Yuri Alexeyev, the acting deputy head of the investigation committee, said that during 18 months of operation, the committee's special unit had uncovered several criminal groups engaged in recruiting citizens for exploitation.
According to Alexeyev, these rings normally recruit groups of several women, promising to buy them tourist visas and help them find legal work abroad. The women are then forced into prostitution to pay for money spent on their travel abroad and their documents are stolen, leaving the women as sexual slaves.
Police in some countries frequently assist this type of sexual exploitation, Alexeyev said.
According to Alexeyev, Russia's open borders with the CIS member states, intensified migration flows, international crime and broader possibilities for criminal rings to organize stable channels for human trafficking contribute to the problem.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights reports that more than 500,000 women have been sold from post-Soviet Russia.
Alexeyev said this criminal activity had become so serious for Russia and some other countries that it threatened their safety and national gene pool.
"Every year, human trafficking is estimated at $7 billion," Alexeyev said, adding that the profitability of slave trade ranks third in the world after drug and arms sale.
