Crimes against coloured foreigners on the rise in Russia

Crimes against foreigners from Africa and Asia are growing in Russia, Colonel Viktor Papsuyev (Militia), section head at the Main Department of Criminal Investigation of the Russian Interior Ministry, said at the Friday briefing.

Over 4,000 crimes against foreigners have been registered this year, which is 34.2% more than in the same period last year, he said. The colonel added that the bulk of such crimes are committed in the Moscow Region (over 40%), St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region.

Papsuyev stressed that "the overwhelming majority of such crimes are committed for mercenary reasons (theft, burglary and robbery) or after joint drinking parties," and not by groups of young people on grounds of ethnic or racial hatred. The militia colonel added that not a single case of racial crimes has been legally proved in Russia.

He pointed out that "the effect of foreigners on the crime situation much more negative than the influence of Russians on their welfare." Papsuyev said that in 2001 the number of rimes committed by the nationals of Africa was 1.4 times larger than the number of crimes committed against them. The trend has not changed this year. The most "criminally active" are citizens of Nigeria, Angola, Liberia and Cameroon.