The article is devoted to clarifying the prospects for the application of international responsibility for the consolidation of an international criminal organization into a state armed structure. The issues raised in the article are caused by the need for the international community to respond appropriately to the cases of official “employment” of international criminals, which have recently become widespread. The use of new practices of state-criminal cooperation undermines the fundamental principles, norms and rules underlying the international legal order and therefore requires conventional condemnation with subsequent bringing of perpetrators to international responsibility.

The purpose of the article is to determine the prospects of applying international liability for consolidation of an international criminal organization into a State armed structure and to identify the subjects of such liability.

The main results of the study are to establish: the mechanisms of application of international liability for consolidation of an international criminal organization into a State armed structure; the circle of entities which should bear this liability; the qualification of these crimes in accordance with international law; and the jurisdiction of the body authorized to consider cases.

The conclusions note that international law has sufficient functionality to bring to criminal responsibility senior state officials who create and use criminal organizations to commit international crimes. In particular, one of the Nuremberg Principles is applicable in this situation, which states that the fact that a person who has committed an act constituting a crime under international law has acted in the capacity of a head of state or responsible state official does not relieve him or her of responsibility under international law.

The initial creation of an executive body and its subsequent use for international criminal activity (Iran) or consolidation of a previously created criminal “proxy” into the structure of its own armed forces (russia) ultimately leads to the same harmful consequences and is an equivalent crime for which the persons involved in the creation and management of these organizations should be held liable.

Democratic states of the world should join their efforts to counteract the use of dangerous organized crime by the russian federation and its proxies by concluding appropriate bilateral agreements. The evidence collected as a result of this interaction will be the basis for appeals to the International Criminal Court.

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