The Interior Ministry reports a rise in crimes in the consumer market, over 63 thousand cases were uncovered last year, and most often it is counterfeiting. Fake medicines and alcohol are of particular concern, they not only do not help, but can seriously harm health. The ministry also does not rule out fake Eurovision tickets in Moscow and is already tightening checks.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs notes an increase in the number of crimes in the consumer market sector. More than 63,000 were identified last year. The most common of them is counterfeiting. In Russia, consumer goods are most often counterfeited, especially those popular among the population — clothing, footwear, food products, and medicines. This was reported last Thursday by Yuri Popugaev, deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Department of Economic Security (DEB)."What is most alarming are the facts of the production and sale of counterfeit medicines," he said. In 2008, employees of the economic security units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs suppressed the illegal activities of a number of companies that committed more than 20,000 such crimes. The offenders counterfeit inexpensive medicines in demand among citizens — paracetamol, nystatin, suprastin, dimedrol, cerucal, etc. Popugaev noted that counterfeit medicines may not only fail to have the expected effect, but may, on the contrary, cause harm.
Counterfeit alcohol poses no less danger to the health and lives of Russians. DEB employees, anticipating an increase in demand for cheap alcoholic beverages in connection with the economic crisis, are checking this product especially carefully. According to Andrey Solodovnikov, head of the relevant DEB department, from December 2008 to March 2009 more than 2,000 tons of alcohol and alcohol-containing liquid and over 700,000 liters of vodka had already been seized, most of which did not meet GOST and TU requirements. He also drew attention to the significant increase in unaccounted alcoholic products that are produced but not reflected in reporting documents by legally operating plants. According to him, in the future the DEB plans not only to bring those responsible for production to criminal liability, but also to initiate the revocation of enterprises' licenses.
In addition, Yuri Popugaev did not rule out the appearance of counterfeit tickets for the Eurovision music contest, which will be held in Moscow in May this year. None have been identified so far, but, according to the DEB deputy head, fakes may appear immediately on the eve of the event.