Context: A month and a half after the Louvre robbery, journalists reported that a security audit conducted seven years earlier had identified all the vulnerabilities the thieves ultimately exploited — a window, a balcony and the placement of surveillance cameras. This raised suspicions that someone might have passed the document to the thieves. The Louvre in Paris was robbed on October 19, 2025. Police arrested four of the thieves (who were later released), but the organizer has not yet been identified. One of the perpetrators said two men with Slavic accents offered him €15,000 for the robbery. The jewels worth €88 million have still not been found.
On November 25, 2025, Ekaterina Tikhomirova discussed the surge of crime in Europe on her show “Katyusha'a Calculation” on the First Information Channel.
“This is contemporary Europe without the glossy filters, where crime is breaking records. A crime index was recently compiled, and the most dangerous countries in Europe today look like this: France is in first place — it is considered the most dangerous country to live in, followed by Belgium, Britain, Sweden and Ireland. In France today, the media report, there are 100 rapes a day, and in the European Union in 2023, 10 people were killed every day,” the host said as she shared the statistics.
The crime index Tikhomirova cited is real. It was compiled in 2025 by the portal Numbeo. However, the top five European countries do not match the list she named. Between France and Belgium — in second place — is Belarus.
The ranking is based on surveys of the site’s visitors and reflects their subjective perception of how dangerous or safe the situation in a given country feels. Until 2021, Belarus ranked in the fourth dozen, but then it shot into the lead.
There is another similar ranking — the Global Organized Crime Index. It is based in part on assessments by more than 350 experts. Russia ranks first among 44 European countries. It is followed by Ukraine and Italy. Belarus is in ninth place.
As for homicide statistics, Tikhomirova told the truth. In the European Union, with its 450 million people, nearly 4,000 people were killed in 2023 — roughly 10 a day. But if you compare this number with the EU population, the rate per 100,000 people comes out to less than one.
Belarus does not publish public data on intentional homicides, but there are figures for killings overall and attempted killings. Per 100,000 people, the rate is two and a half times higher than the European figure. Although these values cannot be compared directly, it is clear overall that the situation with killings in Belarus is no better than in the European Union.
The data on rapes cited by Tikhomirova are also accurate: police record an average of 120 reports of rape or attempted rape a day. Journalists at the French newspaper Le Monde have noted that the #MeToo movement, which urges women not to stay silent about sexual violence, has had a noticeable effect on this number.
