Police: Non-residents account for half of crimes in Moscow

About half of crimes in Moscow are committed by non-residents, the head of the Interior Ministry’s Moscow chief directorate, Anatoly Yakunin, said at a board session on Tuesday. As for the crimes committed by foreigners, over 5,700 such crimes were solved in the first six months of this year, which is an increase by one third against the same period last year. Foreigners also account for about one third of holdups, robberies and rapes from the total amount of solved crimes of this kind, and about 18 percent of murders. “However, we believe that in fact the level of crimes committed by foreign nationals is much higher, this is data only on the solved crimes,” Yakunin stressed. According to him, ethnic groups are now engaged in hijacking cars, drug trade, attacks on cash messengers and residential burglary. Besides, their crimes are marked by impudence and cruelty. “Practically on a daily basis we detain several participants in such organized criminal groups for grave and especially grave crimes,” he marked. He also said that one of the elements of preventive work in the sphere of crimes by committed by foreign nationals is fight against illegal migrants. “Together with the Migration Service, police officers in January-June held administratively liable 32,000 foreign nationals, of whom over 2,000 have already been expelled from Russia,” he added. He also reported that in the first half of this year, Moscow police solved some 33 percent more crimes committed by foreign nationals than one year ago.