Russia is swamped with sexual slavery cases, but law enforcement masks them with other charges

In 15 years, Russia has registered only 53 criminal cases of slave labor (Article 127.2 of Russia's Criminal Code), but the scale of such exploitation appears to be 17 times as high, according to a study by the Yesli Byt Tochnym (lit. “To Be Precise”) project, which analyzed nearly 500 court verdicts.

Working with lawyers from the anti-slavery NGO Alternativa and the Academy of the Prosecutor General's Office, the researchers found evidence of slavery in 880 cases that had been filed under different charges — most often kidnapping, unlawful confinement, involvement in prostitution, and receiving sexual services from minors. Notably, official statistics do not include these crimes in the category of slavery.

Exploitation continues today: in the city of Vladimir, a local MP forcibly kept workers at his car wash; in the Novosibirsk Region, a father and son exploited people in a cafe; in Yakutia, Khakassia, and the Rostov Region dozens of people have been forced to work for free on farms, and foreign students were forced to work in a warehouse belonging to the online retailer Ozon.

International organizations estimate the number of victims of modern slavery in Russia at no less than 7,000 people. In 2021, the Global Slavery Index cited a figure of 1.8 million people in slavery worldwide — 13 per 1000 people. According to the Counter-Trafficking Data Collaborative, between 2002 and 2023, human traffickers brought 6,600 people into Russia and took another 850 Russians abroad for exploitation.

Law and practice: What is considered slave labor

Russian law interprets slave labor narrowly. To prove a crime, investigators need to confirm that the victim was completely deprived of freedom of movement and choice, was threatened, abused, or blackmailed, and that their labor has been exploited for profit. Otherwise, the case may be reclassified — for example, as unlawful confinement.

Arina Fayrushina, a lawyer for Alternativa, points out that even with evidence of threats, physical violence, and confinement, courts often do not recognize the fact of slavery. One such example involved the brick factory case in Dagestan, in which the defendant was acquitted, as the court determined that the presence of a gate in the concrete fence “technically” allowed the victims to leave.

However, international human rights organizations interpret slavery more broadly. Under the Palermo Protocol, mandatory physical restraint is not a necessary element — even psychological pressure is sufficient. Veronika Antimonik, coordinator of the Safe Home Foundation, emphasizes that modern forms of slavery are often built on manipulation, threats, and dependency.

Sexual exploitation is the largest category of slave labor

Of the 880 convictions featuring evidence of slavery, 809 related to sexual exploitation. Almost half of the sentences for involvement in prostitution (Article 240 of Russia's Criminal Code) indicate the use of slave labor: the survivors, all female, were deprived of their documents and were beaten, threatened with explicit video distribution, held in special apartments, and escorted to their clients. Nine percent of these cases involved confinement and physical abuse.

Nevertheless, sexual exploitation cases rarely qualify as the use of slave labor. Of all the sentences under Article 127.2, only two simultaneously feature charges of involvement in prostitution. According to Antimonik, investigating the crime of organizing prostitution is much easier, since the coercion and financial gain elements necessary for a slave labor conviction are more difficult to prove.

Slave labor on farms, in private homes, and in workhouses

Among the convictions for the use of slave labor, cases of exploitation in agriculture and domestic work are the most common. Victims are confined, have their papers taken away, and are forced to clean, herd cattle, or perform construction work. Most of the victims come from vulnerable groups, such as the homeless, addicts, orphans, people with disabilities, and migrants.

A man from the Leningrad Region was held in slavery for 19 years, forced to work on construction sites in Chechnya and St. Petersburg, doing repairs and household chores. Whenever he tried to escape, his captors returned him and beat him.

Workhouses, which prey on homeless people, are a separate problem. According to Nochlezhka, an NGO assisting the homeless, 99% of their clients have experience with such institutions. Workhouses recruit laborers under the guise of assistance, promising them housing and jobs. But in reality, workhouse administrators seize the recruits’ papers and exploit them — whether for free or “for cigarettes.”

Hundreds of convictions are just the tip of the iceberg

Researchers are confident that the 880 cases they have identified provide a very incomplete picture of the larger problem. The police simply do not know about the majority of such crimes. Exploiters target people without social links and commit their crimes in remote locations. One such place is a farm in Kalmykia, where a man who had made multiple unsuccessful escape attempts eventually managed to crawl across the steppe for two days until he was picked up on a highway.

In addition, cases with evidence of slavery may be prosecuted on completely different charges. Thus, the director of a psychiatric care home in Birobidzhan, who forced his patients to perform construction work, was charged merely with abuse of power.

According to the Yesli Byt Tochnym study, slave labor is most often used in Russia’s south: the Rostov and Astrakhan Regions, Krasnodar and Stavropol Krais, and Adygea. In these areas, 17 slave labor convictions have been handed down in 15 years. The Volga District ranks second with 15 convictions. The forms of exploitation also vary by region: agriculture in the south, the fishing industry in the north, logging in Siberia, and brick factories in Dagestan.