The National Police Commissioner Seppo Kolehmainen is currently on a two-day visit to Moscow. He met with the leadership of the Federal Drug Control Service of Russia, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, and the Investigative Committee of Russia. Kolehmainen's delegation included the Director of the National Bureau of Investigation, Robin Lardot .
Cross-border crime obviously recognises no borders but not evenpolitical trends, so operative cooperation with Russia must be fostered at the grassroot level, comments Kolehmainen on his first visit to Russia as the National Police Commissioner.
During the first day of his visit, Kolehmainen met with Viktor Ivanov , the Director of the Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN). The tasks of the FSKN include, in particular, combating and investigating international drug crime, and related cooperation. The discussions confirmed a close and functional bilateral operative cooperation and the desire to improve it even further.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed during the meeting regarding cooperation in training and staff development in the field of controlling narcotics, psychotropic substances and their precursors. The Memorandum will improve cooperation between the training institutes in both countries. The discussion also covered the challenges posed by drug-related crimes that increasingly utilise information networks, and the impacts immigrant streams may have also on drug-related crime.
The National Police Commissioner also met with the First Deputy Director of the FSB, General Sergei Smirnov . The FSB combats terrorism, national security crimes, financial crimes and border offences. The main topic of the discussions, evidencing a good spirit of cooperation, concerned illegal immigration. Combating crime related to the arrangement of illegal immigration was seen as an area where there was room for improvement in terms of operative cooperation for apprehending the criminals working in the background and analysis related to the phenomenon.
"Law enforcement authorities as a whole must see the full picture of illegal immigration from the countries of origin all the way to the target countries in order to be able to effectively combat it," said National Police Commissioner Seppo Kolehmainen, summarising the joint commitment of the discussions. Combating terrorism and extensive financial crimes were also seen as important areas for cooperation.
On the second day of his visit, the National Police Commissioner met with the Head of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Alexander Bastrykin. The Investigative Committee has the jurisdiction over the most serious crimes and accidents related to the safety and constitutional rights of the citizens. It was agreed that cooperation focusing on pre-trial investigations and information exchange in the investigation of serious crimes is working well. Wide-scale crimes including international connections are complex, and their investigations may take a long time.
"Good and functional cooperation relationships and strong judicial foundations for cooperation are of prime importance in criminal investigation," said the Director of the National Bureau of Investigation Robin Lardot after the discussions with the Investigative Committee.
