vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #533 / Crime watch / Reading article...

The Russian Far East district holds the highest crime level compared to other federal districts showing a 35 percent increase in the first seven months of 2006 compared to 16.8 percent growth in other Russia’s districts over the same period, presidential envoy to the district Kamil Iskhakov reported on Thursday, opening the meeting of the regional law enforcment in Khabarovsk.

According to Iskhakov, more than 70,000 crimes out of 138,000 committed this year in the district remained unsolved. “Conclusions are to be drawn from these statistics. Governors, mayors and police – all should feel responsible for this,” Iskhakov stressed, his press service reported.

Iskhakov added that the Far East also shows the highest level of drug crimes in Russia. The number of drug addicts is 26 percent higher than in other regions, Iskhakov revealed. According to him, the territory is being widely used for drug trafficking from Asia to Europe and vice versa.

Russia’s top prosecutor Yuri Chaika, who headed the meeting, called the situation ‘worrying’ and indicated that the rate of serious crimes continues to rise in the Far East district. “Every tenth crime is connected with drug usage and there are no evident results of fighting these crimes,” Chaika stated.

He stressed that the efforts of the enforcement bodies should be connected and coordinated to achieve noticeable results.