On February 27, 2020, the NAS of Belarus held a meeting of the Scientific and Technical Research Council of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation and the National Academy of Science of Belarus on scientific and technical program “Development of innovative genogeographic and genome technologies of personal identification and individual characteristic of humans on the basis of studies of genetic pool of the Union State regions (DNA Identification)”. Representatives of the NAS of Belarus, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, Permanent Committee of the Union State and executors of the DNA Identification Program took part in the meeting. The meeting involved discussion of the issues of progress of the DNA Identification Program implementation, scientific and applied estimate of the results obtained in 2019, intergovernmental cooperation of the program executors, perspectives of implementation of the results obtained under the program in the Republic of Belarus and Russian Federation, as well as program fulfillment monitoring performed by the Permanent Committee of the Union State.

Academician Alexander Kilchevskiy, the Deputy Chairman of the Presidium of the NAS of Belarus, said that the Belarusian and Russian scientists worked on the new “DNA Identification 2” program which can be used, in particular, by law-enforcement authorities. Kilchevskiy also told than the methods developed under the program of the Union State would simplify the in-depth study of biological characteristics of different objects. This program can be useful for criminalists and investigators, as determination of biological characteristics is an important stage of crime investigations – illegal deforestation, foodstuff falsification, including meat and fish products, poaching and drug distribution.