O. B. Damaskin
The social-political situation after the dissolution of the Supreme Council and adoption of the Constitution of the Russian Federation on December 12, 1993, the crisis in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and high politicization of military persons made acute the issues of legality, law and order maintenance in the Army, and political loyalty. The Law under consideration has become an important step in this direction.
Its main idea centres on the determination of the procedure of military service in martial-law courts and bodies of military justice and material security of military persons in these structures. It concerns significant strengthening of the social and material status of military judges (the conclusion of a contract for military service was suspended in this respect, but by right of benefits they were equated to the status of persons working under a contract; the amounts of their salaries were fixed at the level of the wages established for analogues posts of the main departments of the
Ministry of Defence, units and institutions of the Armed Forces). The Law defined the rules of financing and logistic support of martial-law courts and bodies of military justice (at the level of the main and central departments of the Ministry of Defence).
The Legislative solution for these problems resulted in elimination of the dependence of martial-law courts and bodies of military justice on military Headquarters. By strengthening their independence, eliminating personnel discrepancies and unsatisfactory material conditions, it aimed at perfecting the administration of justice in the Armed Forces and democratizing the judicial system. At the same time, many provisions of the Law were of palliative character. The Law determined that the military persons of martial-law courts must perform military service in the Armed
Forces and were to be included in their staff quantity yet financing and logistic support of martial-law courts was effected on account of the funds of the Ministry of
Defence.
These provisions were revised in the Law ‘On Martial-Law Courts of the Russian
Federation’.