Four Moscow region police officers were accused of taking bribes when registering migrants

Moscow. 25th of April. INTERFAX.RU – The investigation into the case of illegal migration charged four police officers and their ten accomplices in the Moscow region with bribery and illegal registration of more than 1,500 foreigners. This was reported in the regional department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation (ICR).

“Fourteen citizens have been charged, four of whom are employees of internal affairs bodies,” says a message posted on the department’s telegram channel on Thursday.

It notes that the defendants are charged with organizing illegal migration, as well as receiving and giving bribes on an especially large scale (part 2 of article 322.1, part 6 of article 290 and part 5 of article 291 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

The report notes that an organized group was established consisting of ten residents of Balashikha, acting on behalf of the non-existent “Bureau of Migration Services”, as well as the head of the territorial point of the migration department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia “Balashikhinskoe”, two of her subordinates and an intern. From January 2022 to March 2024, this group of persons carried out, for a monetary reward totaling more than 1 million rubles, fictitious migration registration of more than 1,500 foreign citizens in the residential premises of Reutov and Balashikha, in which they did not actually live.

Subsequently, according to the investigation, the defendants “ensured the issuance of fictitious certificates to foreign specialists on alleged knowledge of the Russian language, knowledge of the history of Russia and the fundamentals of Russian legislation, as well as other documents necessary for the further legalization of foreigners on the territory of the Russian Federation.”

A preventive measure was chosen against 12 accused in the form of detention, and against two – in the form of house arrest, the Investigative Committee reported.

They added that a criminal case was initiated based on materials from the criminal investigation department and the internal security department of the Moscow Region Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.