Krasnov urged Western colleagues not to politicize legal aid issues

The first G20 summit of Justice Ministers opened in Brazil on Monday. The representative platform in Rio de Janeiro allowed Russian Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov not only to meet with his colleagues and friends from BRICS and SCO, but, as they say, also to communicate with prosecutors from other countries. the nation remains unfriendly and uncommunicative with them. direct.

It is difficult to imagine such a situation if this year's G20 president were, for example, the US, Germany, Italy or Norway – the Russian delegation could simply not have been invited. In this regard, Brazil is much bolder and more democratic than its Western colleagues, calling on all G20 prosecutors to switch to professional and constructive, non-politicized legal language. and unilateral sanctions. Krasnov said the same thing in his speech, reminding colleagues that cross-border crime, as we know, has no nationality and that the fight against this crime belongs to global interests.

The head of the Russian watchdog said: “Therefore, I consider it important to emphasize the unacceptable politicization of the activities of international organizations and bilateral relations in issues of legal assistance in criminal cases and extradition of criminals”. In the past, he has repeatedly stated that the United States and its European allies refuse to extradite common criminals and even murderers to Russia, citing alleged political motives.

However, the Russian Prosecutor General did not put more public pressure on his Western colleagues but told them about the successes of Russian prosecutors in protecting the environment. Therefore, according to him, our country has developed methods to overcome the damage that gas and energy processing companies cause to the atmosphere. According to his data, the amount of compensation for each subject amounted to 1.5 billion rubles. And this year alone, almost 400 billion rubles were recovered from the treasury. Igor Krasnov noted that all this money goes towards environmental restoration measures. In addition, according to him, in the past 10 years the volume of recyclables and neutralizers has nearly doubled, reaching 4 billion tons, including especially hazardous waste.

Not without pride, he continued that in recent years, the Russian prosecutor's office has accumulated considerable experience in maintaining social and environmental sustainability, which arouses concern. professional interests of our colleagues at multilateral platforms, including the United Nations, CIS, BRICS, SCO, APEC. as in two-way relationships.

The draft agreement between BRICS prosecutor's offices on the return of criminal proceeds from abroad is ready

We have signed more than 150 cooperation agreements with foreign competent authorities as well as programs to exchange best practices in litigation.

“Each of us has something to offer the world – this Brazilian folk wisdom sounds relevant to all of our countries,” Igor Krasnov summarized what was said. Whether his Western colleagues hear him or not, the near future will show.

But what other colleagues heard from the Russian Prosecutor General was absolutely correct. Immediately after arriving in Brazil, he held four bilateral meetings with BRICS colleagues from Brazil, South Africa, Egypt and India, and also met for the first time with the Prosecutor General of Singapore. Therefore, during negotiations with the Brazilian Prosecutor General, Paulo Gonet Branco, the head of the Russian supervisory agency thanked his colleagues for the warm welcome and organization of the first prosecutorial forum in the G20 format. At the same time, according to him, an expert workshop on the topic of returning criminal property from abroad, held in May in St. Petersburg, has shown the high interest of all BRICS colleagues in improving this work.

“For these purposes, we have proactively prepared a draft multilateral agreement on the interaction of the prosecutorial authorities of the BRICS countries in this field,” said Krasnov, and asked his Brazilian colleague support this initiative.

And at a meeting with the National Director of the South African Criminal Prosecution Service, Shamila Batoji, he expressed confidence that the adoption of such a document would help build cooperation in a constructive and most beneficial to all parties.

In return, Batoyi said she would support the initiative and noted that “prosecutors are not politicians, although politics sometimes influence their decision-making in international level”. The same was roughly stated by the Solicitor General of India, Venkataramani, who said that all prosecutors are first and foremost professional lawyers who can speak the same language with each other . Supporting Krasnov's project, he also asked to listen to his proposal – specifically, expanding the form of litigation cooperation not only with BRICS, SCO and G20, but also with the whole world.

At the meeting with Egyptian Prosecutor General Mohamed Shawki Ayad, Igor Krasnov also continued the anti-corruption theme. In particular, he reiterated that the Russian prosecutor's office plays a central role in implementing anti-corruption laws both domestically and within the framework of interaction with foreign colleagues. He explained to his colleagues that the new draft agreement not only provides for the return of criminal assets, but also takes into account the specifics of the arrest and confiscation of cryptocurrencies and virtual assets. others, as well as the construction of unified algorithms. understandable to all parties for the common work of the countries of the association.

No less interesting was the first negotiation with the Attorney General of Singapore, Lucien Wong, who is known to be a member of the G20, but is not a member or candidate of BRICS. In particular, Wong expressed special interest after Krasnov's story about the development of Russian prosecutors in the use of neural networks in the fight against crime, as well as the formation of a full image promise of the prosecutor's office in the period 2030-2040.