Once again about emergency administrative and legal regimes (using the example of a fuel oil spill in the Black Sea)

This article examines the problem of special administrative and legal regimes in the Russian Federation, which has been studied by the author for several decades. Unfortunately, the regulation of these regimes is still far from perfect, as a number of valuable suggestions from legal scholars and practitioners are still ignored by the legislator. This circumstance often becomes one of the main catalysts for ineffective response to emergency situations, resulting in significant risks to the life and health of citizens, as well as significant harm to their environment. One of the most vivid and relevant illustrations of this thesis is the environmental disaster that occurred on December 15, 2024 in the Black Sea. As a result of the collapse of the tankers Volgoneft-212 and Volgoneft-239, a fuel oil spill occurred, and about 2.4 thousand tons of petroleum products ended up in the sea. For a number of reasons, the elimination of the consequences of this emergency situation should be recognized as far from being carried out in the best way. Firstly, the competent public authorities and their officials were clearly not prepared for this incident, although there have been many incidents of this kind in recent years, both in Russia and in foreign countries. Secondly, the acts of public authorities (the Governor of the Krasnodar Territory, the administration of the resort city of Anapa), dedicated to measures to minimize the negative consequences of the oil spill, were drawn up using unsuccessful and incorrect formulations. Thirdly, some funds were allocated to combat the emergency situation, but their volume was insufficient, which is why it was necessary to involve volunteer volunteers who did not have the required knowledge, skills, competencies and experience. Fourthly, and most importantly, a special administrative and legal regime has been introduced, such as an emergency regime, although a state of emergency should have been introduced. It seems that there was every reason for this, and the introduction of this regime would have made it possible to counter the threats that had arisen as successfully as possible. But, probably, the state of emergency was not used due to the fact that it was supposed to be introduced by the President of the Russian Federation. Meanwhile, responding to an emergency situation from a single decision-making center in this case (however, as in many others) would simply be impractical. In conclusion, the author once again proposes to transfer the authority to impose a state of emergency in connection with natural and man-made emergencies to the highest officials of the subjects of the Russian Federation. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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