Prohibition of Illegal Circulation of Arms in the Legislation of the Russian Federation: Historical Analysis and Current Trends

The article presents a comprehensive analysis of the legal regulation of the prohibition of illegal arms trafficking in Russia, covering the historical period from pre-revolutionary times to the present. The study is based on an analysis of normative legal acts from various historical periods, judicial practice materials, and statistical data. The aim of the research is to identify patterns in the development of legislation in the field of arms control and to determine current trends in law enforcement practice. Special attention is given to the evolution of legal norms regulating liability for illegal arms trafficking, as well as to the mechanisms of state control in this area. The work examines key stages in the formation of arms legislation, the specifics of legal regulation during the Soviet period, and modern approaches to addressing the problem of illegal trafficking. The methodological foundation of the study includes formal-legal, historical-legal, comparative-legal, and statistical methods, as well as methods of analysis, induction, and deduction. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the systematization of historical experience in the legal regulation of arms trafficking and the identification of promising directions for improving existing legislation. The author analyzes the effectiveness of existing legal mechanisms and suggests ways to optimize them. The practical significance of the work lies in the possibility of using the results obtained to improve legislation in the field of arms control and enhance the effectiveness of law enforcement practice. The author proposes a new perspective on the periodization of the historical development of the prohibition of illegal arms trafficking, and to achieve this goal, ancient monuments of Russian legislation are examined. Special attention is given to studying the issue of the subject of illegal arms trafficking. The author substantiates the position that considering weapons of mass destruction as a subject of illegal arms trafficking is inappropriate. Furthermore, the author, using statistical data, analyzes the biased nature of the issues at hand in detail.