Moscow remote theft losses reach 33 billion rubles, police say

Remote theft caused 33 billion rubles in losses in Moscow during the first nine months of 2026, police investigator Eduard Kireyev said.

Kireyev, head of a specialist remote crime investigation department within Moscow police's main investigative directorate, spoke on October 16 at a Roskomnadzor roundtable on rights in the digital environment. He put the recovery figure at 11 billion rubles, including 8 billion rubles in property placed under arrest.

According to Kireyev, the clearance rate for these crimes rose from 10% in 2024 to 30%. He attributed improvements to cooperation between police, credit institutions and telecommunications operators.

He separately discussed cases in which victims were induced to sell apartments and then transfer the proceeds or hand over cash. Police opened twenty-two such cases in the first nine months of 2026, compared with eighty in the whole of 2025. Some cases involved the sale of two or three apartments.

Twelve real estate agents involved in such transactions received custodial sentences following investigations, Kireyev said.