Illegal migration is a source of major risks and creates conditions for the collapse of the country, said Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev at the XII International Meeting of High Representatives on Security Issues in St. Petersburg.
According to Patrushev, migrant flows create terrorist and humanitarian threats.
They “destroy the ethnic-denominational balance and form the preconditions not only for changing borders but also for the disintegration of countries,” the secretary said following the conference, which was attended by officials and representatives of the intelligence services of China, Iran, Brazil and other countries that the Kremlin calls “friendly.”
Illegal migration is also “closely linked to organized crime, trafficking in weapons, drugs, people and human organs,” Patrushev listed. He added that this opinion is shared by all participants in the conference, which has been held under the auspices of the Russian Security Council since 2010 (quotes from RIA Novosti ).
According to Rosstat, since 2015, at least 3.5 million migrants have become permanent residents of Russia. This, according to official statistics, is the migration growth of the Russian population, which in the last decade has compensated for the natural decline – that is, the excess birth rate mortality.
In the next 20 years, according to Rosstat, almost 5 million more migrants will become permanent residents of the Russian Federation. This should cover about 40% of the natural decline, which government demographers estimate will be 12.7 million people by 2046.
After the terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall, in which security forces blamed immigrants from Tajikistan, the Russian authorities announced plans to sharply tighten control over migrants: the police conducted a series of raids in places where visitors gathered, after which several thousand people were expelled from Russia. A bill was introduced to the State Duma to deprive migrants of citizenship for violating the oath, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs proposed reducing the period of temporary stay in the country to 90 days and creating a “digital profile” of migrants entering Russia.
According to VTsIOM, as of April 2024, 60% of Russians had a “negative” attitude toward labour migrants. Over the year, the share of such responses jumped by 20 percentage points.
The Moscow Times
