].

As an illustration of the entrepreneurial and legal aspect, we have selected territories with a special (special) regime for conducting business, namely: the military innovation technopolis Era of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as VIT Era), which is a specialized research and production complex that unites scientific and educational organizations, government corporations, industrial enterprises and organizations of the military-industrial complex conducting scientific research in the interests of strengthening the country's defense capability, engaged in the development and creation of military, special and dual-use products and concluded agreements on joint activities with the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated August 28, 2018 No. 501 "On Approval of the Regulations on Military Innovation Technopolis "Era" of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation "VIT "Era" (hereinafter – Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 501).

The study of various types of territories with a special (special) business regime allowed us to identify their key essential features.: 1) special (special) regime of entrepreneurial activity; 2) isolated territory; 3) purpose of creation; 4) model of public organization of entrepreneurial activity ^[7]. At the same time, an analysis of the provisions of Federal Law No. 253-FZ dated July 14, 2022 "On the Era Military Innovation Technopolis of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and on Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation" (hereinafter referred to as the Era Law) indicates the presence of these signs in Era Military Industrial Park.

Thus, by a special (special) regime for carrying out entrepreneurial activity, we mean "the procedure for regulating entrepreneurial, as well as other economic activities, characterized by a combination of stimulating and restrictive legal means aimed at creating additional favorable conditions and/or protecting constitutionally significant values in carrying out entrepreneurial activity."^[7]. In this regard, it is necessary to highlight Article 14 of the Law on the VIT "Era", according to which it is possible to provide participants of the VIT "Era" with state support measures established by Russian legislation. As an example of such support, we can cite Part 5 of Article 12 of the Law on VIT Era, according to which the Technopolis Development Fund can provide, free of charge and irrevocably, property contributions, donations, and other targeted income to participants of VIT Era. In addition, it provides for the possibility of organizing the provision of legal, consulting, educational, advertising, information and other services to the participants of VIT Era free of charge or on preferential terms. This kind of support can also be provided by a specialized organization.

In addition, we would like to point out that on January 1, 2025, the Federal Law of November 23, 2024 "399-FZ"On Amendments to Article 105.14 of Parts One and Part Two of the Tax Code of the Russian Federation" comes into force, according to which the participants of the VIT "Era" are granted the right to be exempt from fulfilling the duties of a tax payer on value added tax and corporate income tax for 10 years from the date of obtaining such status. Thus, we are talking about providing tax benefits to the participants of this territory, which, along with other measures of state support, can be attributed to stimulating legal means.

However, restrictive measures should also be mentioned. For example, Article 13 of the Law on VIT Era stipulates that the activities of its participants should be aimed at achieving the goals of creating and solving the tasks of VIT Era. This provision is developed in the agreement on joint activities, which establishes the obligation for a participant in the Era Military Innovation Center not to carry out, without coordination with a specialized organization, those types of activities that do not relate to the implementation of the Era Military Innovation Center project (according to the Procedure for obtaining the status of a participant in the Era Military Innovation Technopolis of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation Of the Russian Federation dated May 31, 2022, No. 5709p-P22 (hereinafter referred to as the Procedure)). Thus, we can talk about the implementation of only certain types of economic activity and, as a result, the special legal capacity of the participant of the VIT Era. In addition, the latter can only be a Russian legal entity engaged in scientific and technological activities in the interests of ensuring national defense and state security, which is included in the register of participants of the VIT "Era" (art. 3 of the Law on the VIT "Era").

Another illustration is the obligation of the participant of VIT Era not to transfer it to third parties provided for by the agreement on joint activities.: 1) workplace; 2) property of FGAU "Military Innovative Technopolis ERA", as well as 3) rights and obligations under the agreement on joint activities. It is also necessary to single out the provision according to which the organization of information security and protection of state secrets in VIT Era is carried out in compliance with the requirements of the legislation of the Russian Federation (Decree of the President of the Russian Federation No. 501). We believe that here we are talking about both information in the military field and information in the field of economics, science and technology that constitute a state secret (Article 5 of the Law of the Russian Federation dated July 21, 1993 No. 5485-1 "On State Secrets").

