“A meeting of the Joint Collegium of the Ministries of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Kazakhstan was held today in Moscow. It was held by the co-chairmen of the Joint Collegium – Minister of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, General of the Police of the Russian Federation Vladimir Kolokoltsev and Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Police Lieutenant-General Yerzhan Sadenov,” said the Spokesperson for the Russian MIA Irina Volk.

In his opening words, the Russian Minister of Internal Affairs emphasized that over the past years the MIA of the two countries continued joint work in key areas of fighting crime. It was carried out both at the bilateral level and within the framework of the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and other international structures. Up-to-date information was exchanged, and mutual assistance was provided in investigating criminal cases and bringing offenders to justice. Interpol channels are being actively utilized. The volume of information exchange has increased.

“Coordinated operational and preventive actions are regularly conducted. We cooperate intensively in the search area. Since the beginning of 2023, about eighty criminals have been located on the territory of Russia in the interests of Kazakh colleagues. In turn, the MIA of the Republic of Kazakhstan searched for more than a hundred and thirty defendants who were hiding from the internal affairs authorities of the Russian Federation,” noted Vladimir Kolokoltsev.

The main issue on the meeting agenda was joint counteraction to cybercrime. It is important for both the countries as information technology has made its way into everyday life. Citizens are accustomed to using various services, making remote purchases and financial transactions.

The Russian Minister stated that digital tools are also used for illegal purposes. It is sometimes difficult for an untrained person to understand this or that situation in order to avoid becoming a victim of scammers. In that regard, countering IT crime in the current environment is one of the most important tasks facing the law enforcement agencies of a number of States.

The Chief of the Russian agency cited statistics on cybercrime and spoke about measures taken in our country to combat this phenomenon: “While five years ago the share of such encroachments in Russia was less than 15%, this year it is already 40%. Given the social significance of this issue, a number of urgent measures have been taken at the state and departmental levels. In particular, the legislation as well as the Ministry regulatory framework have been seriously improved. Algorithms of interaction between internal affairs bodies and other competent agencies and structures have been developed. Specialized operational and investigative units have been created.”

“The growth of IT crimes is largely a consequence of the possibility to commit them remotely and of the anonymity of the offenders. Recently, criminals have become active in the use of telecommunication equipment such as SIM banks. In the current year alone, as a result of operational and investigative measures, more than six hundred such devices and over one hundred and twenty thousand SIM cards of various cellular operators were discovered and seized. Their total capacity allowed fraudsters to make up to thirty million calls per day,” said the Chief of the Russian MIA.

The participants of the meeting expressed their unanimous opinion that such acts have a transboundary character and can be successfully countered only by joint efforts, promptly providing each other with the necessary legal and practical assistance.

“Our agencies have considerable experience in preventing, suppressing and investigating cybercrime. Today's meeting will allow us to exchange experience, discuss unresolved issues in this area and determine the best ways to resolve them,” Vladimir Kolokoltsev stated concluding his speech.

Representatives of the Ministries of Internal Affairs of Russia and Kazakhstan considered topical issues of cooperation, outlined joint steps to further improve methods and tools to counteract theft and other illegal acts committed with the use of information technologies. The Joint Collegium work plan for 2026 was also approved.