Interior Minister of Russia stands for more active interaction of Russia with Interpol

Russian Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov holds the view that Russia's interaction with Interpol must be intensified. He stated this on Thursday at a meeting with Secretary-General of the international criminal police organisation Ronald Kenneth Noble.

As Gryzlov said, frequent and useful contacts between the Interior Ministry and Interpol have been becoming established of late. They are certainly important for interaction between the two structures, the Minister noted.

According to Gryzlov, an improvement of the indicators of cooperation of the two agencies on a number of questions has already become visible. For instance, while only 13 people were extradited to Russia along the Interpol lines in 2001 the respective figure for the first five months of this year was 14. As the Minister noted, active work to reveal the communities engaged in illegal drugs trafficking is also being conducted.

For his part, Noble stressed that Russia is a key member of Interpol and makes a great contribution to the struggle against international crime, terrorism in particular. "During today's meeting we would like to make sure again that cooperation will develop and intensify," he added.