In turn, speaking about the direction of the regulation of entrepreneurial and other economic activities, in relation to the subject of the study, it should be pointed out that its focus lies on ensuring the defense of the country and the security of the state, i.e. on the protection of constitutionally significant values. Being a constitutional category, "the concept of security is designed to reflect the state of protection of the vital interests of the individual, society and the state on the basis of consistent ensuring their balance." ^[8]. The idea of ensuring the defense of the country and the security of the state runs through the entire Law on the Military Industrial Complex "Era". In this regard, the preferential component of this regime is a means to achieve an end, and not the goal itself or the orientation of the regime, which is precisely to ensure the defense of the country and the security of the state. The above-mentioned arguments allow us to speak about the establishment of a special protective regime for the conduct of entrepreneurial activity, including one that presupposes a certain restriction on the activity of subjects.

According to Article 4 of the Law on VIT Era, its location is the Anapa resort city municipality of the Krasnodar Territory. At the same time, the article indicates that the territory of VIT Era consists of land plots that are intended for the creation and functioning of its infrastructure, which is a single complex of facilities designed to achieve the goals of creating and solving the tasks of VIT Era, as well as other facilities, including communal, social, and transport infrastructure., and other property located on the territory of VIT "Era" (art. 3 of the Law on VIT "Era"). These land plots are located on the territory of the Anapa resort city municipality of the Krasnodar Territory, and their management functions are performed by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, which provides these land plots to a specialized organization for permanent (indefinite) use.

In addition, in the Explanatory Note to the draft federal law "On the Era Military Innovation Technopolis of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and on Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation" (hereinafter referred to as the Draft Law), it was noted that the Era Military unit is a military unit with a separate territory, access control, and staff staffed by military personnel contract and conscripted military personnel, with the organization of their military service in accordance with military regulations approved by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated November 10, 2007 No. 1495 "On Approval of the General Military Regulations of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation." Thus, a special regime for carrying out entrepreneurial activity is established within the boundaries of a separate territory.

The Law on VIT Era establishes the following objectives of its creation: first, the formation of an effective model for organizing scientific and technological activities in the interests of national defense and state security. Secondly, the creation of an innovative infrastructure that ensures the promotion, support and introduction into production of high-tech military, special and dual-use products, scientific (scientific and technical) results, for which justification has been obtained for the possibility and expediency of their use. These goals can be represented by the formula "Defense&Innovation". It is no coincidence that Era VIT is considered as an army "brother" of the Skolkovo innovation center. In fact, we can talk about the refraction of the cluster approach through a "military" prism.

The model of public organization of entrepreneurial activity is centralized and is represented by the following bodies: firstly, the authorized body - the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation; secondly, the Council of VIT Era, which includes representatives of government authorities, other government agencies, local governments, the federal state budgetary institution "National Research Center "Kurchatov Institute"", the Foundation for Advanced Research and the participants of the VIT Era, as well as representatives of other organizations; thirdly, a specialized organization is the federal state autonomous institution Military Innovative Technopolis ERA, which ensures the functioning of the Technopolis; fourthly, the VIT Era Development Fund, created for the purpose of financing and providing other measures to support scientific and technological activities in the interests of ensuring national defense and state security are taken by a Russian legal entity, the sole founder of which is the backbone bank for the military-industrial complex (PJSC Promsvyazbank (Clause 4.3 of Article 3 of Federal Law No. 275-FZ of December 29, 2012 "On the State Defense Order"). Such a legal entity is the Era Foundation LLC.

To determine the place of VIT Era in the system of territories with a special (special) business regime, we note the following.

Firstly, on the one hand, the Law on VIT Era defines it as a specialized innovation center, on the other hand, as a research, production and educational complex that unites scientific organizations, educational organizations of higher education, state corporations, industrial enterprises, organizations of the military-industrial complex and other Russian organizations. engaged in scientific and technological activities. As a result, the legislator confuses the regulatory status of a science city and an innovation center (the innovative scientific and technological center (hereinafter - the INTC) and/or the Skolkovo Innovation Center (hereinafter – the Skolkovo Research Center)), which may indicate a situational approach to the innovative development of the economy due to the fact that the Skolkovo Research Center was created in a similar way. elements of both a science city and a special economic zone ^[9].

