MOSCOW, March 17. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that any attempts to destabilize society must be foiled. Speaking at an extended meeting of the Russian Prosecutor General's Office Board, the head of state raised the issue of fighting extremism and terrorism.
"It is essential to continue to foil any actions aimed at destabilizing the situation in society, at violating traditional spiritual and moral values, provoking interethnic and interreligious discord," the president stated.
Putin recalled that, in 2019, public prosecution bodies uncovered more than 213,000 offenses against the law and decisions were made to recognize the activities of four foreign non-governmental organizations as undesirable. In addition, courts recognized the activities of three organizations as extremist, their work was prohibited, the head of state pointed out.
The Russian leader also called for keeping a close eye on "all aspects of anti-terrorist protection of significant facilities and crowded places."
Russian President Vladimir Putin has also expressed concern about the large number of unsolved crimes in the country.
"I have to point out that the total number of crimes committed in the country increased last year for the first time since 2016, as well as the number of unsolved crimes," he noted. "That said, unfortunately, almost one in two crimes remains unsolved," Putin added.
According to him, that gives law enforcement officers "a lot to think about." Putin did not rule out that the use of more specific statistical methods was the "reason" behind the rise in unsolved crimes. "However, even if we take a look at statistics and remove some things, the number of unsolved crimes will still remain higher than it was last year," the president emphasized.
Putin highlighted the need "to thoroughly assess these issues and take specific measures to resolve them."
Cybercrimes
In particular, the Russian president has urged law enforcement agencies to elaborate the system of countering cybercrimes.
The recent years have seen "extremely negative dynamics in terms of crimes linked with the use of information technologies," he lamented.
"The Prosecutor General’s Office along with the Interior Ministry and other related structures must analyze the efficiency of efforts in this area as well as the existing procedural possibilities and elaborate a system, a package of measures to bring down the number of such crimes," he said, adding that such crimes are "attempts at interfering into people’s private life, their properties and bank deposits."
"Information technologies are rapidly developing and will continue to develop. They are part of all spheres of the economy and social life," he noted.
"It is inadmissible to create obstacles for progress but people’s rights, the intersts of society and the state must be well protected," he stressed.
Environmental crimes
Russian law enforcement agencies have not achieved proper effect in fighting environmental crimes, including illegal logging, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
He noted that the Prosecutor’s Office for Environmental Protection should "ramp up detection of environmental crimes associated with illegal logging and exploitation of biological resources," adding that this is a "critically important field."
"Unfortunately, so far, all of us — both the Prosecutor’s Office, and other law enforcement agencies — have failed to achieve proper effect," the president underscored.
He stated that other specialized prosecutor’s offices need more systemic approach too. Thus, Prosecutor’s Office for Transport must strengthen its watch over the implementation of the program for upgrading infrastructure and ensuring safety of traffic and carriages. The Main Military Prosecutor’s Office must work hard on the detection of crimes during construction and renovation of defense and other special military objects, and promptly respond to the violation of rights of servicemen and their families, Putin ordered.
The head of state stressed that all prosecutors must constantly improve their professional level.
"This largely includes proper, competent protection of rights and interests of the people and qualified support of public prosecution in courts, especially in jury courts, whose number has significantly increased recently," Putin said.
