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The joint panel meeting of Investigative Committees of the Russian Federation, the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Belarus took place in Krasnoyarsk. The event held in the same format for the fourth time was attended by Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation Alexander Bastrykin, Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia Hayk Grigoryan, Chairman of the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Belarus Ivan Noskevich and delegations from the Committees of the three countries, and representatives of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Kazahstan.

During the panel meeting the participants discussed practice of international cooperation in the area of law enforcement and summarized results of the joint work. Apart from that, the participants discussed novelties in criminal law of the participating countries and their effectiveness in implementation of functions of preliminary investigation bodies.

For the first time the panel meeting was held in two days format providing for meeting of experts in the area of international cooperation, forensic surveillance of investigation and organization of investigative activities. On the first day the Heads of the Committees of Armenia and Belarus met with students of the Siberian Federal University and trainees of the Siberia Law Institute of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. The event was also attended by Governor of the Krasnoyarsk Territory Alexander Uss who warmly welcomed the guests in the Siberian Federal University - one of the Russia major higher education institutions. Heads of investigative committees of the two countries answered questions of future lawyers concerning humanization of criminal legislation in the Republics, improvement of the system of investigative actions and property confiscation during investigation of probes.

In his welcoming address Alexander Bastrykin reminded about the first meeting that took place in 2017 in St. Petersburg. That meeting marked the beginning of trilateral cooperation. "This event coincided with adoption of the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation that delegated competence of interaction of area-based investigative bodies within the framework of the Minsk Convention on on Legal Assistance and Legal Relations in Civil, Family and Criminal Matters", - noted the Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia and highly praised the mutual work carried out to improve the mechanism of such interaction and international legal culture of officers of investigative bodies. During this time the Investigative Committee of Russia and the colleagues from Armenia and Belarus signed a number of acts aimed at interaction in the area of combating crime and forensic surveillance of investigation as well as at development of academic and pedagogical activities.

Ivan Noskevich noted the effectiveness of such activities and thanked the hosting party for swift solving of interagency issues and the possibility to exchange practical experience between state investigative structures. Hayk Grigoryan supported the colleagues from Russia and Belarus and added that this format positively affects not only international activities of the agencies but also helps to improve interagency work by decent solving of tasks tackled by investigation.

The panel meeting continued with presentations of specialists directly engaged in organization of international interaction in the area of criminal justice and representatives of investigation.

The discussion included development of joint approaches to protection of public values and interests from adverse actions in circumstances of transnational crime encroaching on security of whole countries. The participants granted special attention to the practice of granting international motions and to development of the mechanism of providing mutual legal assistance for probes.

In their speeches Acting Head of the Department of Provision of International Requests of the Investigative Committee of Armenia Sergey Tairyan, Head of the International Legal Department of the Investigative Committee of Belarus Michail Vavulo and Head of the International Cooperation Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia Oleg Mikhailov reported on results of international cooperation within the framework of providing legal assistance for probes and suggested specific measures to improve performance in this area. Thus, in his speech Michail Vavulo noted the big volume of legal assistance mutually provided by investigative committees of Belarus and Russia. In 2018 and H1 of 2019 the Central Office of the Belarus Investigative Committee sent to Russia 345 legal assistance requests for probes; 907 requests were sent directly from Minsk and Regional Investigative Directorates to regional units of the Investigative Committee of Russia. During the same period the number of requests from Russia to Belarus reached:  72 for requests to the Central Office of the Investigative Committee of Russia; 83 directs requests from regional directorates of the Investigative Committee of Russia to Minsk and Regional Investigative Directorates.

It was noted that it is important to coordinate activities and joint efforts during organization of educational process for personnel training and to exchange knowledge and experience of combating crime in form of joint conferences and forums.

Issues of childhood support became one of the topics under discussion. The Russian party shared experience of organization of children's vacations, including assistance in rehabilitation of children of killed officers of the Syrian Army in Artek and Orlyonok recreational centres. The speakers underlined the concern of the young people about the difficult situation of such children. Thus, the freshmen students of the Siberian Federal University prepared presents to the Syrian children - traditional Russian dolls called matryoshka. Each student signed a card addressed personally to a certain Syrian child with warm wishes, email for mutual communication and an invitation to Russia.

Moreover, the participants of meeting discussed ways of improvement of the mechanism of direct communication of authorized investigative bodies under the Minsk convention and engagement to these activities of partners from countries that have not yet authorized their area-based units but are getting ready to pass the necessary domestic procedures.

In conclusion of the today meeting the representatives of the three countries developed plans and practice-based suggestions for further joint work. The parties also signed cooperation programs between investigative units of Armenia, Belarus and Russia for 2020-2022. Upon the results of the IV joint panel meeting of Investigative Committees of Russia, Armenia and Belarus the International Cooperation Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia was given specific instructions.