12 Nov 2021 10:00 30 years ago

Crimes against foreigners on the up in the USSR

This news story first came out 30 years ago to the day, and we are publishing it today as part of Interfax's project, "Timeline of the Last Days of USSR. This Day 30 Years Ago." The project's goal is to reconstruct as fully as possible the timeline of the last few months of 1991 and to give everyone interested in understanding the historical processes of that period the opportunity to study and analyze the events that led to and accompanied the collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of the new Russian state. The complete timeline can be found in Russian.


MOSCOW. Nov 12 (Interfax) – The number of crimes committee in the USSR against foreigners has grown 21% this year, while the statistics do not take into account crimes registered in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, according to figures unveiled at a briefing at the Interior Ministry of the USSR on Tuesday.

The percentage of solved cases does not exceed 34%.

The opening of 5,000 joint ventures and granting to 17,000 cooperatives of the right to directly access external markets has created conditions for "unlimited growth of crime," said Oleg Burov, the chief of the Soviet Interior Ministry's directorate for countering organized international crime.

On the other hand, Soviet citizens, including former ones, are more actively engaged in international criminal syndicates.

Law enforcement agencies are particularly concerned about the more frequent 'contract' thefts and murders committed by Soviet criminals on orders from foreign countries.

 The preparation of a package of laws of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic that will allow police to more effectively counter crimes in which citizens of other countries are involved is nearing completion, first deputy head of the Soviet Interior Ministry public relations center Vladimir Yanchenkov said. Citizens of former Soviet republics whose sovereignty was recognized will be considered as such, he said.