MOSCOW, January 15. /TASS/. The migrant crisis in Europe has been provoked by the United States’ and its allies’ policy aimed at toppling the regimes they don’t like, Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev said in an interview with the Rossiskaya Gazeta daily to be published on Monday.
"The growing number of migrants and refugees in Europe is another result of the United States’ and its allies’ ill-considered policy aimed at toppling of unwanted regimes, destabilizing state systems, unleashing conflicts and wars," he said.
As a result, flow of migrant rushed to Europe from Syria, Iraq, Libya, other countries of North Africa and the Middle East, he noted. "What else could be expected once these regions have been actually turned into a permanent hotbed of instability and a stronghold for terrorist groups. Both foreign and Russian expects have been warning about possible consequences of such policy for years," he said.
According to Patrushev, illegal migration is a security threat for Russia too, although it is not a number one threat. As an example he cited ongoing attempts of international terrorist and extremist organizations to use migration channels to have militants infiltrate in Russia and the activities of organized criminal groups on the shadow market of legalization and employment.
"It would be right to mention illegal agency activities of certain legal entities and individuals that issue permissions for entry into Russia to foreigners," he noted, adding that one of the Security Council meetings in 2016 was dedicated to these problems. That meeting, in his words, yielded a set of measures to improve the work of migration services.