Organised crime groups commit a third more serious crimes this year in Russia
The number of serious crimes committed by organised crime groups has increased by a third as criminals return from the frontlines
04.12.2025
Article published on the moscowtimes.ru website
The number of serious crimes committed by organised criminal groups in Russia has risen by a third over the year, according to the Mozhem Objasnit website, citing figures from the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the first ten months of 2025.
The law enforcement department’s statistics show that organised groups and criminal communities committed 44,000 serious crimes, which is 33.6% more than in the same period last year. The number of group crimes rose by 18%.
This increase in criminal activity is also confirmed by court statistics. As Mozhem Objasnit points out, the number of people convicted under Part 1 of Article 210 of the Federation’s Criminal Code (creation of a criminal community) has gone up nearly fourfold in three years of war. Under parts of the Article that cover involvement in a criminal organisation, the number of those convicted has doubled.
Government figures show that 333,251 serious and particularly serious crimes were recorded in Russia during the first six months of 2025 – the highest in 15 years and 10.4% more than the previous year.
According to the independent media outlet Verstka, over the last three years, Russian military personnel returning from Ukraine have killed and wounded at least 750 people. As of February 2025, there were 378 known deaths and 376 seriously injured. These were mainly domestic violence crimes, fuelled by excessive alcohol consumption.
Last year, Nina Ostanina, Chair of the State Duma Committee on Family Protection, proposed introducing permanent monitoring of former criminals returning from the front line. However, her colleague Andrey Alshevsky from the Security Committee, thought such a measure was excessive, arguing that these people “had atoned for their crimes in blood”.
According to Faridaily, the authorities are expecting another rise in social tensions and crime with the return of hundreds of thousands of military personnel, many of whom may be suffering from mental health issues. Officials are predicting a surge in violence, as well as widespread drug and alcohol abuse.
