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Cybercrime’s harm to world economy to soar to $9 trillion 2025 -— Russian Foreign Ministry

The launch of the UN committee on drafting a comprehensive international convention on the issue is the international community’s tangible response to this challenge, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov noted

MOSCOW, May 16. /TASS/. The annual damage to the global economy from cybercrime may soar to $9 trillion by 2025, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov told the 31st session of the UN Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Vienna on Monday. A transcript of his statement was uploaded to the Foreign Ministry’s website.

"The problem of using IT for criminal purposes is truly global - the annual damage from it may soar to $9 trillion by 2025," he warned.

Syromolotov said the launch of the United Nations’ ad hoc committee on drafting a comprehensive international convention on the issue was the international community’s tangible response to this challenge.

"We have a corresponding experience of drafting universal conventions. Also, to make the negotiating process faster it might be feasible not to invent everything from scratch, but to use the available Russian-Chinese draft of such a convention as a basis," he stressed. "It incorporates all strengths of the conventions concerned and some countries have agreed to be its co-authors. We are calling upon one and all to study this draft and to support it."

"We pay special attention to the ongoing work to review the implementation of the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime and the protocols to it with the aim to estimate the countries’ needs for technical assistance," he said.

Syromolotov pointed to the existing problem in the field of extradition and some countries’ unpreparedness to provide mutual assistance in legal matters.

"Regrettably, a number of countries use political excuses to reject the idea of such cooperation, which certainly plays into the hands of international crime. We are calling on all countries once again to focus on the effective means of eliminating problems in this field by means of enhancing the judicial framework and promoting professional, honest and diligent cooperation by the law enforcement agencies," he said.