Complete Prohibition as a Method of Legal Regulation of Confidential Cooperation of Lawyers with Intelligence Bodies, and Intelligence Operations Privileges

Russian legislation that regulates legal relations of confidential cooperation of lawyers with intelligence bodies is characterized by inconsistencies that can be overcome optimally within the framework of law-making activities. The conducted analysis makes it possible to conclude that the most acceptable way of legal regulation of the relations in question is the ban on the establishment of legal relations of confidential cooperation. It is due to the specifics of advocacy and the special status of the legal privilege as an institution of civil society that performs significant functions in protecting the rights and legitimate interests of individuals and legal entities. At the same time, the author believes it is permissible to make an exception as to legal privileges of intelligence character by recognizing the establishment of legal relations of confidential cooperation between the relevant entities when competent authorities are in need of the assistance of persons of the specified category involved in any form in the activities of criminal groups, organizations or communities provided that such confidential cooperation is used to suppress the functioning of these destructive associations.