Georgians leading the list of foreign criminals in Russia

Russia has officially denied the allegation that more crimes are committed in that country by foreign migrants than by anyone else. Director of the Russian Immigration Service Konstantin Romodonovsky has said that annually foreigners commit around 50,000 crimes, but this is only 3-4% of the total.

Figures for the first quarter of 2009 show that the number of crimes committed by Russian citizens is much higher than that of crimes committed by foreigners. However Romodonovsky stated that more Georgians than people of any other nationality commit crimes. Every 15th Georgian entering the Russian Federation commits a crime, Romodonovsky stated. Tajiki, Kyrgyz and Azeri citizens are the next most likely to commit crimes.

Labour migrants produce 8% of Russia’s GDP. It is said that migrants take jobs from Russian citizens and are criminals, and although this is not the case this sort of talk creates xenophobia in the country. Over the last 4 years racially-motivated crime has increased 30% in Russia.