Anatoly Vyborny: “The CSTO focuses on the issues of legal unification and harmonization in the area of cybersecurity and countering modern challenges and threats”

Anatoly Vyborny, Chairman of the CSTO PA Standing Commission on Defence and Security and State Duma deputy, held a meeting of the Standing Commission on Defence and Security of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Collective Security Treaty Organization via videoconference.
Commission members and experts discussed a number of model laws to counter international terrorism, corruption and illegal circulation of weapons of mass destruction. The draft 2021–2025 CSTO PA Action Plan on Approximation and Harmonization of National Legislation of the CSTO Member States was considered.
“Each CSTO Member State has put in place and modified its means to respond to challenges in the fight against terrorism, drug trafficking, corruption and cybercrime,” Mr Vyborny said after the meeting. “However, given the cross-border nature of the threats and challenges faced by all Organization members and other countries in the world, there is a need for stronger coordination and concerted actions, as well as for mutual support in sharing information, best practices and effective measures.”
For instance, it was proposed to legally permit classifying new psychoactive substances as prohibited analogues based on the analysis of chemical similarity to establish common approaches for the CSTO States concerning state registration of new psychoactive substances.
“We also propose to consider introducing a universal anti-corruption monitoring throughout the CSTO space. The reason is that corruption assessments by international NGOs (e.g. Transparency International) are increasingly being used to impose external political and legal decisions on states, and in some cases they contradict national interests of these states.
The Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of the Russian Federation has developed basic criteria that could allow independent anti-corruption monitoring within the CSTO space. This initiative will make it possible to obtain more objective assessments and will help avoid any attempts of the US and EU to interfere in the internal affairs of the CSTO States under the pretext of fighting corruption,” Mr Vyborny said.
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