Russian police detained thousands of migrants across the country in New Year’s Eve rallies. Dozens of them face deportation. This is reported by “Reuters”, citing Russian media.
Around 3,000 people were detained in Russia’s second-largest city of St Petersburg during crime prevention checks.
“As it turned out, more than 600 of the migrants were in Russia for various violations of the migration legislation,” reports RIA, citing its sources.
More than 100 of them faced deportation.
A man from Tajikistan dressed as Santa Claus is among the migrants detained in Moscow.
In the west-central Russian city of Chelyabinsk, Russia’s main investigative body, the Investigative Committee, said it was opening a criminal case against three migrants for hooliganism against Russian servicemen and their wives.
“A mob of drunken migrants attacked two young men demobilized from the front line, and one soldier was hit with a baton, the Committee reported on the messaging application Telegram. It was also noted that the migrants insulted the wives of veterans of the special military operation.
Russia continues to officially call the war against Ukraine a “special military operation”.
The committee said it had also launched an investigation into illegal activities by migrants in the Sverdlovsk region of Russia’s Ural Mountains and in the Moscow region.
Many migrants, mostly from neighboring Central Asian countries such as Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia, come to Russia in search of work.
President Vladimir Putin said in December that there were more than 10 million migrant workers in Russia.
“This is not an easy problem,” he admitted during his annual press conference.
Illustrative photo: pexels-ryutaro-tsukata-5472259
