“The figures on missing persons shouldn’t appear anywhere, it’s classified”

48 thousand DNA tests to identify the remains of Russian servicemen were taken by their relatives. These data were announced by the Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation at a round table in the State Duma. The head of the State Duma Committee on Defense asked “not to voice these figures anywhere else” and to remove this information from the documents.

The round table of the Committee on Labor, Social Policy and Veterans Affairs on the topic “Legislative provision of social support measures for participants of the SMO and their family members (problems and ways to solve them)” was held at 10:00 a.m. Moscow time on November 26. The broadcast was conducted on the official website of the State Duma, there was no recording of the broadcast on the website, however, an ASTRA reader managed to record it. The Ministry of Defense also officially announced the round table.

The Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation spoke at the event (according to media reports) together with Putin’s great-niece Anna Tsivileva. She said that now all men who sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense take DNA tests. This data is then entered into the database of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

“We also take everything from relatives of DNA, they give it for free, <…> it is also entered into the database. All the relatives who contacted us – 48 thousand,” added Tsivileva.

In response, the head of the State Duma Committee on Defense, Andrei Kartapolov, made a remark to her: “Colleagues, I beg you, let these figures about missing persons not appear anywhere. <…> This is very sensitive information. When we draw up the final documents, too, so that these figures do not turn up anywhere there.”

Tsivileva replied to this: “I did not name the numbers of the missing, but the appeals to us. They [relatives] will find many. Therefore, this figure is exactly the appeals, not the statistics.”

It is unknown whether Tsivileva’s statement refers to 48 thousand relatives of servicemen who have donated DNA, who have gone missing, or to a single DNA database of native military personnel who are in a combat zone. However, previously, the relatives of Russian servicemen complained to ASTRA that DNA could be donated for free only if the fighter had the official status of “missing”. The same information was announced in the chats of relatives of military personnel.

At the same time, the website of the Irkutsk Commissioner for Human Rights says that DNA can be donated without such a status. “If there is a notification with the status of a missing serviceman received at the military commissariat, the procedure for selecting DNA material can be organized by the military commissariat at the place of residence of a blood relative, in the absence of this status, DNA can be handed over through the Military Investigative Department of the IC of Russia for the Irkutsk garrison.”