News Release
21.01.2010
MW: One of our broadcasts touched upon the international cooperation of the Ministry of Interior of Russia in the sphere of counteraction to criminality. We discussed measures taken by the Russian militia together with law enforcement bodies of foreign countries, spoke about the efficiency of the interaction and its prospects. One of these days we got a reason to continue our conversation about it. Welcoming our visitor, - the RF Minister of Interior Rashid Nurgaliev.
- Rashid Gumarovich, in one of our previous broadcasts we already discussed the international cooperation of the Ministry of Interior of Russia. While we then spoke more about, say, "theory", today we have a strong reason to speak about the "practice" now that the results of a special operation were summed up as far as I know.
Minister: Quite right. In March, an interstate comprehensive operative preventive operation "Search" was performed. Besides the Ministry of Interior of, Russia law enforcement bodies of CIS participating countries as well as operative units of the Federal Penitentiary Service of the Russian Federation took part in the event.
MW: What are its results?
Minister: Speaking figures, the law enforcement bodies of the Russian Federation detained 177 criminals searched for by our militia and police bodies of CIS participating countries in the course of the operation which took place from March 24 till March 26.
Accordingly, our colleagues 206 persons on our wanted lists were detained in the CIS countries by inquiries of the Russian side.
MW: Was the operation limited to meeting the submitted inquiries only?
Minister: No way. Besides processing the current inquiries we participated in joint special actions.
For example, employees of law enforcement bodies from the CIS countries personally participated in joint operations in the territory of Altay territory, Kurgan, Leningrad, Moscow, Novosibirsk, Tomsk and Chelyabinsk regions, in Yekaterinburg, Moscow, Penza and St.-Petersburg. Our field investigators also made business trips. For example, thanks to the teamwork of employees of the Central Internal Affairs Directorate in Rostov region with colleagues from the Ministry of Interior of Uzbekistan, a citizen searched for since November, 2005 for the commission of a murder was detained, and in Kazakhstan field investigators from Perm took part in detaining a suspect of crime commission in March, 2009 in the territory of Perm area. This proves again that we disclose and succeed in finding criminals both in the territory of our country and of other countries as per our general interstate search instruction.
MW: Yes, the statistics inspires with respect. What could be told about the efficiency of the teamwork?
Minister: Well, you know, this year's results of the operative measures taken are the highest in all these years. This proves that the efficiency of interaction of law enforcement bodies and police bodies of the CIS countries increases. This is natural, for the criminality does not admit borders after all. We only can achieve real results if we unite our efforts.
MW: Rashid Gumarovich, certainly the Russian militia officers' mission was not only to render assistance to their foreign colleagues, but also to search for those who flee from prosecution for crimes committed in the territory of Russia.
Minister: That's right. Intensifying our operative work, undertaking an increased security mode, during the operation we succeeded in detaining 7 637 persons who were on local and federal wanted lists in Russia for the commission of crimes. Besides, 3 513 unaccounted-for citizens were found, which is rather important.
I would like to emphasize one important circumstance. Many of the crimes we detected had been committed a year ago, some of them two or even ten years ago. And the very fact we identified the criminals and detained them proves one of the main principles of the criminal legislation all over the world: the inevitability of the punishment.
This is actually the overall objective of the annual interstate operation "Search": to find the criminal and to give it to justice.
It is beyond doubt that however hard may malefactors try to flee, the law enforcement bodies will do their utmost to make each criminal answer before the law sooner or later.
I will add that the Ministry of Interior of Russia pays special attention to this aspect. Only last year almost 62,000 crimes committed in the previous years were detected.
MW: Rashid Gumarovich, the operation "Search" is only one of the numerous actions of by law enforcement bodies of the CIS carried out as part of the joint counteraction to criminality. Also, it is the first large-scale interstate operation performed this year. Could we expect other successful operations?
Minister: Certainly. We've got a lot of work ahead to us, lots of things to address together with colleagues in the CIS.
I will not reveal a secret telling that we have planned and are preparing more operations, such as "Channel", meant to suppress international drug trafficking, "Illegal immigrant", to preclude illegal migration, "Proxy" which is against cyber crimes, and a number of others.
I am positive that our cooperation will only get stronger. This year, besides practical actions, a number of international meetings is planned where we will discuss measures to increase the efficiency of our teamwork with our foreign colleagues. The next such event is going to be the Joint Board of the Allied state Russia and Belarus which is taking place May in Brest.
MW: Well, I would like to personally congratulate employees of law enforcement bodies and police bodies of the CIS countries on the successful start of this year. This will be a full stop for our program today. Thanks a lot, Rashid Gumarovich, for the substantial and detailed conversation. See you in a week.
Minister: Thank you very much. See you later!
Program "Conversation with the Minister" at radio station "Militia wave"
www.mvd.ru