Russia’s Investigative Committee plans digital evidence system modelled on Interpol database

Russia’s Investigative Committee plans to develop a photo and video analysis system to detect signs of child sexual exploitation, committee chairman Alexander Bastrykin told RIA Novosti.

The system is intended to compare faces and distinctive features, connect related material and identify patterns of serial offending. Bastrykin described its creation as the next stage of the committee’s work with digital evidence.

Investigators already use tools to analyse correspondence and search social networks, alongside a central register of digital forensic traces, he said. Large language models are used in software development and in analysing text for indicators of criminal risks.

The planned system takes Interpol’s ICSE database as its model. Interpol explains that image comparison helps specialists connect investigative material and identify children who have suffered abuse.

Bastrykin said specialised equipment and forensic tools for examining objects and digital information were used 51.5 thousand times last year and 48.9 thousand times in the first half of 2026. These figures count uses of the tools, rather than crimes solved.