Prostitution in Russia

A branch of the Japanese Imperial Commercial Agency (日本貿易事務官, Nihon bōeki Jimukan) was opened there in 1876.

[6] Their numbers grew to 80 people in 1877 and 392 in 1890; women outnumbered men by a factor of 3:2, and many worked as prostitutes (Karayuki-san).

[11] According to secret research carried out in the late 1920s, almost 60% of urban Soviet men were using the services of prostitutes.

[citation needed] In 2017, according to Bloomberg News, Russian president Vladimir Putin, discussing Donald Trump, told to reporters: "I find it hard to believe that he [Trump] rushed to some hotel to meet girls of loose morals, although ours [Russian] are undoubtedly the best in the world".

Zack Beaucamp of Vox commented that with this utterance Putin pursued two goals: to irritate the Westerners and to connect with his Russian supporters.

Prostitutes are controlled by organized criminal gangs that bribe local police departments in order to remain in business.

The Russian government has made some effort to combat trafficking but has also been criticized for not complying with the minimum standards for eliminating it.

[24] A large case of forced prostitution and mass murder was uncovered in 2007 near the industrial town of Nizhny Tagil.

A gang of pimps had abducted girls and forced them to work as prostitutes in their brothel, killing the ones who refused.

[28] In one incident the smugglers seized the Vietnamese women's travel papers and tricked them by telling them that a textile factory was going to hire them.

[34] Russia-based brothels are destinations via China for Vietnamese girls who were forced into the sex trade by human smugglers.

[35] A Vietnamese American woman, Hui Danh, sought help to extract from the Moscow Brothel her younger sister Huynh Thi Be-Huong.

[40] Three Vietnamese women returned to the city of Ho Chi Minh after they were tricked into going to Russia for prostitution by another woman.