The head of the Investigative Committee Bastrykin said that crime among migrants has grown three times. Is it so?

The head of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, regularly claims that migrants in Russia commit more and more crimes. On April 11, in an interview with Interfax, he once again stated that over a year, crime among foreigners had grown almost three times. His words were picked up by state media and officials. “How much will we endure? It is urgent to introduce a visa regime with the countries of Central Asia. You cannot turn Russia into a passage yard, ”the head of the Fair Russia party, Sergei Mironov, wrote on Twitter. We tell how Bastrykin manipulates statistics in order to maintain the myth of migrants and depressor.

Did the migrants do three times more crimes?

According to the data of the Prosecutor General’s Office, the number of crimes on the part of foreigners and stateless persons really grew-but not three times at all: in 2021, the department recorded 36,420 such crimes, and in 2022-40 154. However, this does not mean that migrant crime ramps began on the streets. More than 80% of 3.7 thousand new crimes are associated with drug trafficking. Thefts and other crimes against property have become about 700 more cases. And the number of murders and rape has grown by less than 100, although Bastrykin claims that there were five times more.

The increase in the number of drug crimes committed by migrants does not mean again that thousands of visitors selling drugs appeared in Russia. More than half of the new cases account for only three regions: the Chelyabinsk and Samara regions, as well as Moscow. This is due to the changed practice of the records of crimes, explains the researcher of criminal policy in Russia, who wished to remain anonymous:

“Now each bookmark ( a cache with a drug in which the drug courier leaves the order, and the buyer takes it later. - Approx. Ed. ), Even if it was left by the same people at about the same time and according to the same scheme, is taken into account as a separate crime. This is confirmed by the fact that the number of people who committed these crimes has not grown in almost any region. ”

For example, in the Chelyabinsk region 274 migrants were identified that distributed drugs, while more than one and a half thousand such crimes have been on them. In the Samara region - 132 foreigners and 656 drug crimes they committed. These regions are already actively introducing a new practice, others are still watching how it will take root. And foreigners are more likely to be involved in such cases, because it is easier for the police to agree with them, the researcher says.

According to Bastrykin, every fifth migrant crime is a murder. This is true?

If you believe the head of the UK, every fifth crime (21%, 893 criminal cases), which migrants committed in Russia in 2022, is the murder or infliction of serious harm to health that resulted in death. The data of the Prosecutor General’s Office contradict his words: last year the department investigated only 380 such crimes - this is less than a percent of all crimes among foreigners and stateless persons. If you add beatings and rape to them, it will turn out about 2.4 thousand, or about 6% of all crimes in 2022. In general, migrants, like the Russians, most often commit theft and drug crime, in third place - forgery of documents.

The authorities periodically use the migrantophobia of Russians to distract attention from other problems, the researcher of criminal policy in Russia notes. “We know that campaign was practiced in the UK: in 2013-2014 there was a campaign against pedophiles, in front of Pandemia Bastrykin saddled the theme of negligence of doctors, and here migrantophobia is in waves. It may well be that now Bastrykin decided to prove on this topic. ”

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The head of the UK really demands to report to him about the investigation of incidents related to migrants, even those that seem insignificant. On April 16, Bastrykin instructed to conduct an audit in connection with a fight with the participation of migrants in Magnitogorsk of the Chelyabinsk region. The incident became known from social networks: the victims and attackers argued in the comments who provoked the conflict, and the case ended with the reconciliation of the parties.

Close attention to migrants in this region was paid after a 11-grader murder in Chelyabinsk on April 9 in Chelyabinsk. The suspect is a native of Tajikistan, with him he was detained by six more compatriots. This led to a strict reaction even in relation to those migrants who were not involved in the crime: mass raids began in the city, more than 100 people expel from Russia.

Why should we believe the data of the Prosecutor General, and not the words of Bastrykin?

According to the head of the UK, in 2022, 4231 criminal cases were instituted in Russia against migrants, while the Prosecutor General’s Office recorded more than 40 thousand such crimes. Where does this difference come from? Most likely, Bastrykin operates with incomplete data and speaks only of the internal statistics of the department, and not about the entire array of crimes, the researcher of criminal policy in Russia explains:

“The Prosecutor General reports on the investigated crimes. These are those by which the investigation has already been completed, and the criminal case was either transferred to the court or terminated. And Bastrykin can operate with his internal statistics on business in production. This means that in the case there is some suspect who can not even be established and described from the words of the applicant. Typically, applicants claim that the attacker looked like a migrant or foreign citizen, and during the investigation it may turn out that this is not a migrant. ”

Reluctibly, we know only the statistics of the crimes that the Prosecutor General’s Office reported: according to the law, the unified statistical accounting of data on the state of crime should keep this particular department. These figures are less prone to manipulations, and it can be trusted at least since 2014, the researcher of criminal policy says: then, within the framework of the special information system, the prosecutor's office really gained access to data on the activities of investigators of the UK, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and other departments and made sure that they indicate the more complete statistics as possible.

Photo: Reuters / Scanpix / Leta

This does not prevent Bastrykin from operating with incomplete data and talk about a rampant of crime among migrants on the basis of only part of the picture. He regularly repeats this thought with almost the same words. Here's what the head of the UK said in an interview with Interfax on April 11, 2023:

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“Statistics on serious and especially serious crimes are particularly alarming. <...> The number of criminal cases of crimes against sexual integrity increased significantly. <...> Extremist sentiments are widespread among illegal migrants. Also, cases of resistance to law enforcement officials and attacks on law enforcement officers have also become more frequent. <...> Similar examples, of course, give rise to social tension and entail an aggravation of the criminal situation in Russia. This excites the public: in the comments on social networks they write about such incidents, ask to pay attention to them. ”

But his words on August 4, 2022:

“There is an increase in cases of serious and especially serious crimes - murders, rape, abductions of people, extremist sentiments are widespread. <...> This year there were many cases related to resistance to law enforcement officials and attacks on law enforcement. All this entails an aggravation of the criminal situation in Russia and, of course, excites the public. People write us comments on social networks, ask to pay attention to this. ”

Propagandists help the head of the UC to support the myth of migrants and depressor: “important stories” said that in the summer of 2021, pro-government media outlets began to talk more about migrant crimes and do this much more often than independent publications. Against this background, Bastrykin again and again offers to tighten migration legislation - to introduce genomic registration of visitors, replace labor migrants with Russians and force employers to pay tax for the reception of foreigners to work. According to the head of the UK, these proposals "found great support in society."

Editor: Ales Marokhov