Over Last Six Months, Extremist Crimes by Immigrants have Increased by More than 50 Percent, Bastrykin Says

Paul Goble,

            Staunton, July 17 – Aleksandr Bastrykin, head of Russia’s Investigation Committee, , says that over the last six months, extremist crimes committed by immigrant workers have risen by 55 percent, far more that increases in other crimes such as rape which have increased in number by only five percent.

            On the one hand, these remarks by the point man in Moscow’s ongoing campaign against immigrant will turn even more Russians against immigrants and possibly against ethnic and religious groups within Russia who are like them such as indigenous Muslims  (https://sledcom.ru/press/events/item/1900153/).

            But on the other, Bastrykin’s figures show just how elastic charges now in the Russian Federation of extremism not only in this case but in others are and how much easier it is for Russian officials to increase them at will as compared to bringing charges about other crimes to make their political case.

            In other comments, the head of the Investigation Committee says that some of the responsibility for this increase in crime among immigrant workers must be assigned to corruption in law enforcement agencies and violations of Russian law by those who employ migrant worker.