Ensuring national security in the mechanism of organizing and holding elections in Russia

Introduction. In the light of modern challenges and threats that Russia faces, ensuring the national security of the Russian state is a priority area of the country’s development. Elections are a strategic socio-political and legal institution that contributes to both the implementation of democratic mechanisms of the state and determination of its political course. The purpose of the research is to study the constitutional, legal and organizational mechanisms for holding elections in the Russian Federation and their transformation in the field of ensuring the rights of subjects of the electoral process, on the one hand, and national security, independence and inadmissibility of external interference, on the other hand. Theoretical analysis. The theoretical concept of “national security” indicates its interpretation through ensuring the security of an individual, the state and society. Therefore, its implementation involves a set of measures aimed at organizing the safe and independent functioning of institutions of society and the state and their interaction. The component of the state functioning under study requires a system forming approach. The developing public relations indicate the emergence of new aspects of national security that require regulatory control, including those in the process of organizing and holding elections, which are often considered as an instrument for destabilizing the state. Empirical analysis. The development of electoral legislation in the area of public relations under consideration has been transformed by means of normative legal regulation: requirements for candidates for elective positions, electoral associations, and their legal status; the procedure and subjects of the formation of electoral funds; the mechanism of information support of elections through the media and securing their legal status; subjects and the procedure for carrying out pre-election campaigning; subjects of public control over elections. Results. The author concludes by emphasizing the need to provide for liability for dissemination of false information about elections as a measure of constitutional liability at the level of the federal law “On the Basic Guarantees of Electoral Rights and the Right to Participate in Referendums of Citizens of the Russian Federation”, as well as to distinguish between violations that affect the outcome of the expression of the will of voters and those that do not.

elections, national security, information security, national security strategy, election observation, public control, foreign agents, mass media, citizenship of a foreign state