THE CRIMINAL CODE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION (CRIMES
AGAINST MILITARY SERVICE)
Shackley F. Raffetto
This Code sets forth crimes, for which a military member may be prosecuted, that are
strictly of a military nature. There are no provisions for prosecution for ‘civilian’ types of
crimes in this Code, such as murder, rape, theft, drug use, etc. The comparable law in
the US provides for prosecution of service members for some of these ‘civilian’ types of
crimes.
In addition, there is a special statutory provision making military members, in addition to
being subject to prosecution for ‘military’ types of offences set forth in laws dealing
specifically with the military, also subject to prosecution in a court martial for any other
federal crime. Thus, a military member may be subjected to court martial for murder,
rape, theft or other Federal offence against another service member or against a civilian.
It is assumed that, in practice, a military member in the Russian Federation (RF) may
also be subject to prosecution for these ‘civilian’ types of crimes which are not strictly of
a military nature. If this is in fact the practice, it would probably be helpful if the Code
stated this specifically.