Russian, Armenian police crack down on several criminal rings
TSAGHKADZOR. July 7 (Interfax) - The Russian Interior Ministry and Armenian police must increase efficiency in searching for criminals and missing persons, said Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, while opening a meeting of a joint panel of the Russian Interior Ministry and the Armenian police on Monday.
"We need to employ whatever resources available to raise the efficiency of the (police) search, primarily as far as the legal framework is concerned," Kolokoltsev said. He said the CIS agreement on inter-state police search, which has been ratified by Russia, should serve as a boost in these efforts.
"Under the document, this cooperation can be effected by having the competent authorities respond to requests for search and exchange of information about wanted individuals, and for conducting coordinated search operations," the minister stressed.
He said Russia's internal procedures aimed at ensuring the enactment of the agreement are due to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2014.
The Russian interior minister also pointed to the need to increase practical cooperation. In the first three months of 2014, more than 500 crimes committed by Armenians were resolved in Russia, he said.
In particular, Moscow police arrested an international organized-crime group whose members were stealing Sberbank ATMs and payment terminals, with seven such criminal gangs having been busted in the first half of 2014, the minister added.
"I am convinced that to ensure further success in fighting crime we need to look for new efficient forms and methods of policing," the minister said.
For his part, Armenian police chief Vladimir Gasparian said that the bilateral cooperation between the two countries' law enforcement authorities continues to develop dynamically. At the meeting the panel members will discuss issues relating to the search for suspects, the accused and missing persons. The attendees are also to approve the panel's 2015 working plan.