Secondly, the legislator, defining VIT Era as a specialized innovation center, ignores the question of its relationship with the INTC and IC Skolkovo. Analysis of definitions of scientific and technological activities (within the framework of Federal Law No. 216-FZ of July 29, 2017 "On Innovative Scientific and Technological Centers and on Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation") and research activities (within the framework of Federal Law No. 244-FZ of September 28, 2010 "On the Innovation Center Skolkovo) suggests that the purpose of both is, among other things, to commercialize the results of research and development (their subsequent involvement in economic turnover). While within the framework of VIT Era, scientific and technological activities are carried out in the interests of ensuring national defense and state security, i.e. its goal is to strengthen the defense capability of the Russian Federation through the creation and improvement of high-tech military, special and dual-use products. Thus, despite the apparent terminological similarity of such categories as the specialized innovation center (VIT Era), INTC and IC Skolkovo, their identification seems unacceptable to us due to the fact that the goals of their creation lie in diametrically opposite planes.

This means that in the system of territories with a special (special) regime for carrying out entrepreneurial activity, the place of VIT "Era" will be represented as follows: territories with a special (special) regime for carrying out entrepreneurial activity (genus) — territories with a special protective regime for carrying out entrepreneurial activity (type) — military innovative technopolis "Era" of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation — (subspecies). This is due to the fact that the purpose of territories with a special protective regime for business activities is to ensure and protect constitutionally significant values. In turn, the Era VIT, although it contains an innovative component, is aimed at ensuring the country's defense and state security, i.e. innovation (in a broad sense ^[10]) is a means of implementation, not an end (one of the) as in the INTC, IC Skolkovo, or special economic zones of the technical and innovation type; we classify the last three as territories with special preferential treatment for business activities. At the same time, all the listed territories (including VIT Era) can be classified as territories with high scientific potential ^[11]. Note that there are other classifications in the doctrine.

Thus, Professor E.V. Gritsenko points out that "an independent group is formed by those territories that are created to ensure a special management regime for the scientific, defense, and industrial property complex in order to most effectively solve socio-economic, scientific, technological, innovative, and defense tasks" ^[12], including referring to them as territories with a special protective regime for business activities (for example, closed administrative-territorial entities ^[13], VIT "Era"), as well as the types of territories with special preferential treatment noted above.

In conclusion, we will outline the directions for the further development of legislation regulating public relations in the field of territories with a special (special) regime of entrepreneurial activity.

Firstly, the trend of business legislation towards differentiation noted in science ^[14] will increase. A vivid illustration is the VIT "Era" as an independent type of territories with a special protective regime for business activities, and its essence can be distinguished by the formula "Defense&Innovation".

Secondly, there is an objective need to implement a systematic approach to both the legal regulation of innovation relations and relations in the field of territories with a special (special) regime of entrepreneurial activity. As it is rightly noted in the literature, there is still "no single law defining the foundations of state regulation of innovation activity, including establishing a mechanism for interaction between various structures ... while individual regulatory legal acts are fragmented and require harmonization." ^[15]. A similar situation is observed with regard to legislation in the field of territories with a special (special) regime – in some cases, the norms of various federal laws may duplicate each other, and when designing a new mechanism, existing regulatory statuses are mixed. In this regard, with regard to the subject of the study, the point of view of I.V. Ershova and E.E. Enkova should be supported, who point out that "it is necessary to develop and adopt a regulatory legal act regulating cooperation in the field of innovation between defense industry enterprises, the state, scientific and educational institutions" ^[15]. The latter, in turn, will act as a general one in relation to the special one, the Law on the Era Military Industrial Complex. This is also important because there is a high probability of creating new institutions similar to Era, which will need a clear legal framework.

Thirdly, VIT Era is the implementation of the cluster approach, refracted through a "military" prism. At the same time, its successful implementation is one of the guarantees of the effective functioning of territories with a special (special) business regime around the world ^[16]. In modern conditions and with the challenges that Russia is facing, this can be a "trump card up our sleeve."