"CIS law-enforcement bodies, on a permanent basis, are implementing a broad range of measures aimed at eliminating the causes and conditions of the spreading of trans-national crime, and stepping up the fight against its most dangerous manifestations, such as criminal car business," Nurgaliyev said at a conference with his CIS colleagues on Thursday.

He cited the figures showing the effectiveness of work by CIS countries’ police in this field. "Alone within the framework of complex international preventive measures and operations in CIS space in February, 970 car thefts were solved, 958 criminal cases were opened, 871 criminal were held responsible, 22 suspects were on the international wanted list were detained, and 42 criminal rings were busted," Nurgaliyev said.

The international large-scale operation Rozysk (Search), which has been conducted for several years, is one of the most effective practical forms of interaction between CIS law-enforcement bodies.

During its last phase - in the summer of 2009 - Russian police detained more than 8,000 people wanted for crimes.

Of those, 3,141 were on the federal wanted list, while 4,848 were wanted by local interior bodies.

Police succeeded in finding 3,764 people listed as missing, and establishing the identity of 1,168 bodies.

A representative of the Russian delegation, who is taking part in the Thursday conference, said police in Russia detained 191 criminals wanted by interior bodies of CIS and Georgia, within the scope of the Rozysk operation.

Specifically, it detained 40 people wanted by Armenian police, 47 suspects wanted by Ukraine, 14 people wanted by Tajikistan, 36 people wanted by Belarus and four suspects wanted by Georgia.

"For their parts, CSI bodies detained 188 criminals Russia put on the international wanted list. For example, Ukrainian police detained 68 suspects, Kazakh police - 45, Armenian police 12, Belarus 26 and Uzbekistan 11," the Russian representative said.

"The issue is pressing for transport police units; due to the considerable distances between transport police departments, timely updates of search data play the decisive role," the Russian interior minister said.

"The use of the Rozysk-Magistral technical complex which identifies possible suspects, has been most effective for the past few years. Two hundred and six criminals, who were on CIS wanted lists, were exposed and detained during four months of this year thanks to the use of this complex," Nurgaliyev said.

The Russian police chief called for working out a long-term strategy to organize the fight against crimes in the field of information technologies.

"It is necessary to work out a long-term strategy to organize the fight against crimes in the sphere of information technologies, which would include joint probes into cyber crimes, forensic expert examinations, assistance in probes in the real time mode, training of law-enforcement personnel, exchanges of experience, regional courses for coordinating actions in investigating such crimes, and the creation and use of databases," Nurgaliyev said.

He noted that the Russian interior minister is ready to act as coordinator of this work.

More than 5,000 criminal cases were opened in Russia last year within the framework of fight against cyber crime.

"Russian units on combating crimes in the field of information technologies established close interaction with CIS law-enforcement bodies counteracting cyber crime," Nurgaliyev noted.

One of the examples of this interaction is the PROXY operation carried out by interior bodies of the Collective Security Treaty Organization in the spring. It is aimed at exposing and stopping the facts of creating criminal information resources and their functioning in national segments of the Internet.

It was the Russian interior ministry that came up with the initiative to carry out the PROXY operation.

The main tasks were to expose and stop facts of electronic fraud and combat the spreading of pornographic materials involving minors, rogue programs and unlicensed software.

As a result of the operation, police suspended the functioning of 216 information resources, opened 196 criminal cases and exposed 208 crimes.

"The work in this direction requires further strengthening of interaction," Nurgaliyev underlined.

The interior minister insisted that anonymity of Internet users should be abolished.

"Wrongdoers should stop using the openness of CIS borders, hiding in territories where national jurisdictions of their native countries do not apply," Nurgaliyev said.

In his opinion, law-enforcement bodies, jointly with the departments concerned, agencies and the business community in the field of the provision of communications services, should carry out permanent work to enhance registration discipline.

"The Interior Ministry, with its accumulated experience in counteracting cyber crime, is ready to provide all the necessary consulting assistance in organizing special events," the Russian minister said.