Representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs do not see an increase in crimes motivated by ethnic and religious hatred

On December 7, 2004, representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia held a press conference, at which they announced the statistics of crimes for 2004. The topic of crimes motivated by racial hatred could not be left untouched at it.

However, representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and, in particular, the head of the Criminal Investigation Department of the Ministry, Viktor Papsuev, believe that the concern of public organizations with the growth of racist, ethno-nationalist manifestations in Russia is unfounded: "The number of crimes against foreigners is falling every year, while the number of criminal acts , committed by foreigners on the territory of Russia is growing every year, and in a much larger proportion . Thus, according to the ministry's statistics, about 8.5 thousand crimes have been committed against foreigners this year, and foreigners themselves have committed more than 41 thousand crimes.

V. Papsuev said that since the beginning of the year 283 crimes against foreign students have been committed in Russia. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, most often these are thefts and robberies; also occur, but to a lesser extent, crimes against the person of foreign students, grievous bodily harm and murder. Most of the victims this year are among student citizens of China, other Asian and African countries. According to V. Papsuev, the situation in St. Petersburg and the Leningrad region, which account for 1/3 of such crimes, is of particular concern .

V. Papsuev said that not a single crime in which extremist overtones can be assumed is left without the attention of law enforcement agencies - they are dealt with by special units created as a result of the merger of units for solving crimes against foreign citizens and for solving crimes of extremist youth groups.

COMM. We remind you that, as a rule, under "extremist" groups, law enforcement agencies mean only organizations suspected of terrorism. In addition, the opposition between the statistics of "crimes of foreigners" and "crimes against foreigners" seems to us incorrect. Speaking of crimes motivated by ethnic hatred, public organizations mean murders and severe beatings, the victims of which were, among other things, Russian citizens of "non-Slavic appearance", while even from the report of this press conference it is clear that representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs mean general statistics of crimes.

Meanwhile, such statements have already been properly interpreted by the media. Here are just some examples of the headlines of the press conference reports (as a rule, only statistics are given in the texts themselves without comments): "Every fifth crime in the capital is committed by foreigners" (Newsru.com), "Foreigners have committed over 41,000 crimes in Russia " (RIA Novosti"), "Kuban is among the regions of Russia most prone to foreign crime" (Kuban.Info), "Khabarovsk and Primorsky Krai are among the regions most prone to foreign crime" (VostokMedia).

Sources

• Ukolov Roman. Invisible xenophobia // Independent newspaper. 2004. December 8.
• Alikina S. 283 crimes committed against foreign students in Russia this year // Human rights. 2004. December 8.