Trafficking in Russia

It's estimated that about 1 million people are working under forced labor in Russia. Trafficking is controlled by large criminal organizations in Russia, as opposed to smaller and more independent organizations that control it in many other places in the world. Russia is pivotal in Eastern Europe, not only because of the high volume of people trafficked there but the amount of people trafficking into, out of, and through Russia. Many of the surrounding poorer countries in Eastern Europe send men, women, and children into Russia, mostly for sexual exploitation and slavery purposes, but many of the men are also forced to do construction or agricultural labor as well. Many people, especially unemployed women and young children (mostly homeless children or children from orphanages) are also taken out of Russia to countries all over the world, from Asian to South America. St. Petersburg and Moscow in Russia are the two main cities in which trafficking is prominent. These cities are large transit cities, which hold trafficking vitims until they go on somewhere else in the world. These two cities are also fairly known for having a high number of children slaves. I found a few articles that give first-hand accounts and a lot more statistics and logistical information about Eastern Europe:

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/feb2007/gb20070223_311905.htm?campaign_id=rss_daily

http://www.antislavery.org/homepage/antislavery/traffickingrussia.htm#sergey

http://gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Russia.htm

I also found a news story about a Russian man who escaped human trafficking, after being a domestic slave in Georgia for 4 years: