MOSCOW, July 27. /TASS/. Russia has initiated a draft UN convention on countering the use of information and communications technologies for criminal purposes, the press service of the Russian prosecutor general’s office told TASS on Tuesday.

"Today, a Russian delegation led by Deputy Prosecutor General Pyotr Gorodovoy met with Dennis Thatchaichawalit, acting Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, at the United Nations Geneva Office and officially submitted a Russian draft of the convention on countering the use of information and communications technologies for criminal purposes," the press service said.

A copy of the draft was handed over to Fouzia Mebarki, president of the ad hoc intergovernmental committee to elaborate the convention on countering ICT use for criminal purposes.

The draft, according to the Russian prosecutor general’s office, envisages countering criminal uses of crypto currencies and crimes committed with the use of information technologies, in particular the trade in fake medical products and drugs.

"The draft takes into account the present-day challenges and threats in the sphere of international information security (including criminal uses of crypto currencies), introduces new crimes committed with the use of information and communications technologies (marketing fake medical products, drug trafficking, involvement of minors into illegal activities posing threats to their lives and health, and others). The draft also expands the sphere of international cooperation concerning legal assistance on criminal cases, including tracing, arrest, seizure and the return of assets," the prosecutor general’s office said.

It recalled that, amid the explosive growth of cybercrime in the world, Russian Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov last year set up a working group on combating IT crimes. It includes officials from the prosecutor general’s office, the foreign ministry and other concerned agencies. The group was tasked, among other things, to draft a universal international convention on countering cybercrimes.

The ad hoc intergovernmental committee to elaborate the convention on countering ICT use for criminal purposes was established under a United Nations General Assembly resolution in December 2019.

"Russia is the first country to elaborate and submit to the ad hoc committee a draft universal convention on countering information crimes. Russia offers to the world its own ideas that could form the basis of a future comprehensive instrument, which will be developed with due account of the positions of other world nations," the press service said.