Individual Security Threats

Individual security threats are understood as the lack of freedom from physical or psychological harm. The most common forms of protection against threats to individuals are good legal structures which the state is responsible for implementing (source). The Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report organizes states in three different tiers based on the state's cooperation with the Trafficking Victims Protection Acts (TVPA) and keeping up with the minimum standards. Russia has recently been downgraded from a tier 2 "watch list" to a tier 3 which is basically noncompliance with the TVPA (source).

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There are two different human trafficking crimes that have been documented as occurring in different parts of Russia. A.) North Korean forced labor trafficking for special international events like the Olympics and B.) Sex slavery and forced prostitution mostly in St. Petersburg (source). Human Rights Watch reports that construction of facilities for major events drew estimated tens of thousands of migrant laborers to Russia; Human Rights Watch also documented that employers of construction projects related to the Winter Olympics withheld pay, disregarded contracts, seized passports and work permits to keep workers in conditions of exploitation.

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The government does little to nothing to prevent human trafficking from occurring- sometimes even facilitating the perpetrators. Russia was placed on tier 2 watch list for 9 years and is now doing worse, tier 3 because no improvement efforts have been made by government leaders. In addition, here has been no governmental efforts in preventing or protecting against trafficking in Russia. The TIP report states that Russia should provide more resources for victim's assistance and increase the number of investigations, prosecutions, and convictions for trafficking offences and punish government officials complicit with trafficking (source).