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RUSSIA'S PUTIN PLEDGES TO ATTRACT 300,000 BACK TO RUSSIA BY 2010
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
October 24, 2006 Tuesday 4:28 PM EST
DPA x Russia Society Russia's Putin pledges to attract 300,000 back
to Russia by 2010 Moscow Amid an unprecedented demographic crisis,
Russia proposed Tuesday to repatriate 300,000 Russians living abroad
as President Vladimir Putin vowed to make it easier for all foreigners
to live and work in the notoriously immigrant-unfriendly country.
Putin, speaking Tuesday at the opening ceremonies of the so-called
Congress of Compatriots in St. Petersburg, promised measures to
increase immigration, to be introduced January 15.
His comments followed a pledge by Federal Migration Service head
Konstantin Romodanovsky to spend nearly 200 million dollars to lure
50,000 native Russians to the country in 2007. The following years
would respectively see 100,000 and 150,000 return.
To attract people back to Russia, Romodanovsky told government-
controlled newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta on Tuesday, the service would
try to concentrate immigration in 12 of Russia's 89 regions and open
a number of offices in countries including Germany.
The migration service's five existing representative offices,
in contrast, are all in former Soviet countries: Armenia, Latvia,
Kyrgyzstan, Tadjikistan and Turmenistan.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russians have immigrated in droves
to the West. An estimated 200,000 Russian natives live in Germany.
Many of the regions designated special resettlement zones are in
Siberia, and others like the Tver region, north-west of Moscow, are
suffering from rampant depopulation. None of the 21 ethnic republics -
inhabited by non-Russian indigenous groups - was on the list.
Russia's population has fallen to 142 million from 149 million in
the last 14 years. Losing 700,000 people per year, the UN says Russia
could be home to a mere 80 to 100 million by 2050.
Siberia and the Far East have always been among Russia's least-
populated areas, and many here fear China will overflow into Siberia,
overwhelming the Russian population. The ethnic republics, on the
other hand, have seen positive growth in recent years.
Putin noted that to sustain an economy Russia needed to see immigration
numbers jump, no matter the ethnicity of the newcomers.
"In the modern world, a country's economy, not its military, determines
its power and potential for development," the Russian leader said.
"Leading Russian companies will have to draw qualified workers without
regard to their ethnicity."
But with a surge in racially-motivated violence in recent years,
Putin's hopes conflict with present realities. This year alone has
seen over 20 hate killings, and a St. Petersburg court last week
acquitted 17 in the 2004 murder of a Vietnamese student.
The Russian president, however, promised to simplify legalization
procedures and improve social benefits for all immigrants in Russia,
beginning January 15.
The speech came the same day figures showed that 5,000 Georgian
immigrants had been deported back to the Caucasus nation this year.
Putin also said the government would step up its efforts to protect
the Russian language and its speakers across the former Soviet Union.
On Tuesday, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev ordered his country's
parliament to consider switching from the Cyrillic alphabet, which
is used in Russia, to Latin letters.
"I think we have to return to the question of moving to the Latin
alphabet," Nazarbayev said, Interfax reported.
But Nazarbayev, one of Putin's closest allies, also said students
should be taught three languages in Kazakh schools: Kazakh, English
and Russian.
Deutsche Presse-Agentur
October 24, 2006 Tuesday 4:28 PM EST
DPA x Russia Society Russia's Putin pledges to attract 300,000 back
to Russia by 2010 Moscow Amid an unprecedented demographic crisis,
Russia proposed Tuesday to repatriate 300,000 Russians living abroad
as President Vladimir Putin vowed to make it easier for all foreigners
to live and work in the notoriously immigrant-unfriendly country.
Putin, speaking Tuesday at the opening ceremonies of the so-called
Congress of Compatriots in St. Petersburg, promised measures to
increase immigration, to be introduced January 15.
His comments followed a pledge by Federal Migration Service head
Konstantin Romodanovsky to spend nearly 200 million dollars to lure
50,000 native Russians to the country in 2007. The following years
would respectively see 100,000 and 150,000 return.
To attract people back to Russia, Romodanovsky told government-
controlled newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta on Tuesday, the service would
try to concentrate immigration in 12 of Russia's 89 regions and open
a number of offices in countries including Germany.
The migration service's five existing representative offices,
in contrast, are all in former Soviet countries: Armenia, Latvia,
Kyrgyzstan, Tadjikistan and Turmenistan.
Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Russians have immigrated in droves
to the West. An estimated 200,000 Russian natives live in Germany.
Many of the regions designated special resettlement zones are in
Siberia, and others like the Tver region, north-west of Moscow, are
suffering from rampant depopulation. None of the 21 ethnic republics -
inhabited by non-Russian indigenous groups - was on the list.
Russia's population has fallen to 142 million from 149 million in
the last 14 years. Losing 700,000 people per year, the UN says Russia
could be home to a mere 80 to 100 million by 2050.
Siberia and the Far East have always been among Russia's least-
populated areas, and many here fear China will overflow into Siberia,
overwhelming the Russian population. The ethnic republics, on the
other hand, have seen positive growth in recent years.
Putin noted that to sustain an economy Russia needed to see immigration
numbers jump, no matter the ethnicity of the newcomers.
"In the modern world, a country's economy, not its military, determines
its power and potential for development," the Russian leader said.
"Leading Russian companies will have to draw qualified workers without
regard to their ethnicity."
But with a surge in racially-motivated violence in recent years,
Putin's hopes conflict with present realities. This year alone has
seen over 20 hate killings, and a St. Petersburg court last week
acquitted 17 in the 2004 murder of a Vietnamese student.
The Russian president, however, promised to simplify legalization
procedures and improve social benefits for all immigrants in Russia,
beginning January 15.
The speech came the same day figures showed that 5,000 Georgian
immigrants had been deported back to the Caucasus nation this year.
Putin also said the government would step up its efforts to protect
the Russian language and its speakers across the former Soviet Union.
On Tuesday, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev ordered his country's
parliament to consider switching from the Cyrillic alphabet, which
is used in Russia, to Latin letters.
"I think we have to return to the question of moving to the Latin
alphabet," Nazarbayev said, Interfax reported.
But Nazarbayev, one of Putin's closest allies, also said students
should be taught three languages in Kazakh schools: Kazakh, English
and Russian.