The article illuminates the dynamics of bilateral cross-border cooperation between two vastly different legal-administrative partners. The analysis utilizes empirical findings of a case study on bilateral Finnish–Russian crime prevention cooperation. Currently, both the differences in national legislations and the fast-changing administrative environment make this cooperation challenging. The case study showed that bilateral cooperation, which is the dominant form of cooperation between EU member states and Russia, is currently affected by disjointed and even competing multilateral and bilateral structures, differences in criminal law and procedure, gaps between international treaties and national legislation, local and regional variations of practices, weak institutional trust and abrupt policy changes. The results indicate that the effectiveness of cross-border networks cannot be assessed strictly in terms of quantitative outcomes. Further long-term development of the cooperation requires both realistic understanding of legal-administrative constraints and strong commitment at the national and supranational political levels.

Points for practitioners

Future long-term development of cross-border crime prevention cooperation between EU member countries and the Russian Federation requires more flexible crime prevention instruments and institutionalization of joint investigation teams. The optimal model in joint criminal investigations with Russian authorities could be one where the evidence of the protocol of the preliminary investigation could be acquired through direct regional connections between authorities. In practice, this requires a much stronger practical trust between different levels of authorities in the EU member countries and the Russian Federation, reconciliation of differences in national legislations and long-term political commitment at the highest level.