Foreign body: how migrants stay in Russia after serving their sentences
Drug traffickers of foreign origin who have served long sentences in Russia have freely settled in the capital region, avoiding deportation. This was accidentally discovered and reported to Izvestia by former employees of the Federal Drug Control Service (now disbanded) who took part in the detention of the group. It turned out that this is far from the only such case. Izvestia investigated how foreign criminals manage to avoid deportation.
Cheat, but stay
Makhsatullo A., who previously served a sentence for organizing a criminal community and drug trafficking on an especially large scale, was spotted in the capital — he works in a taxi, a former high-ranking officer of the Federal Drug Control Service (a special service that investigated and solved crimes related to drug trafficking until 2016) told Izvestia. The editors found information in open sources that the person, whose data completely coincides with A.'s data, is indeed in Russia and has been officially registered as an individual entrepreneur in the Moscow region since 2023 (engaged in haulage and transportation). It also turned out that he has Russian citizenship.
The situation was clarified to Izvestia by a former high-ranking officer of the investigative department of the Russian Interior Ministry, Sergei Pelikh, who took part in the investigation of the crimes of the A group.
"Indeed, 15 years ago it was a serious and daring group of drug traffickers, which involved people from several former Soviet republics of Central Asia and Afghanistan," says Pelikh. — Under the leadership of a certain Boimurodov, accomplices distributed heroin produced in Afghanistan and Tajikistan in large quantities in the Kurgan, Leningrad, Saratov regions, the capital region and other parts of the European part of Russia. And Mahsatullo A. was one of the heads of the structural unit, he did not make a deal with the investigation, unlike other participants in the heroin cartel.
Forgave the "crooked" passport
According to him, at the time of his arrest, A. did have a Russian passport, but it was reliably established that he had obtained it illegally.
— We have established the fact of illegal receipt of documents — A. and several more of his accomplices had corrupt ties in one of the regions and received passports there en masse. In fact, at the same address, where they never appeared. An inspection was carried out, representatives of the migration service were fired and punished. But, as we can see today, A.'s citizenship was never revoked, although this procedure was implied.
The criminality of the receipt scheme was indicated by the fact that the applications were submitted not at the place of actual residence, but in another region.
— In the future, we independently began to monitor the processes of citizenship deprivation. This was the case, for example, in the case of the leader of the Moldovan ethnic criminal group Torkunov. But the process of depriving a Turk of citizenship has become the only successful offshoot of the investigation into the illegal acquisition of citizenship.
The scheme with my wife
According to a law enforcement source, some foreigners, including dangerous criminals, marry Russian citizens while already in custody.
— The law does not distinguish between Russians and foreigners in this matter. In order to enter into a marriage with a Russian woman, a foreigner must have documents certified according to all the rules confirming the absence of a legitimate spouse in his homeland.
According to him, a significant proportion of such marriages are fictitious, but they began to fight this phenomenon not so long ago.
— There are "reshals" that provide such services, — says the interlocutor. — It costs significant funds, as a rule, the scheme is turned around when it comes to status criminals-foreigners.
The required registry
According to Vadim Kozhenov, head of the Migrant Assistance Center, only foreigners who have committed serious crimes are subject to unconditional expulsion.
— A foreigner who has served a criminal sentence under a serious article does not just leave the correctional institution — FSIN officers hand him over to representatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, whose competence includes issues of forced expulsion, then the Ministry of Internal Affairs places this person in a special detention center, where he stays until departure to his country.
According to the expert, the legislative mechanism is working quite well in this regard. Vadim Kozhenov considers the introduction of a Register of Controlled Entities to be effective measures introduced in 2025.
— Since February 5, after the introduction of the RCL, the system has been greatly rebuilt. I'll give you an example from the Moscow region. At the beginning of the year, 1,460 people with confirmed syphilis were identified. A foreigner must obtain a patent for legal work in Russia, and for this, medical tests must be performed, which is how people with similar diseases are identified. And in the case of such a diagnosis, they are denied a patent, and they must leave Russia. They didn't leave. Formally, they had to be found and expelled, but no one was purposefully engaged in this. Often such people are hiding somewhere, working as gardeners in cottage settlements. And they've been living there for years. But after the introduction of the RCL, they were blocked from bank cards, SIM cards, and many other restrictions. On July 1, the situation was analyzed: 30 out of 1,460 people remained, the rest left on their own. It turns out that the measures are working — more than 98% left voluntarily. That is, the "holes" that are often talked about were closed back in February.
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