The Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs identified 128 thousand violations of migration norms during Operation Illegal 2025

As a result of the special operation “Illegal 2025,” security forces discovered over 128 thousand violations of migration norms. This was reported by official representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Irina Volk.

Operational and preventive measures were carried out in two stages with the participation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB and Rosfinmonitoring together with partners in the CSTO. According to official information, the main task was to combat the illegal movement of people across the border and destroy organized criminal groups involved in this business.

The majority of the detected offenses—more than 100 thousand cases—are related to the illegal entry, exit and residence of foreigners on Russian territory. Over 28 thousand more episodes concerned violations of the rules of employment of visitors. Law enforcement officials made more than 19 thousand decisions on the expulsion and deportation of foreign citizens.

During the operation, about 4.8 thousand criminal cases related to the organization of illegal migration were opened. Another 1.5 thousand cases were initiated for other crimes - from drug trafficking and weapons to illegal border crossing, as well as crimes of a terrorist and extremist nature. Security forces found 673 people put on the federal wanted list, 329 on the interstate wanted list, and 37 on the international wanted list.

In 2025, migration policy in Russia has significantly tightened. Since February, the police have the right to deport foreigners without trial for administrative offenses. On September 1, a law on compulsory Russian language testing for children of migrants entering schools came into force. A system for monitoring the movements of foreigners through a mobile application has been launched in Moscow and the Moscow region. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, at the beginning of 2025 there were about 670 thousand illegal migrants in Russia. In June, Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev said that migrants who do not bring “benefit to Russian society” should leave the country.