Russia says it needs migrants to fill labour shortage

MOSCOW: Russia needs migrants in order to develop because of its dwindling domestic workforce, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an interview published on Friday.

“Migrants are a necessity,” he told state news agency RIA Novosti.

“We have a tense demographic situation. We live in the largest country in the world but there aren´t that many of us,” he said.

Earlier this week, Russia´s parliament approved legislation banning “child-free propaganda”, effectively outlawing any person or organisation from encouraging others not to have children.

It was a move designed to help remedy a demographic crisis inherited from the Soviet era and which has worsened since the conflict in Ukraine.

“We need a labour force in order to have dynamic development and carry out all our development projects,” Peskov said.

He said Russian authorities welcomed migration.

Anti-migrant rhetoric is common in Russia, especially towards labourers from ex-Soviet republics in Central Asia who fill key sectors of the economy.

In July, the Kremlin acknowledged the low population was “disastrous for the future of the nation”.

The country´s population has not recovered since Soviet times despite Russian President Vladimir Putin´s government offering generous payouts and mortgage subsidies to large families.

Recent demographic problems include a low birth rate, large numbers of Covid deaths and hundreds of thousands of men fleeing the country to avoid being mobilised to fight in Ukraine.