The Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation

The first meeting of the Joint College of the Prosecutor General’s Offices of Russia and Belarus has taken place today in Minsk (Republic of Belarus).

Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Yuri Chaika, Prosecutor General of the Republic of Belarus Grigory Vasilevich and members of the College of the Prosecutor’s General Offices of both countries took part in the work of the meeting.

While welcoming the guests, the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Belarus thanked the Russian delegation for their visit and noted that the legislation of Russia and Belarus had much in common, therefore, closer contacts and exchange of experience would be quite useful for both countries.

In his opening speech, the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation underlined that “major joint efforts of both institutions have preceded the creation of the Joint College”.

Yuri Chaika and his Belarusian colleague have signed the Joint Order establishing the Joint College of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation and the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Belarus.

According to the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, “the Joint College of the Prosecution Services of these two countries will not be nominal, instead it will become an efficient instrument of strengthening good neighborly relations and mutual cooperation in all aspects of multifarious activities of the prosecution authorities”.

As it was underlined during the meeting, the main tasks of the Joint College of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation and the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Belarus as a consultative body would be coordination of interaction of the Prosecution Services of both countries in securing the legality and rule of law, human rights and freedoms, fight against crime, improvement of scientific, scientific-technical, methodic and information cooperation.

Noting the high level of cooperation of the Prosecutor General’s Offices of these two countries, Yuri Chaika drew attention of the meeting to the fact that the greater part of requests for legal assistance in criminal matters sent to the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation by foreign countries were from the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Republic of Belarus. Thus, he said that in 2007 there were about 600 of such requests and in the first quarter of this year there were almost 150 requests.

Yuri Chaika concluded the meeting stating that “the work of the College will enable both countries to upgrade international cooperation in the field of legal regulation and development of the interaction between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus during their fulfillment of international obligations including those relating to the fight against crime”.

In the opinion of the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation, it will lead to the development and improvement of information sharing between the Prosecution Services of these two countries, it will enable them to use comprehensive scientific potential and positive experience, to work out solutions which will have great impact on harmonization and unification of the legislation of these two countries - members of the Union State, development of the common legal system.

Yuri Chaika invited the Belarusian delegation to visit Moscow in the near future for the exchange of professional experience.

It should be noted that the meetings of the Joint College of the Prosecutor General’s Offices of these two countries would be held no less than once a year.

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