Is it true that most of the crimes in Russia are committed by migrants?

The belief is widespread that most crimes, especially serious ones, are committed in Russia from other countries. We checked whether this is confirmed by official statistics.

For many years, the narrative about the responsibility of foreigners for the majority of crimes committed in the Russian Federation applies to the media, including authoritative, relaying statements of Russian officials. In 2011, then the post of Moscow prosecutor Sergei Kudeneev assertedthat "foreign citizens in Moscow commit every fifth murder, every second rape, every third robbery and every fifth theft." The extremely high share of crimes committed by migrants has been reported over the past ten years "Moscow Komsomolets", Radio Business FM, "Vesti.ru" TASS, Sputnik, Telegram channels ("Truthfulness","Explains Readovka") And many other media. In network disputes, opponents of immigration refer to the media mentioned above, sometimes affirmingthat foreigners do up to 70% of robberies and robberies. Less radical write about 20-30% of all crimes either in Russia or in Moscow and the Moscow region, especially Noting contribution to crime by visitors from Central Asia.

For the analysis of the popular narrative, “verified” turned to open data Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, Judicial Department at the Supreme Court and portal of legal statistics Prosecutor General Over the past 11 years. These departments are conducting a fairly detailed account, including separately identify crimes committed by foreigners, CIS citizens and the Baltic countries, and detailed breakdown by acts is also available for some periods. We analyzed the total number of crimes, separately highlighting the serious and especially serious ones, and calculated what share of them was committed by foreigners and stateless persons. 

On average, about 2 million crimes are registered annually in Russia, about a quarter of them It is necessary On heavy and especially heavy. Among those Relate Intentional crimes, for which the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation provides for the maximum punishment of imprisonment for a term of more than five or more than ten years, respectively (in serious reference crimes are also assigned, the term for which does not exceed 15 years). IN particular, this is the murder, rape, trade in drugs and weapons, abduction of people, terrorism, grab, some Types of tax crimes.

Crimes committed by foreigners and stateless persons make up a rather small share of all recorded.

So, for example, in 2019 (later statistics are not quite typical due to the pandemic of coronavirus and a full-scale invasion of Ukraine), according to the portal of legal statistics of the Prosecutor General’s Office, 2,024,300 crimes were registered in Russia, 34,900 foreigners and stateless persons were committed, that is, 1.72%. From year to year, the situation changes slightly - the share of crimes committed by foreigners, in 2012–2022, rarely exceeded 2% of the total number of registered ones. 

Opponents of immigration in response to such calculations often argue that it is necessary to consider not a share of crimes committed by migrants from the total number of known violations of the Criminal Code, but the number of crimes that falls on citizens of the Russian Federation and foreigners. But the simple formula allows you to calculate this proportion. By official Russian and independent data, before the Pandemia of the Covid-19 and the restrictions on average in Russia in Russia, about 11 million foreign citizens constantly lived, and the country's population in official statistics (taking into account The population of the annexed Crimea) since 2015 is estimated at about 146 million people. Thus, in 2019, 317 crimes accounted for 100,000 foreign citizens and stateless persons, 1386 - 1386 for 100,000 Russians. The same ratio of these two values ​​is observed in other years by which statistics are available.

In the Internet disputes and statements of some officials, the stereotype is repeated that, despite the fewer crimes committed by migrants, their acts are more serious, in particular, they more often resort to murders and rape. Although there is no such breakdown in the given portal of legal statistics on crimes registered during the year, this statement can be verified using data judicial statisticscontaining information about the sentences. So, in 2019, 597,441 people were convicted under the articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, of which 20 151 were citizens of other countries and stateless persons (3.37%).

If you limit yourself to serious and especially serious crimes, then here the share of foreigners is slightly higher, it persists from year to year at about 4-5%. From a quarter to a third of these sentences, they are extended for drug crime, while the share of sentences to foreigners from all court decisions on grave drugs are kept around 5%. The number of foreigners convicted of murders is on average 4%of the total number, for rape and sexual acts of a violent nature - 8.5%, for theft with aggravating circumstances - 8.5%, for robberies - 5%. These statistics show that the shares of convicts for the main grave and especially serious crimes of foreigners and citizens of the Russian Federation as a whole correspond to their shares in the country's population - in other words, migrants for such offenses judge on average no more often and at least Russians.

A significant part of the publications in the news media, which refer to supporters of the hypothesis of the widespread migrant crime, contain either clicky headlines or Inaccurate formulations or distorted Data, or both together. Many publications also do not take into account that sometimes by visitors officials mean not only foreigners, but also internal migrants, that is, citizens of the Russian Federation prescribed in one region (primarily in the national republics), but committed a crime in another. Judging by the same demographic tables of the Judicial Department of the Supreme Court, the number of convicted internal migrants (including, for example, Petersburgers who committed a crime in Moscow) is approximately equal to the number of convicted foreigners. However, clarifications are rarely made, which is probably fed by a persistent Xenophobic narrative. 

So, for example, in the material of the Business FM radio ApprovedWhat the migrants committed in 2020 in Moscow and the Moscow Region every third crime. This statement is contained in the heading and in the introductory part of the article. However, the main text contains data from the Prosecutor General’s Office: “In 2020, a third of the crimes committed by migrants, as before, fell on Moscow (65000) and the Moscow Region (5000).” A third of the crimes committed in Russia in Russia turned into a title of all crimes in Moscow and the Moscow Region, which does not correspond to statistics.

Article In Moscow Komsomolets, from 2020, "the number of crimes of migrants in Russia was struck by: fresh data." However, in the article itself, the data is by no means “amazing” - 3.5% of all crimes in Russia were committed by foreigners, although it is noted that the percentage in Moscow and the Moscow Region is several times higher than the average. 

As for the specifically Moscow, in the Russian capital the percentage of registered crimes committed by foreigners is really higher than on average in the Russian Federation. This is probably due to the greater concentration of migrants in Moscow regarding other cities (in 2019, by official The data, 1.6 million visitors from other countries lived and worked in Moscow). However, by data The portal of legal statistics, in reality, migrants account for only about 4.5% of all crimes recorded in the capital.

Thus, all available data refutes the common statement, since over 95% of crimes in Russia are committed by citizens of the Russian Federation. The universal crime among migrants is nothing more than a myth, fed by incorrect or uncontrolled statements of officials and supported by the bias of some Internet users and a number of media. Foreigners and stateless persons do not ahead of Russians either by the number of crimes in general, or by the number of serious and especially serious violations of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. At the same time, statistics have remained relatively stable - over the past decade, this ratio has changed slightly.

Photo on the cover: UFMS Russia

The data collection was attended by the student of the Media -Media -Medical Sciences of the RANEPA: Angelina Nazirova, Aitaj Akbarli, Marina Boger, Elizaveta Belyakova.

Not true

What do our verdicts mean?

Read on the topic:

1. Myths about migrants: Special project "Such things"
2. How propagandists pump hatred of migrants, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs accuses “foreign agents” of this