MOSCOW, August 28 (Itar-Tass) —— The murder rate in the Moscow region dropped by 2.5 times since 2000, but 20% of all murders remained unsolved, Moscow regional police chief Col. Gen. Nikolai Golovkin said.
The crime rate has been declining steadily in the recent years, while the number of solved crimes has been growing, he said. “The number of murders committed in the Moscow region in the past decade reduced by 2.5 times. A total of 881 people were killed in 2001, and 368 this year. Some 82% of all murders were solved,” he said.
The number of assaults and robberies has gone down too, Golovkin said. “Burglaries were almost daily in the past, now such crimes are perpetrated once or twice per month, no more,” he said.
Car hijacks remain the biggest problem of the Moscow regional police, the general said. “We have not found an efficient way to deter such crimes. At the same time, the number of solved car hijacks has grown several times in the past nine years,” he said.
Visitors are responsible for 25% of all crimes in the Moscow region, Golovkin said.