Russian, Armenian law enforcers step up cooperation

The Russian Interior Ministry and Armenia's Police Department will hold a meeting in Yerevan on Friday. Russian Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev and Armenian police executive Aik Arutyunyan and other senior officials of the above agencies are expected to take part in the meeting.

The conferees will discuss issues of cooperation against organised crime and efforts to decriminalise their economies.

The law enforcement agencies' joint activities fall within the jurisdiction of a series of bilateral and multilateral inter-government agreements, 16 inter-department agreements dealing with various areas of police activity, which were signed at the meetings of the Council of Interior Ministers of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

Besides, the conferees will discuss efforts against the organised international criminal groups and the search for their leaders. Drug and human trafficking will also be central at the meeting.

Mr Nurgaliyev and Mr Arutyunyan have noted the importance of more intensive information exchanges between their agencies.

The two countries' law enforcement agencies regularly conduct search and preventive operations. Moscow police, for example, have uncovered a criminal group that comprised Russian and Armenian nationals who produced counterfeit cognac Ararat, reports the Russian Interior Ministry. Besides, Russian police exposed a group of Armenians who counterfeited Russian roubles.

254 members and 45 leaders of organised criminal groups largely composed of Armenian nationals have been brought to trial and 165 relevant criminal cases have been opened, according to the ministry.

Moscow police have also detained Martirosyan, an Armenian national wanted in his republic for large-scale embezzlement and fraud. Martirosyan has already been extradited to Armenia.