Border to be closed again. Thanks heavens!

In a special sitting carried recently by federal inspector from staff of RF President’s Plenipotentiary in the Southern Federal District, Viktor Novikov, it was noticed that about 80 percent of illegal migrants from Asia penetrate to Volgograd region through Russian border with Kazakhstan. Though, that are not simply migrants. They steel cattle and kidnap people. The Kazakhs do not ignore even pilferage. No wonder! In the steppe, there is one policeman over the territory equal to the whole Denmark. Therefore, the bandits can easily hide themselves in Kazakhstan, whose authorities seem to be indifferent to many facts of their citizens’ sadden prosperity. Bandits seem to be encouraged with such impunity and commit every time much impudent crimes. Only in 2001, frontier guards detained about 1,000 people trying to penetrate to Russian territory with false documents. But much more of them probably managed to penetrate to Russia: steppe is really great. According to some data, on the territory of the region, there are 60,000 illegal migrants now, while specialists predict their flow will only grow. Therefore, Volgograd region could turn into an non-controlling market of forced labour and into a transit corridor for transporting drags not only to Russia, but to Europe as well. Equipping the frontier is becoming an important problem connected with serious investments, while the regional budget hardly can execute this task. Or the frontier could become only a line on the map. Andrei Cherkasov PRAVDA.Ru Volgograd

Translated by Vera Solovieva

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2002/02/07/36743.html