Joint investigative teams are an effective form of international cooperation in criminal investigations.

The fight of law enforcement agencies against transnational crime requires strengthening and improving the legal mechanisms for international cooperation, as well as seeking new forms of interaction that allow not only for the successful investigation of crimes by identifying the individuals responsible but also for obtaining legally valid evidence. The article analyzes the norms of international treaties to which the Russian Federation is a party, containing provisions on the creation and operation of joint investigative (operational) teams, as well as the opinions of a number of scholars studying the issue in question. The author expresses the assumption based on the existing law enforcement practices developed by the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, emphasizing the content of the document that records the parties' intention to create a joint international group for the investigation of interrelated crimes. The necessity of their implementation into Russian legislation is discussed. The scientific study employs systemic, historical-legal, legal, comparative-legal methods, and the method of judicial (legal) statistics. The main conclusions of the author highlight the need to issue a legal act that has the characteristics of international agreements (accords, resolutions) and procedural documents for the normative formalization of the decision by competent authorities of foreign states to create a joint investigative (operational) team. The procedure (possibility) for establishing a joint investigative team should also be regulated in the criminal procedure law, defining the rights and obligations of the parties, as well as the right of participants in the criminal process to familiarize themselves with the said decision. The author's position is based on the established law enforcement practice resulting from the creation of three joint investigative operational teams between the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia and the competent authorities of the Republic of Belarus and the Republic of Tajikistan, supported by the results of a thorough examination of the provisions of relevant international treaties and the legislation of foreign states.

international cooperation, joint investigations, joint investigative teams, legal assistance, means of evidence, evidence, international investigations, joint investigative-operational groups, proving, form of international interaction