MOSCOW. Feb 4 (Interfax) - Russia's Interior Ministry has proposed extending the list of persons subject to mandatory genome registration to make the search for missing persons more efficient.
The list would include missing persons and their close relatives, the ministry said.
To that end, the proposed changes to the State Genome Registration law, should determine, among other things, that close relatives of a missing person are biologically related: parents, children, siblings.
There are no plans to impose such compulsory DNA registration on close relatives of missing persons, the ministry said.
Unlike voluntary DNA registration, which charges a fee, the mandatory procedure is funded by the federal government.
The bill also sets the maximum period of 70 years for storing the DNA information of close relatives or until the missing person's whereabouts have been found, whichever comes earlier.
"[The information] can be destroyed at written request of these persons or at written request, respectively, of their parents (adoptive parents), or guardians," the police said.
The bill is available at the http://regulation.gov.ru website. It was drafted in furtherance of the government instruction of April 1, 2020.
In late 2020, the ministry said that 2,700 people, including 56 children, had gone missing since the beginning of the year. In total, 7,900 people were on the list of missing persons that year.