The Siberian Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia as a basic university for training specialists in combating drug-related crime

Today the Siberian Law Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation is an educational and scientific complex, which has in its structure 13 departments, 3 faculties, courses for training of foreign specialists, as well as Training Center - a branch of the Institute in the city of Managua city in the Republic of Nicaragua.

The Institute's specialization - training specialists for drug control units - allows the Institute to continue to occupy a leading position in the field of training specialists for anti-drug agencies and police units not only in the Russian Federation but also in the world, as a specialized university that trains specialists with higher education, including scientific and pedagogical staff of the highest qualification, as well as implementing a wide range of additional professional educational programs in the field of combating drug-related crime.

Students from 6 foreign countries (7 competent authorities of near and far abroad countries) study at the Institute on a full-time basis.

An important achievement of the institute was the decision of the Collective Security Council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, held on December 23, 2014, to grant the institute the status of a basic institution of higher and additional professional education to train drug control specialists for the CSTO member states. In addition, the Institute actively participates in educational projects implemented by international organizations (the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the Association of Southeast Asian National Police (ASEANAPOL)) through short-term professional development courses and trainings for anti-drug units, including through videoconferencing.

In particular, in 2022 alone, within the framework of additional vocational training, 10 advanced training courses in anti-drugs were held at the Institute for the staff of the anti-drug units of the competent authorities of foreign countries (9 of which involved the use of distance learning technologies) for 161 staff members from the competent authorities of five Central Asian countries (Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan), the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and 9 South Asian countries (Myanmar, Cambodia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, Brunei, and Thailand). Upon completion of the training courses, the foreign specialists were issued training certificates. In total, more than 450 people from 15 countries have been trained since 2017.

It should be noted that the Institute is the only university of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation that has a branch abroad, in Managua, the capital of the Republic of Nicaragua. Every year its role in the system of training specialists of anti-drug units of the competent authorities of the states of Latin America and the Caribbean is increasing. Since the opening of the Training Center in October 2017 to the present day, more than 1.5 thousand employees (from 13 countries) have been trained in the courses of professional development on 21 additional professional training programs in the field of combating crime, implemented by the Institute and other educational organizations of the Russian Interior Ministry, including using the system of distance learning technologies.

In total for 6 years (2017-2022) about 3 thousand specialists from near and far abroad countries were trained in combating drug-related crime in different programs on the basis of the institute.

Since 2017, the Institute has interacted with 9 foreign educational organizations from near and far abroad countries within the signed protocols on cooperation in the field of educational and scientific activities (Kostanai Academy of MIA of the Republic of Kazakhstan named after Sh. Kabylbaev, Academy of MIA of the Republic of Tajikistan, Academy of MIA of the Kyrgyz Republic named after E.A. Aliyev, University of Internal Affairs of Mongolia, Police Academy of Nicaragua named after Walter Mendoza Martinez, Mogilev Institute of MIA of the Republic of Belarus, B. Beisenov, Karaganda Police Academy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the University of Criminal Investigation and Police Training (Republic of Serbia, Belgrade) and the Police Educational Complex of the Republic of Armenia). Draft protocols with intentions to cooperate were sent to the Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Chinese Criminal Police University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the People's Republic of China (Shenyang).

Implementing the profile specialization, the Institute carries out significant and diverse work aimed at countering the drug threat. First of all, these are numerous scientific and representative events, including the widely recognized international scientific and practical conference "Current Problems of Fighting Crime: Issues of Theory and Practice". Significant importance in the prevention of drug addiction among young people is the organization by the representatives of the Institute of the Interuniversity Anti-Drug Commission of Krasnoyarsk, as well as volunteer anti-drug movement, the results of which have repeatedly received the highest assessment at the meetings of the Krasnoyarsk Territory Anti-Drug Commission and at the all-Russian level.

Every year the Institute's specialists are actively involved in conducting research to monitor the drug situation in Krasnoyarsk Krai, prepare analytical materials "Drug Situation in the region of responsibility of the Collective Security Treaty Organization" for the CSTO Secretariat, including in English version.

During the 51st plenary session of the Interparliamentary Assembly of the CIS member states the amendments to the CIS Model Law "On narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors" prepared by the representatives of the Institute, were approved.

Among the most significant achievements of the Institute team in the scientific field is the successful completion of research on the request of the Drug Control General Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia on "Comparative Analysis of Responsibility provided by the administrative and criminal legislation of foreign countries for committing unlawful acts related to illicit drug trafficking". The author's team of the institute studied the normative legal acts of fourteen states, after which the material was prepared in the context of a comparative analysis with the legislation of the Russian Federation.

A significant event was the holding of the final stage of the All-Russian competition of professional skills among employees of departments for drug trafficking control of territorial bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia "Best in Profession" on July 11-15, 2022, at the Institute. The competition was attended by 87 employees of the drug trafficking control units of the territorial bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia.

The Institute has an effective system of research work organization of teaching staff and students. High publication activity of scientific and pedagogical staff allows us to be leaders in a number of indicators. According to the Russian Research Citation Index, among 28 organizations subordinate to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, the Institute ranks first in the average number of publications per author, second in the average number of citations per author, third in such indicators as "Share of publications in foreign journals", "Share of publications in journals included in the Web of Science or Scopus".

Thus, we can state that the Siberian Law Institute of the Russian Interior Ministry is developing dynamically as a basic university for training specialists in the fight against drug-related crime, expanding international cooperation with educational organizations and representatives of competent authorities of the CIS countries, states of the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America in various scientific and educational international projects to train foreign police personnel.